Listening to the exchange between Fox New's Peter Doocy and White House press secretary Jen Psaki regarding the administration's sudden announcement that masks are no longer necessary for vaccinated people, it was hard to tell what was worse: Psaki's prevarication and condescension or the way she referred to Biden.  Having thought about it for a little while, though, I'm pretty sure it was the name Psaki gave to Biden.

As you know, on Thursday, the administration suddenly announced that vaccinated people were free to live their lives without masks, subject to a few limitations (most notably planes and public transportation).  This represented a complete turnaround from the relentless mask message the administration had directed at the American people.

Biden, even while conceding that masks were not necessary outdoors, got panicked when he could not find his mask.  Likewise, there was a disgusting little bit of kabuki theater when Harris and her husband, both vaccinated and while outdoors, kissed each other while wearing masks.  But now, suddenly, no masks!

During the press briefing, Doocy asked the obvious question, which was whether "somebody at the Biden administration or in the Biden administration update this guidance for political reasons."  Jen Psaki responded with an unequivocal "no."

Well, if politics didn't drive the about-face on masks, asked Doocy, what was the medical or scientific breakthrough that suddenly occurred on Friday to justify this change?

Psaki, as is her habit, didn't immediately answer the question.  First, and very condescendingly, she put Doocy in his place by implying that he had not been paying attention.  "Well, I know that Dr. Walensky did an extensive number of interviews yesterday to answer exactly that question."

Nevertheless, Psaki did Doocy the "great" favor of giving a substantive answer.  She repeated information we all already know: that vaccines work, that they are effective against variants of the virus, and that vaccinated people are not contagious.  In other words, she gave was a non-answer because the real question was whether something new had come along and, in fact, nothing had.

At this point, Doocy could not resist a "gotcha" question:

But just looking at the CDC's website on the way up, here only 45.6% of US adults have been fully vaccinated as of yesterday. Only 58.9% of the adult population had has at least one dose. So, what happened to President Biden saying in March that he thought lifting mask mandates before every adult American goes and gets a shot is "Neanderthal thinking"?

And that's when it happened.  That's when Psaki gave us an insight into the idol worship that has become normative in Democrat politics when they have one of their party members in power at the White House.  You may not believe this, but she referred to Biden — the gropey, creepy, demented, and not very nice Biden — as "our North Star."

Peter Doocy just wrecked the Biden administration over the sudden decision to allow vaccinated people to no longer mask or social distance after months of saying it was dangerous.

He even pointed out Biden called doing it before all were vaccinated was "neanderthal thinking." pic.twitter.com/Adr3BiVQxY

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) May 14, 2021

Only in a party that is defined by a cult of personality could someone say that.  Even those of us who loved the Trump presidency and, as I did, often found him very amusing did not worship Trump at that level.  We believed that his policies would benefit America, which they did, but everybody understood that Trump was a larger-than-life figure whose flaws could also be larger than life.

If I had to guess the reason for this sudden turnabout from the Biden administration, I would say the administration is moving toward forcing all Americans to get a vaccine.  Since this probably won't get through Congress, the administration will partner even more closely with private businesses to turn into outcasts anybody who is not vaccinated.

The big corporations will be totally on board with it.  Very soon, every big corporation will say that if you want the benefit of its services, you must prove that you are vaccinated.  And don't think you can just deal with small businesses.  My bet is that the Biden administration will get the insurance companies to refuse to insure businesses that deal with unvaccinated people.

We're all going to have those vaccine passports whether we like it or not.  After all, that's what our North Star wants us to do.

Image: Jan Psaki, cult worshiper.  Twitter screen grab.