It seems that the far-right has come to believe that a great GOP strategy is to slam President Biden for his COVID-19 policies, claiming they’re tyrannical, despotic and dictatorial. This is a strange position to take for two reasons. The first is that they’re not tyrannical, despotic or dictatorial, but actually legal – not because I say so, but because there’s over a century of Supreme Court decisions supporting them. And not just generally-related decisions, but pretty near exactly applicable. Consider, after all, the 1905 case, Jacobson v. Massachusetts.
(By way of background, the state of Massachusetts had enacted a vaccine mandate during a smallpox epidemic. Jacobson refused, he was convicted and then appealed. The 7-2 decision went against him.) Here is what the legendary Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote: “The liberty secured by the Constitution of the United States does not import an absolute right in each person to be at all times, and in all circumstances, wholly freed from restraint, nor is it an element in such liberty that one person, or a minority of persons residing in any community and enjoying the benefits of its local government, should have power to dominate the majority when supported in their action by the authority of the State. It is within the police power of a State to enact a compulsory vaccination law, and it is for the legislature, and not for the courts, to determine.” Okay, that’s not only pretty specific, but it’s as close to an exact matching ruling as you’re going to find, most-especially for one that’s lasted as law for 116 years. But even putting all that Supreme Court precedence aside – along with the precedence of the federal government making health code requirements in the workplace with OSHA regulations – the crackerjack Republican “strategy” is strange on just the basic matter of pure politics, which you’d think a political party would grasp, “pure politics” being its lifeblood, even political party that has become fascist. Right now, about 65% of the country has already had at least one vaccination. Which means that 65% of the country (at a minimum because the number is still going up) grasps how serious the health crisis of the pandemic is and have determined how critically important it is to get vaccinated. And only 35% doesn’t. Further, this 65% of Americans (so far) also understands that getting vaccinated is not just for their health, but what is needed to get the country to open business up, to get schools protected and to return life to normal. And until 85%-90% of the country is vaccinated, not only will the country stay in health-crisis mode with masks, social distancing and sheltering home as much as possible, but the coronavirus will stay active and able to mutate into more infectious forms, which risks making the vaccines – that the 70% have already determined to get – potentially ineffective. Sending the country back to square one. All the while, more and more American will die, the number now 677,754. All because of the 30% who refuse. And human nature being what it is, the 70% is beginning to get seriously angry at the 35%, allowing this vast minority, in the worlds of Supreme Court Justice Harlan, to “have power to dominate the majority.” And not dominate it in merely in a specific, individual matter, which is often a point of the law, to protect the minority, but dominate it in keeping the vast majority from being able to live their lives. And to be clear, when you have 65% of the country becoming angered at the 35% who are ignoring the worldwide pandemic for their own personal reasons – as opposed to social responsibility, which everyone takes on when you step out of your house into society – that isn’t a case of Democrats against Republicans. Democrats are not a full 65% of the country. And Republicans are not a mere 35% of the country. There’s a lot of overlap. So, when you get 65% of the country supporting something, you are now crossing into the world of Independents…and Republicans. And again, that 65% – who feel so strongly they’ve already gotten vaccinated – is growing. Indeed, that number not only isn’t getting smaller, it can’t get smaller. But the 35% unvaccinated can get smaller – and is. All of which means, by pursuing this utterly inexplicable policy of attacking COVID health protocols during a worldwide pandemic that has killed 4.6 million, the far right Republican Party is not only fighting a battle for 35% against an increasingly angry 65% of the country, it is fighting a battle that divides its own party. In the words of President Biden, have at it.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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