It matters not that the few “Republican governors crusading against vaccine mandates are [allegedly] facing significantly lower approval ratings on their handling of the coronavirus pandemic than their counterparts,” as purported by Politico. (I don’t believe Politico.)
What matters is that governors like Texas’ Greg Abbott, who “flat-out banned vaccine requirements, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis followed up by vowing to sue the Biden administration.” These two are upholding, natural, inalienable, individual rights—the right of self ownership, bodily dominion, the stuff mocked by Joe Biden thus:
During the event, moderator Anderson Cooper asked Biden his thoughts about reports of emergency responders in different cities refusing to comply with city vaccine mandates. Cooper asked Biden whether he thought such workers should be fired, encouraged to stay home or be allowed to keep their jobs.
Were our representatives to frame the issue of vaccine mandates in the correct language of natural rights, namely bodily autonomy, self-determination—we’d get the right answers, more likely to be followed by rights-upholding legislation.
But are Republican representatives doing so? Are our representatives who art in DC doing anything but wait in Tucker Carlson’s green room?
When it comes to Covid-19, only the following arguments are permissible as an objection to the Covid vaccine mandate. “Exemptions from employer-mandated coronavirus vaccines [are] in [these] three general areas“:
*natural immunity
*religious objection
*medical objection.
And one hears support for outcome-based coercion because it works; rights-violations work. This latter argument is a scandal:
Leana Wen, an emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University, said she approves of the administration’s push for employer-based mandates because “frankly nothing else was working.”
As an objection to the Covid vaccine, nowhere is a rights-based argument or an argument based on the right to question the safety of the vaccine being advanced by the idiots who represent us. “Exemptions from employer-mandated coronavirus vaccines are in three general areas” only.
Self-ownership is nowhere mentioned.
UPDATE I (10/26/021): Josh Hawley to the rescue (from Fox News’ green room).
Harmeet Dhillon Dishes on Republicans and Business:
UPDATE II (11/16/021):
Thank Trump for being the first GOP president in recent memory to do his bloody job and appoint justices who uphold the Bill Of Rights:
Judge Kurt Engelhardt issues stay on mandates. At play, “liberty of individuals to make intensely personal decisions.”
Hon. Kurt Damian Engelhardt, Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, New Orleans, Louisiana and Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan, standing between The People and the effing Brandon Administration.
