This is a huge difference from Democrat policies for most of the pandemic, which went further than most Republicans in closing businesses and schools and enforcing social distancing in order to control the spread of the virus.
But with the pandemic entering its third year, blue-state leaders are faced with agitated and frustrated voters who do not want any more strict guidelines and shutdowns. Many insist that approach caused the financial struggle of large parts of the population and also prompted a mental health crisis among school-age children who had to stay at home.
"There's a real social impact that I think has not been part of the messaging [until recently]," Doug Rubin, a veteran strategist who has worked with several prominent Massachusetts Democrats, told Politico. "Democrats saw there were political impacts to this. They saw in Virginia and New Jersey the potential negative impacts of ignoring some of these issues."
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Even with the intense surge in Coronavirus cases, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti insist the upcoming Super Bowl in Los Angeles will not be canceled, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has severely slammed a teachers union dispute for shutting down the nation's third-largest school system, and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has declared the end of the medical emergency, adding that the unvaccinated have only themselves to accuse if they get sick.
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Polls have shown that people are tired from the pandemic, with a solid majority of Americans saying they felt "worn out" by the Coronavirus' impact on their daily lives, including 63% of Democrats in a Monmouth University poll last month.
The Monmouth poll also showed that the variants have dragged down Coronavirus support ratings for governors in states that President Joe Biden won in the last election.
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Democratic leaders "see an upcoming election; they see backlashes," Bob Blendon, a polling and political strategy expert at the Harvard Kennedy School, told Politico. "They can't close things down, and there is no public tolerance for serious disruptions in people's lives. People have run out of patience."
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Even with revisions in policies among blue state governors, former operatives at the Democratic Governors Association argue that party leaders are not imitating their Republican counterparts because they continue to stress safety precautions and vaccinations, including mandates.
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Democrats also claim that the situation is different now than what it was a year ago, as Coronavirus vaccines have become more general and early evidence suggests omicron has much lower rates of death and severe hospitalization.
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