Posted on 10/04/2021 4:44:49 AM PDT by Kaslin
You may have seen that map of nearly half the states in the union resisting Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate. It almost feels like the GOP realized its true power, but no, their largely symbolic actions should only make all America Firsters demand more.
From the outset, let’s be clear that any and all state and local pushback against the vaccine mandate is welcome. Even symbolic action can grow popular support and morale. The real point, however, is that without the rightful and duty-bound exercise of power on top of what’s already in motion, the traditional American life will die and never come back.
The vaccine mandate is a historic test for our federalist system of government. It’s not a test for the federal courts or a federal midterm election, no. This moment is about answering the question of whether or not the last amendment of the Bill of Rights of the Constitution means anything anymore.
The ink on our country’s founding charter was still drying when Thomas Jefferson said, “I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: That ‘all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people.’”
He was quoting the Tenth Amendment. Then the man who outlined twice the right of rebellion in the Declaration of Independence continued:
“To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition.”
So red states are suing or threatening to sue the Biden administration. Does any sensical American doubt that the White House foresaw that happening?
It doesn’t take a black-robed lawyer or even five of them to determine the constitutionality or lawfulness of this mandate. Biden’s circuitous plot to use unelected bureaucrats at OSHA to punish businesses with $14,000 fines for not requiring vaccinations of employees is an affront to the rule of law no matter what a federal court says.
The states themselves can determine the constitutionality of federal edicts. And to protect the rights of their people, they should prepare to interpose against or nullify the federal usurpation of power that properly resides at their level.
So, why aren’t Republican leaders, even local ones, raising this as an option?
Keep in mind there are 16 states with Republican supermajorities in both legislative houses. There are 23 red states with a trifecta, meaning a Republican governor and Republican majorities in both houses.
Well over 137 million Americans (41.8 percent of the population) live in a GOP-trifecta state. This signifies power, and for too long Republicans have been queasy about using it. It’s time to get over that.
Any one of these states could pass a law criminalizing enforcement of these vaccine mandate OSHA fines. Perhaps less confrontational measures would suffice, but even a stronger stance likely wouldn’t amount to any actual standoff with the feds.
The Tenth Amendment Center points out that OSHA has only about 800 officers. As with the war on drugs, gun control, and other out-of-control federal operations, they inevitably depend on local and state law enforcement for support.
There’s no way that on their own OSHA’s goons can touch anywhere close to half the 100,000 private sector companies that fall under Biden’s vaccine mandate. Red states should at the very least be vowing non-compliance, but again, they would also have the prerogative to defend their citizens from federal tyranny in a more active way as well.
As Jefferson wrote in 1798, “where powers are assumed which have not been delegated a nullification of the act is the rightful remedy.”
The left knows well the usefulness of states’ rights. Sanctuary states for illegal aliens and marijuana legalization are the best-known use cases, but there are more. The right has been slow to learn, except for the “constitutional carry” movement, which has seen wild success in recent years.
It’s upon the grassroots to convince their respective local and state Republican parties that decentralization and nullification are the best strategies for holding and gaining ground amid a political realignment against the out-of-control left.
Mises Institute president Jeff Deist recently asked, “What if the greatest political trend of the past two hundred years, namely the centralization of state power, reverses in the twenty-first century? What if this century is not about ideology, but about separation and location?”
Too many Republicans fear using state power will escalate the current trend toward statism or that it will incite violence somehow. Quite the contrary. Sending a powerful message of “No!” to an unconstitutional government is what’s needed to realize normalcy and peace in what’s left of our once-free society.
If that “No!” isn’t proclaimed now, it never will be. Australia offers a glimpse of our near future if the Republican Party doesn’t start truly resisting this tyranny in a meaningful way.
I agree with you, but have expanded my comments to say the GOP state legislatures may be limited. See my post at 19.
“That is precisely why I repeatedly continue to point out how worthless the ballot box has come. I know it pisses people off to hear it but it is reality.”
And what’s your solution? Taking up arms, or letting the Democrats have a free ride to run the country without even needing to cheat?
