“This is not about freedom.” So said Joe Biden last week when announcing his order that would force vaccinations on more than 100 million Americans.
It’s hard to imagine a more authoritarian-sounding statement from an American president. Biden’s hostility to freedom comes as no surprise. It fits into a pattern we’ve seen with him since Day One: an obsession with power and his belief the government should control every aspect of our lives.
All Americans should be alarmed at the unprecedented act of federal overreach Biden is attempting. This egregious edict should never see the light of day. Even a passing glance at the law makes clear this mandate does not pass constitutional muster.
Biden and his administration know – and have openly admitted – that they don’t have the authority to force Americans into what should be a personal medical decision.
But just like what he did with eviction moratoriums, Biden is trying to get away with it anyway.
Americans can see this mandate for what it really is: a cynical and clumsy attempt to change the subject from Biden’s indefensible surrender in Afghanistan and failure to contain covid-19.
Throughout the 2020 campaign, Biden cast himself as the one person who could responsibly manage and end the pandemic. He failed, and now covid cases are surging to levels not seen in months.
Instead of “shutting down the virus” like he said, Biden wants to shut down small businesses.
Large corporations might be able to afford the fines Biden wants to levy for not submitting to his coercive tactics. The same can’t be said for small businesses already struggling to recover from Democrat-led lockdowns and suffering under the crushing weight of Biden’s tax and regulatory regime.
Biden’s vaccine mandate isn’t only bad policy and blatant federal overreach – it is also a complete about-face from his administration’s own position just weeks ago.
For months, Biden and his mouthpieces assured us they wouldn’t force vaccinations on Americans.
It was only in July that Biden’s Press Secretary Jen Psaki said – three times – that forced vaccinations weren’t something the federal government had the power to impose. Psaki was simply echoing her boss, who going as back far as last December insisted he wouldn’t make vaccinations mandatory.
Chalk that up to yet another example of Promises Made, Promises Not Kept under this administration.
What Biden doesn’t understand is that there is absolutely no conflict between being pro-vaccine and anti-unconstitutional mandates.
Like tens of millions of other Americans, I have received one of the several safe-and-effective vaccines developed under President Trump and Operation Warp Speed. I’m glad President Trump’s leadership left Biden with this lifesaving tool to combat the coronavirus.
Unfortunately, Biden and his running mate spent the 2020 campaign casting doubts about the vaccines’ safety and efficacy for no other reason than that Donald Trump was the person behind them. Their petty attempt to score cheap political points has cost lives, and it’s the reason vaccination rates have stalled.
To make matters worse, the divisive tone of Biden’s remarks last week– where he pitted groups of Americans against each other – is certain to only harden resistance and drive up vaccine hesitancy further.
That Biden came across as more angry at unvaccinated Americans than Taliban terrorists tells you all you need to know.
As his forced vaccines make all too clear, Joe Biden doesn’t care about your freedom.
But his half-century in Washington as a career politician has blinded him to the fact that freedom matters. In fact, Americans not only care about freedom, we cherish it.
Freedom is what our country was founded on. Republicans’ commitment to defending freedom is why the Republican National Committee will besuing the Biden administration the minute they try to put their mandate into effect.
And love for freedom is something the American people are going to make loud and clear at the ballot box in 2022 when they reject Biden and Democrats’ radical, power-hungry agenda.
Tommy Hicks is the co-chair of the RNC.