This argument is refuted by the fact that the buy in towards covid prevention was much higher than by Republicans. You had people losing their minds at DeWine and Hogan calling them tyrants.
Simply put, no, people on the Left would get vaccinated no matter what. You can look at mask buy in, or in the early/mid stages at the number of Republicans who thought or still think COVID is a hoax.
Anecdotal evidence is cute and all but the stats show, Republicans at the start thought it was a Chinese hoax, during the middle didn't believe in COVID preventative measures, and now they are less likely to get vaccinated.
They bought in, I agree, but I would dispute your reasoning. They bought in on masks because their local elected leaders told them to and it went against the Donald. Had Donald Trump ever went on TV and said "you need to mask up and you need the vaccine", libs wouldn't have done it. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.
If Trump says "get your vaccine" and a local mayor or governor says the same, they are Trump's lackey. This is how anything with Trump worked for four years.
I say this nicely and without any intent to insult, but I don't think a Canadian is capable of understanding how things were here. A lot of it is stuff you had to personally experience to see how bad it got.
A good illustration of it is the border stuff. Ten years ago, there was a consensus among all Americans that the border needed to be secured and we needed to do more down there. Yes, there was some fringe hippies who wanted to let them all in and there were goofy militia types who wanted them shot at the border, but the average bear wanted more fences, walls, etc.
Donald Trump runs for POTUS and it changed overnight. Suddenly every republican was adamant about building a wall and every Dem wanted to be recite some shitty poem on some plaque on the statue of liberty.
It is what it is, but I think any argument that basically hinges on "liberal Americans would take the vaccine because they are smart and listen to the science" is fundamentally wrong.
People ordered their lives around DJT being right or wrong about things. Every single topic. Raise your hand if you got called a fascist/commie over the tax cut debate....
If Trump won in November, there is really nothing that could convince me there wouldn't be a relatively similar anti-vax movement prevalent in Democrat enclaves. We had four years of people giving up long held beliefs in order to spite/validate DJT and I see no reason that would stop at vaccines.
We saw the early returns on it, a ridiculous amount of anti vax stuff in the fall coming from one particular group. And we have no reason to think that would have stopped.
End of the day, it doesn't matter. DJT didn't win in November. So we need to live in reality. Talk to your doctor. Get your shots. Let's move on with life lol