[mywittyname]

Politicians are one thread in the tapestry of news and information that blankets the country. Yes, people listen to them.

It's abundantly clear that the entire GOP coordinates with Fox News and other sources (reddit, FB, etc) to deliver consistent messages that are curated and on-brand. So when I say politicians, I really mean this entire machination.

If the entire Conservative Messaging Platform decided to tackle this problem and encourage mask wearing, we could get a critical mass of people to do so. They could have Laura Ingram, Rush Limbaugh, Mitch McConnell, and a bunch of lesser known pundits/politicians harping on this day-in and day-out. While having facebook and r/conservative bots posting pro-mask memes.

We know this is an effective way of influencing behavior, because we've seen it work numerous times throughout the past decade. Too bad it's never used for anything good.

[jessaustin]

You probably aren't wrong with respect to coordination between politicians and "news" firms. When I read "GOP with Fox" I heard "DNC with MSNBC" as an echo. (My father watches MSNBC so I see more of it than Fox, just by mistake.) Just like the latter (to be more correct, the same) machine, however, it isn't magical. There are a set of buttons and pressing them has a set of effects. Some choices make others impossible. Trump could have made mask-wearing a conservative thing in January. In December that's not an option. Everyone, even his fans, would just laugh at him. No other Republican has any power to change red-staters' minds about anything. Eventually there might be a different Republican with influence, but until then many Americans must be reached in other ways.