A year-and-a-half into the coronavirus pandemic, and we've gone from "15 days to slow the spread" to "vax up or else." The left's creeping push to control every aspect of your life and behavior is only getting worse as the pandemic drags on, with the return of universal masking and the growing trend of vaccine mandates. On Friday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirmed the administration is even considering vaccine mandates for domestic air travel.
If it seems like these pandemic rules and restrictions will never end, that's because many powerful people don't want them to. "I don't see why there would be any reason for the Left to slow down," says Luke Macias, Texas-based political consultant. "It has grown government tremendously over the last year, and it has an opportunity to continue to increase it."
Nowhere has the Left been able to move the chains more than in the area of mask and vaccine mandates. "They have an opportunity to shift an entire worldview to the idea that your body, your health, is actually our health...it's our universal health, and it's the government's health," says Macias. "And the government's gonna decide what you do, how you do it, when you do it."
Macias warns this encroachment will only continue unless there is stronger pushback, starting with states like Texas. "We have instituted orders for no mask mandates across the state, but the reality is there are liberal cities that are basically trying to get around that and ignoring the governor," he says.
Case in point is Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner issuing a mask mandate for all city employees. Abbott has yet to do anything about it. Macias tells KTRH that kind of passive response is a problem. "So many times Republicans just aren't willing to go all the way, and so we need actual courage from Republicans," he says. "We're in a very trying time, and Texans have to stay alert and make sure that the politicians know now is not the time to acquiesce."
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