Freedom sneezes
Oh no oh no it’s totalitarianism in our very own HomeLand.
Top Republican leaders have increasingly spoken out against the prospect of vaccine passports. The passports would serve as proof of COVID-19 immunization. Some venues and companies might require such passports before allowing people to crowd into their indoor spaces.
President Joe Biden‘s administration has provided guidance on vaccine passports for private sector businesses. However, Biden has said that there will not be a federally mandated, universal vaccine credential nor a federal database for storing citizens’ vaccination information.
Nevertheless, top Republicans have begun to vocally oppose the passports as evidence of government overreach and inequality amid the ongoing pandemic.
It’s not “overreach” to try to slow and stop a lethal pandemic. A government that doesn’t bother to do that isn’t doing its most basic job. This isn’t Little House on the Prairie, we can’t do everything ourselves, and we also can’t run around infecting other people just because we don’t want to get vaccinated.
“It’s completely unacceptable for either the government or the private sector to impose upon you the requirement that you show proof of vaccine to just simply be able to participate in normal society,” DeSantis added.
No it really isn’t. If you’re spreading a lethal virus then that’s what you’re doing, and that’s actually what’s unacceptable.
Similarly, Republican Ohio state Representatives Al Cutrona and Mike Loychik have said they will co-sponsor legislation to prohibit entities from requiring proof of a COVID-19 vaccination before allowing people to access an area or establishment.
Why? We don’t have a right to “access” every area or establishment we feel like “accessing.” Some are off limits; some have conditions of entry. If those conditions are unreasonable – if they bar people on grounds of race for instance – there are laws against that. Avoiding lethal infection is not unreasonable.
So what else are the Rethuglicans going to do in the sacred name of Freedumb?
How about removing age restrictions for alcohol and tobacco purchases? Why should a 14 year old be denied access to strip clubs and porno shows?
And isn’t forcing attendance at school a violation of all American’s right to remain dumb as a bedpost?
This is where the alignment of GOP and Evangelicals since Ronnie have got you.
Ronnie? It actually goes back to Ike, who invited Billy Graham into the White House, and gave him responsibilities. No one noticed it, but it was happening. And that opened the door to Ronnie…plus there was Nixon’s Southern Strategy which picked off all the Dixiecrats and integrated them into the Republican party. Where they have done a lot of harm, I might add. They didn’t do good in the Democratic party, either. We need to quit kowtowing to them.
And the mandatory school attendance? We already have exemptions for religious reasons. The Amish are not required to send their children to school past whatever age it is, and are not required to home school them. The evangelicals can send their children to schools where all they do is sit at a kiosk and do workbooks on the Bible and how to hate everyone who’s different. All this in the name of freedom.
All of those things got us into this mess. I have no idea how we’ll get out of it.
They used to call themselves the party of personal responsibility, now they’re the party of no responsibility
The stages of all this were set out by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross in her book On Death and Dying. Her ‘five stages of grief’ were 1. denial, 2. anger, 3. bargaining, 4. depression, and 5. acceptance.
The political Right have responded to Covid-19 as they did to Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW): Trump and his acolytes’ assault on the Capitol showed they were moving from denial to anger, where the majjority appear stuck; for now.
Unfortunately, it is not Biden but Nature who is calling the shots. But then again, tomorrow is another day.
Are we going to bring back smoking in public areas?
If YOU have the right to sit by me without wearing a mask, don’t I have the right to sit beside you and smoke cigarettes?
What’s the difference?
Smoking in bars.
Smoking in cafes.
Smoking on the bus, smoking on the airplane . . .
FREEDOM!