He will fight to the death for your right to have a vulgar expression on your vanity license plate, but self-professed “free speech activist” Nathan Bernard says that when it comes to coronavirus vaccine mandates, don’t worry – opponents may flap their gums a bit, but they’ll fall in line.
“Maine instituted a vaccine mandate for healthcare workers last month and there have been non-stop protests since then. But so far, only 20 staff, out of more than 10,000, have actually left their jobs. They just end up getting vaccinated instead,” Bernard, a freelance writer who has been published by leftist outlets such as The Intercept, Salon and CBS News, tweeted on Sept. 9 – the day President Joe Biden announced his new regime of rigid federal mandates. The not-so-subtle message: Free speech is nice, but nothing that a mailed fist can’t overcome.
‘Radicalized Minority’ Made Up of ‘Atomized Souls’
Those who have serious health concerns over the vaccines are being demonized on the Left as knuckle-dragging Neanderthals selfishly out of touch with the times. “We can’t allow a radicalized minority that is anti-science and anti-reason to drive policymaking, or no issue of national importance will ever be effectively addressed,” Ben LaBolt, a former spokesman for ex-President Barack Obama, told Politico.
Despite labeling vaccine doubters as “anti-reason,” pro-vaccine progressives have the temerity to say it is the other side that is stirring division in this country, turning a blind eye to the deaths of American citizens in the furtherance of crass partisan politics. Matt Ford writes in the aptly named editorial section “The Soapbox” of The New Republic:
“What would have been common sense and basic civic virtue 50 years ago — vaccinating ourselves for the benefit of our communities — is now an alien principle to those atomized souls who cherish bitter partisanship over national fellowship. And to whatever degree the Biden administration’s move smacks of paternalism, it’s probably because the refuseniks are acting like toddlers….
“I would like to believe that Republicans aren’t trying to prolong the pandemic to undermine Biden’s presidency. But it’s hard to find a reasonable alternative explanation….
“Their purported ‘freedom’ comes at the expense of every other American’s right to live a normal life, and their infringement upon our liberties should be tolerated no longer.”
Those alleged freedoms vaccine rejecters stubbornly stick to have now become an insufferable annoyance within the blue ranks. They were willing to indulge you for a while, folks, but that time is now past.
‘We Are So Over Their Feelings’
“I’ve tried to be understanding and compassionate toward people who refuse to be vaccinated but my patience is wearing thin,” Bill Clinton’s former labor secretary, Robert Reich, tweeted on Sept. 11. “They’re prolonging this plague. And the governors who are supporting them are playing politics with peoples’ lives. How will this shamefulness end?”
Former Obama administration Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Juliette Kayyem has been perhaps the shrillest voice in expressing her exhaustion with fellow Americans who disagree with her on vaccines. On Aug. 29 – well before Biden’s Sept. 9 mandate rollout – she tweeted:
“I think the vaccinated forget 1) we are 75% of the eligible vaccinated population so with majority comes benefits; 2) we are right and just; and 3) we are so over their feelings.”
And then there are those who, in line with the American Civil Liberties Union, declare that mandatory vaccination is, in fact, liberty. “A vaccine mandate is about freedom. Freedom to go to work. Freedom to go to school. Freedom to live a healthy life,” political scientist Ian Bremmer asserts.
(Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
“So much idiotic Covid discourse from Republican elites and conservative media stems from an inability to grasp that both positive liberty and negative liberty exist. Yes, freedom to do what you want is great, but if your choices limit someone else’s freedom, that matters too.” So says Brian Klaas, an American who serves as associate professor of global politics at University College London and writes a column for a prominent Washington, D.C. newspaper. Klaas, of course, fails to grasp that he has not been proven infallibly correct in this matter.
Finally, there are the emotional responses, mixing fear and anger with irrational zest. “My body my choice, and I have the right not to have your unvaccinated plague breath anywhere near me. Get vaccinated or stay home. Anyone who doesn’t like it can go to hell.” So reads a Sept. 9 tweet by The Palmer Report, a leftist political blog run by Bill Palmer, who is known for making wildly unsubstantiated claims about former President Donald Trump.
Using kids as a weapon is a common feature of the emotive appeal. Chris Cillizza of CNN checks this box quite well. “I don’t know how else to express this: I am mad as hell and so sick of people who won’t take a damn vaccine that is 90%+ effective. I am so angry that their selfishness and unwillingness to follow science endangers my 9-year-old son who can’t be vaccinated yet.”
These are just a few examples of the thoughts of people who consider the unvaccinated to be irrational, divisive and unstable.
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