Ross Douthat notes that the typically libertarian left supports vaccine and mask mandates, while the normally authoritarian right opposes them. He thinks this role reversal is deeply weird. Can it be explained?
Yes. The left supports mandates only because every less restrictive alternative has been tried, and has failed. Mandates are the only plausible remedy at this time, and they are working, as I had predicted. The right opposes mandates because they are, as I have noted many times, faux libertarians. They object to restraints imposed on them by what they perceive is a liberal establishment; abortion regulations, of course, are a different story. Freedom for me, but not for thee.