| | |  | BY TYLER WEYANT | | AND WHY WE SHOULD RESIST IT — We’ve been brushing up on our German here at POLITICO Nightly. (No reason, why do you ask? ) And so we would like to introduce a German-English portmanteau that captures a new feeling that’s spreading across the internet, perhaps even faster than the Delta variant: Vaxenfreude. You can find vaxenfreude in the comments section under a story about podcaster Joe Rogan getting Covid, or in a tweet about a local health department advising against taking Ivermectin. There is plenty of vaxenfreude when a radio host who slammed the vaccines gets sick or dies, and in moments like that, it’s hard for many to feel like the emotion isn’t justified. To get Merriam-Webster on you for a minute: As you probably know, schadenfeude is a German word for joy at another’s misfortune. Vaxenfreude is a very specific manifestation of that very useful concept. It’s the joy the vaccinated feel when the unvaccinated get Covid-19. We’ve all felt it, even if we’re ashamed about it. But vaxenfreude is also a dark spirit. It’s the smug finger-pointing and grinning the vaccinated majority sends in the direction of the unvaccinated sick, at least in the very online corners of the public square. The pandemic passed the civilized plain of “we’re all in this together” long ago, and is driving down a highway toward a valley where that feeling of togetherness is shared only by those with vaccines in arms.
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Video screens display a message about required mask wearing after Covid-19 vaccinations during a game between the Eastern Washington Eagles and the UNLV Rebels at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. | Ethan Miller/Getty Images | In the Delta era, we know this is bunk. A vaccine does not put you in a Travolta-1970s-style immuno bubble. It does, however, dramatically decrease your chances for severe illness, hospitalization and death. And thus we come to the central question that surrounds vaxenfreude: Is it a fair sensation to feel? Vaccines are free, they are effective, they are reasonably easy to access and have become easier throughout the year. For millions of Americans who’ve been vaccinated for months, it is a tough sell to have no negative reactions toward those whom they blame for driving the latest spike in Covid. In that sense, vaxenfreude is just the newest hard seltzer in this pandemic’s oldest bottle: political division. Our masks were emotionally fraught long before our vaxes were. At a biker bar in Maine earlier this summer, a patron kindly told me, in reference to my mask, “You don’t need that here” — as though Covid had passed them over because they thought masks were dumb. But vaxenfreude feels like a new and more dangerous stage, one that exposes a hideous lack of empathy and compassion among vaccinated people who, a year ago, emphasized the importance of getting a shot to protect everyone, not just yourself. The era of Staying Together Apart and Sacrifice in Unprecedented Times is another victim of the pandemic. To hear about a family member or friend getting sick from Covid, or worse, dying, is heartbreaking. Many people reading this newsletter have experienced it. Being unvaccinated doesn’t make it less heartbreaking. We shouldn’t roll our eyes at this truth: Everyone who gets sick is someone’s family member or friend. Maybe, just maybe, we can step out of our tribal corners, embrace the much older emotion of compassion, and inject a touch of humanity back into the fight against Covid. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas for us at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at tweyant@politico.com and on Twitter at @tweyant.
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| | A message from Bank of America: The urgency to advance racial equality has only increased this year. Recognizing the need to do more, Bank of America is accelerating work already underway to better support communities of color with a $1.25 billion commitment over five years. | | | | | — Biden to campaign for Newsom in California ‘early next week’: President Joe Biden will travel to California to campaign in support of Gov. Gavin Newsom , White House press secretary Jen Psaki said today. Psaki did not say exactly when the president would be traveling to the state but alluded to further information on the trip “later today.” — Blinken: Taliban not blocking departure for U.S. passport, visa holders: Secretary of State Antony Blinken said today the Taliban is not blocking those with valid travel documents from leaving Afghanistan but conceded that some outgoing flights, including for a group at an international airport in the northern part of the country, have been stalled. The flights out of Afghanistan have seemingly been held back, Blinken said, as those eligible evacuees remain intermixed with other people who are seeking to flee the country but are not in possession of the necessary documentation. — Calls grow for FDA to speed authorization of kid Covid-19 vaccines: Politicians have joined anxious parents and some public health groups in calling on federal regulators to accelerate their process for authorizing shots for the youngest Americans . They point to a record number of infections among this age group in recent weeks as schools have reopened. These adults want FDA to expedite its review of data from clinical trials in children, especially now that FDA has fully licensed the Pfizer-BioNTech shot for people 16 and older.
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| — Texas governor signs new GOP voting restrictions into law: Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed an elections overhaul into law Tuesday that adds more voting restrictions in the state , after Democrats spent months protesting what they say are efforts to weaken minority turnout and preserve the GOP’s eroding dominance. Abbott signed the sweeping changes during a ceremony in the East Texas city of Tyler, where the surrounding county went for former President Donald Trump by a more than 2-to-1 margin last year. But it was far closer in Texas overall, with Trump carrying the state by 5 1/2 points, the thinnest margin of victory by a Republican presidential nominee here in decades. —DeSantis calls talk of a 2024 presidential bid ‘nonsense’: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis today brushed aside any talk of running for president in 2024 even though he’s just days away from joining several potential contenders at a Nebraska Republican event. His comments also come as former President Donald Trump has intensified fundraising and public appearances ahead of a potential 2024 presidential campaign.