The retarded potato in the White House said OSHA was going to be enforcing a vaccine mandate for employers with 100+ workers. OSHA hasn't issued anything yet.
One problem is that the states with the strongest Republican leadership are also the states where employers have the most power to fire employees for almost any reason. These governors have no leverage to push back against any of that.
An “unstoppable” political party, no matter what brand it wears, is not good for the existance of freedom.
Think about it.....
Because Red states are Red states because they are generally populated by adults who can assess the facts, make their own decisions and explain them coherently without going barmy over leftist enemy agent conspiracy theories?
Mandates = death.
Check their portfolios to see how heavily invested they are in pharmaceuticals.
Everything the GOP does is for show. They live for the soundbites. Ultimately nothing ever comes of it.
Can’t disagree more. While it may be OK to fire someone because business is slow, you’re changing business lines, or it’s Tuesday, a mandate to ingest anything, much less an experimental drug, is not and can/should/must! be challenged. Even in right to work, your boss can’t order you to f*** as a condition of employment — nor put anything else in you.
Yes, I’m even aware that employers have won cases based on *not* ingesting things (stop smoking or goodbye) but this is the opposite.
Again, the left has no qualms about testing these (e.g. lesbos suing Catholic schools) and making it expensive/difficult. Our side just wants to throw up its hands and let people perish without a hint of resistance.
> “Lobbying money from Pfizer”
Yes, and block grants in the billions, reimbursements at $ per head, more with boosters, still more with documentation, and much much more with Vaccine Passports on the horizon. This is not even counting the reimbursement for PR campaigns and enticements such as vaccine lottery prices.
If you head up a state or local agency and need to prop up your budget, covid vaccine is your ticket.
“We have a choice—we can vote for one party that takes bribes from Big Pharma, or the other party that takes bribes from Big Pharma.”
Nobody noticed that all the Covid gibberish (all gibberish from both sides), is covering up the Monsanto Alumnus, the military industrial complex, the insider trading by Congress... a whole basket of deplorable activity all gained off the backs of the working taxpayer.
Why doesn’t the press cover this dirt?
Party affiliation shouldn’t matter.
The executive council was going to vote on it last week. Then several hundred people showed up to express their dissatisfaction. They canceled the meeting. Sununu called the people terrorists.
Then over this past weekend 1500 hundred people showed up at the state capital for a rally against vaccine mandates.
The big carrot and stick the FEDGOV has is that general money. So a company with over 100 people can tell them to piss off, fine. But companies (including mine) that have federal dollars in the $250k range will lose the federal money or comply.
No, they fear the spigot of Federal cash will be cut off.
Spot on, #6 - take Texas, where the only item added to the 3rd Special Session of the TX Legislature to push back on vaccine mandates covers State and local government employees, not the rest of us. We're all subject to the Democrat inspired CEOs and Boards of the companies in the budding fascist/oligarchist country.
And all you can do is call Gov Abbott and leave a message - they are no longer bothering to answer the phones (5th attempt just today - the phone just rings a few times and disconnects).
True, but can't you preempt it by passing a law (or a governor's executive order) prohibiting businesses to have the mandate in their state - at least until the federal mandate actually exists? Florida has done several of these preemptive things, haven't they?
I used to work for PepsiCo. They were the American company that trail blazed the globalism we see today. They were very much woke 20 years ago. PepsiCo’s CEO at the time, Indra Nooryi, was set to be Hillary’s Treasury secretary. If any company was going to jump on the vaxx mandate bandwagon, these are the guys you’d expect. I talked to a current employee recently to see how long he had to comply. He tells me the company is telling employees they won’t have to comply. I know there have been wildcat strikes in production over “suicide shifts” this summer and fall already. I don’t think this liberal stalwart thinks they can function after taking a vaxx mandate personnel hit. The Vaxx Nazis might have finally jumped the shark on this edict.
And remember the initial stance on shot mandates that OSHA took, and the backpeddling that occurred a few days later.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.