On Monday, Senator Rand Paul was interviewed by a rather combative reporter on CNBC about vaccines when he said, “I’ve heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking, normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines.”

http://youtu.be/Msm4ZZjrKqg

I’ll assume that Dr. Paul was referring to autism with his referral to “profound mental disorder.” Autism is not strictly a ‘mental disorder’ but a complex developmental disorder affecting the brain. Rand Paul may be an ophthalmologist rather than a pediatrician, but you would think he would know better. Perhaps he was throwing out some red meat to his libertarian base, but who knows? Maybe the inner Ron is emerging.

Or maybe he’s posturing against comments made by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who walked back statements calling for “balance” between parent control and vaccination, when his office stated “there is no question kids should be vaccinated.”

Dr. Ben Carson, who as a retired pediatric neurosurgeon undoubtedly is well acquainted with vaccines as well as with autism told The Hill in a blunt statement,“Certain communicable diseases have been largely eradicated by immunization policies in this country and we should not allow those diseases to return by foregoing safe immunization programs, for philosophical, religious or other reasons when we have the means to eradicate them,” He continued, “Although I strongly believe in individual rights and the rights of parents to raise their children as they see fit, I also recognize that public health and public safety are extremely important in our society.”

Now enter the measles outbreak that originated in Disneyland and voilà — we have a perfect storm. Parents in California are demanding measles vaccines, even from doctors who treated the son of famous anti-vaccine activist Jenny McCarthy. Add into the mix the outlier Arizona doctor who despises vaccines and even shames parents who have their children vaccinated as “bad mothers” (sic).

However, we need to look farther than the pro-vaccine/anti-vaccine hoopla to really see what’s at work here.

The Democrats, and their media lapdogs, are not letting this crisis go to waste. They’re using it to attack Republicans, to set up a “gotcha” game, and then allowing a divide-and-conquer scenario to play out.

Erick Erickson, writing at Red State, points out,

This is only a political issue because the press, having failed to paint the GOP as anti-women, wishes to now paint the GOP as anti-science. Before this month is out I suspect some reporter will ask Republican candidates if they believe in a global flood and a man named Noah . . . They want to not just try to embarrass the GOP, but create a wedge issue from whole cloth. The reality is most Americans get their vaccinations and their children get vaccinations. The reality is that some of the loudest voices against vaccinations are celebrities who lean to the left. In fact, the reality is that a growing number of upper income people have opted out of vaccinations and those people skew to the left. But the media wants to make this about the GOP being anti-science. The whole issue is the media’s back door into further conversations about global warming.

Ace at Ace of Spades HQ notes:

Vaccines are the media’s new “Birth Control Pills” question for the GOP — injecting an out-of-nowhere wedge issue question into the debate just because it hurts the GOP. Almost all GOP politicians are pro-vaccination, of course — but a distressing number of GOP voters are against it, making this a politically difficult question.

The dirty little secret that the Democrats choose to ignore is that in 2008, Barack Obama expressed suspicion of childhood vaccines when he was running for President. “We’ve seen just a skyrocketing autism rate,” Obama said in April 2008 at a Pennsylvania rally. “Some people are suspicious that it’s connected to the vaccines. This person included.”

Let’s not forget Hillary Clinton’s statements from 2008. In a completed survey from the Autism Action League, Hillary said, “I am committed to make investments to find the causes of autism, including possible environmental causes like vaccines.”

Now Obama calls the science of safe vaccines “indisputable,”while Hillary tweeted a Twitter message, “The science is clear: The earth is round, the sky is blue, and #vaccineswork. Let’s protect all our kids. #GrandmothersKnowBest.”

Isn’t that all convenient?

So while the anti-vaxxers and the pro-vaxxers square off on internet social media, just keep in mind that this kerfuffle is made-to-order for the Democrats and their compliant media to divide, diminish, and ridicule the various Republicans who are seeking the White House in 2016.