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| | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | TWO BUMPY G-7 ELECTIONS — Canada and Germany are deep into election seasons, culminating in respective votes on Sept. 20 and 26. Two countries whose elections usually look low-key and demure compared to contentious, long American election cycles have recently experienced rocky roads. Canada: Liberal leader Justin Trudeau had gravel thrown at him during a campaign stop in Ontario yesterday, only the latest instance of protesters vociferously injecting themselves into a tightening election in Canada. Outside of the protests, voters are increasingly plugged into the election two weeks out , and members of POLITICO’s focus group have come to see Conservative leader Erin O’Toole as tied or slightly ahead of Trudeau. The race that Trudeau first called to try to take a majority of seats in Parliament has turned into a much narrower race for power in Ottawa: “The questions now are how well O’Toole’s offerings are registering with voters and how much of the momentum is fueled by dissatisfaction with Trudeau, who’s been in power for nearly six years. The biggest question, of course: Can O’Toole ride this wave to power?” POLITICO Canada’s Andy Blatchford writes.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel greets Armin Laschet, chancellor candidate of the Christian Democrats, after Laschet spoke at the final session of the Bundestag before federal parliamentary elections in Berlin. | Sean Gallup/Getty Images | Germany: When Angela Merkel was first inaugurated as German chancellor in 2005, the No. 1 song on the U.S. Billboard charts was “Gold Digger” by Kanye West. But, just as much has changed for Kanye since that song, so too have fortunes changed for Merkel’s party. Merkel warned Germans today against the prospect of a left-wing government as she tried to boost her floundering conservative camp less than three weeks before a general election. Merkel, who often tries to stand above the political fray, used her last speech to parliament before the vote to launch an unusually blunt attack on the center-left Social Democrats, who lead in the polls. Merkel is the country’s most popular politician, but she is not standing for reelection after 16 years in power — and her Christian Democrats, and their candidate for chancellor, Armin Laschet, have fallen dramatically in the polls in recent weeks. Not helping matters: Russian broadcaster RT Deutsch — whose aim is to provide an alternative to the Western media’s perspective on current affairs and promote Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strategic interests — has become the most prominent media outlet on social media in Germany.
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| | A message from Bank of America:  
| | | | | Nightly asks you: Are you too young to remember living through Sept. 11, 2001, or were you born after it? What is your first memory of learning about 9/11? How did you find out about what happened that day? Send us your responses using our form , and we’ll share some answers in our Friday edition.
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| | JOIN THURSDAY FOR A CONVERSATION ABOUT RETURNING TO THE WORKPLACE : Businesses across the U.S. are having to navigate all sorts of complexities around vaccines, masking requirements, testing and social distancing. Join POLITICO for a conversation to explore how government, public health officials and employers are navigating the return of in-person work. The focus of the conversation will be on the solutions for creating safe, in-person workplaces. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | 
Fans of the Virginia Cavaliers cheer in the second half during a game at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Va. | Ryan M. Kelly/Getty Images | NOT MAKING IT PAST SYLLABUS WEEK — After months of coaxing students with thousands of dollars in prizes — everything from gift cards to sports tickets to free parking — colleges are starting to punish the unvaccinated, Daniel Payne writes. The institutions started the summer by waving the prospect of scholarships, laptops, game consoles and more in front of students who got a Covid-19 shot. Now, as millions of those students move back to campus, hundreds of schools are mandating vaccines and penalizing students who resist without a medical or religious reason. Quinnipiac University students who aren’t vaccinated will be fined up to $200 per week and lose access to the campus’ Wi-Fi until they get the shot. The University of Virginia booted more than 200 unvaccinated people from its rolls before the semester began. And Rutgers University, the first university in the U.S. to mandate vaccination for students, is threatening to disconnect email access and deny campus housing for students who don’t comply. Some colleges used similar tactics last year to get students to follow testing procedures. The hard mandates, which put colleges on the front line of the nation’s newest culture war, could help decide when the latest resurgence of the virus subsides — and when the next one arrives. Schools see the aggressive vaccine policies as a critical component of America’s effort to halt the progress of the virus. The institutions are uniquely situated to deal with one of the least vaccinated groups: young people.
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| | A message from Bank of America: The need for real progress on racial and economic inequality in the United States has been underlined by the impact of the coronavirus on communities of color.
It’s clear the private sector must do more.
We all have a role to play in helping move communities forward–an understanding that forms the foundation of Bank of America’s long-standing commitment to the people and communities it serves. And they’re at the heart of the bank’s $1.25 billion commitment over the next five years to advance racial equality and economic opportunity.
The company must “take action, help others convene and serve as a catalyst for a broad-based, collective response to the critical issues affecting our nation,” said CEO Brian Moynihan. | | | Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. | |
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