OPINION:
There are signs that corrupt politicians and their attendant bureaucracy using COVID-19 to gain complete control of our lives is hitting a wall. Acceptance of anti-science and bizarre edicts are being challenged and rejected by thoughtful and fed-up Americans across the country.
As of now, almost every arbitrary vaccine mandate issued by President Biden has been stopped by federal judges. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s farcical mask mandate suddenly morphed into just a suggestion considering her tortured responses to reporter’s questions about the issue. At least a quarter of New York’s counties has announced that, nah, they’re not complying.
Ms. Hochul now wants everyone to know that the state will not be enforcing the mandate and that she hopes people will do the right thing. Persuasion is always the best approach, but true to their nature, the Democrats have found the feel of those jackboots is just too comfortable.
National Review reported the reaction among various New York county executives, with one calling the mandate “unrealistic” and another revealing that the governor’s office hadn’t even bothered to convey any information to the counties about how to handle the order. It’s almost as if Ms. Hochul was trying to look busy about COVID-19 without actually having a plan. But then again, that’s a special talent of the Democrats.
The concern of many classic civil-rights advocates, cultural critics and observers was that COVID-19 was simply too good of an opportunity for politicians and their inner Tiny Tyrants. And we were right. Once the vaccines were delivered and the Democrats took over the government, the establishment morphed into a giant beast focusing on exactly how much control it could wrest from the populace. Propaganda, panic, mandates and fear were the preferred modes of outreach.
The ignoring of science, refining of social control mechanisms, threatening our ability to make a living, unions trying to snatch away our children in the name of “education” and excuses by the establishment for mass surveillance in the name of “safety” have just been too much. The Democrats have been on a roll, quietly humming their theme “you never want to let a good crisis go to waste” as we all watched a horrible pandemic become their muse.
Would Americans surrender? Would we accept Pandemic Theater as the “new normal?” The answer is becoming, thank goodness, no.
Another win for the Normals comes from the continuing Draconian Pandemic Theater in California. The headline at the Los Angeles Times, “LA school board votes to delay student vaccine mandate as thousands remain noncompliant.” They hate the “noncompliant,” don’t they?
This was accompanied by parents making their feelings known at school board meetings. KABC reported, “The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education agreed Tuesday to delay enforcement of its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for students until fall 2022, preventing more than 30,000 students from being forced into online, independent study.”
One school board member “insisted the district is not backing down from mandating the shots, despite another round of often-vitriolic comments from parents who lambasted the board during the meeting,” reported the local news station. In other words, the Grand Poobahs, wherever they may be, do not like hearing from the Normals. Well, they better get used to it.
The fact that the Los Angeles school district vaccine mandate won’t be implemented until the fall of 2022 is, in reality, a complete retreat. But the big news about why this matters is that the Democrat strategy of threats and mandates has not turned parents into prostrate supplicants scrambling to please self-important bureaucrats. It’s done the opposite. This is a big win and an example of the power of parents refusing to be intimidated.
Americans have watched as thousands of health care workers have been fired or have had to quit or retire due to Mr. Biden’s mandates. Twenty-seven Air Force airmen have been discharged for refusing to take the vaccine. Navy Cmdr. Lucian Kins, the executive officer aboard the warship USS Winston Churchill, was relieved of duty for refusing both the mandated vaccine and to be tested for the virus.
Discharging and firing those who made a commitment to serve our nation, either in the private or public sectors, mirrors all the other disasters of the Biden administration and is part of our growing refusal to comply.
Another win includes Amtrak’s decision when a federal judge barred Mr. Biden’s contractor mandate from being implemented. On the heels of announcing that multiple routes would have to be canceled starting in January due to the contractor mandate creating a crew shortage, Amtrak reversed itself just after the court injunction. GE, Union Pacific and others also reversed vaccine mandate requirements.
The cracks within the Democratic Party over their leadership’s bizarre and destructive obsession with using COVID-19 to crush individual freedom will spread. In a Colorado Public Radio interview, Jared Polis, the Democratic governor of Colorado, declared, “The emergency is over. You know, public health [officials] don’t get to tell people what to wear; that’s just not their job. … You don’t tell people to wear a jacket when they go out in winter and force them to [wear it]. If they get frostbite, it’s their own darn fault.”
Freedom is full of risk. We understand that. And as Margaret Thatcher noted, when people have a choice, they choose freedom. And we are.
• Tammy Bruce, the author, host at Fox Nation and contributor at Fox News, is a radio talk-show host.
