The biggest clue that Kamala Harris would be an authoritarian president is the senseless Covid shot mandate she’s forcing on her staff.
One of the worst abuses of power in the general response to Covid-19 was forcing Americans to take the mRNA shot. Nearly every major employer, including the federal government, required that employees take an untested drug to “vaccinate” them from a virus that the majority had already had. Worse still, the shot did not prevent people from contracting or transmitting Covid. It did, however, result in a number of side effects that often ended up worse than the disease itself.
Eventually, after some pushback in the courts, the Biden administration and most organizations dropped the mandates. But, against all logic, the Harris-Walz presidential campaign is bringing it back.
As The Daily Wire recently reported, the official Harris for President job listings state, “Harris for President requires all employees to be ‘up to date’ on COVID-19 vaccination status as prescribed by the CDC as a condition of employment, unless otherwise prohibited by applicable law.” It’s not enough to have taken the Pfizer shot three years ago. Prospective employees will need to have a recent booster shot as well.
There are a number of possible reasons why the Harris for President campaign would be doing this, and none of them are good.
The first and most natural reason is that Kamala Harris and the Democrats still see Covid as a serious concern. Indeed, even after four years and so many myths about the virus being exposed outright (e.g. the scientific basis of social distancing, the efficacy of lockdowns and masks, and the origin of the virus), many on the left can be seen testing themselves for Covid, wearing N95 masks, taking the mRNA booster shot every season, and trusting discredited experts.
It should go without saying that this thinking betrays a dangerous ignorance that deserves scorn, not validation. People who are still afraid of Covid need to be educated and pitied, not rewarded with power and influence.
If a presidential candidate and her staff actually believe in the effectiveness of Covid booster shots despite evidence to the contrary, then Americans should reject her on this basis alone. After all, it’s just as dangerous to have a superstitious and stupid person in charge as it is to have a corrupt and conniving one — although Harris might just be all of these things.
The second reason for requiring a booster shot is that Kamala Harris and her team believe in the power of mandates and hope to bring them back. They probably know that taking the mRNA shot does little to improve public health but is an effective political tool to gain power and crush opposition. If Harris wants to purge her administration of dissenters, as her decrepit boss Joe Biden did, she can force them to take the shot and fire anyone who doesn’t comply.
One could object that the U.S. Supreme Court blocked this policy, which is why the Biden administration finally dropped the mandate. This probably explains why Harris is implementing a mandate beforehand, while it’s still legally permissible. Of course, if she enters office with a large staff of like-minded bureaucrats who believe in Covid shot mandates, this team could work to impose another mandate on federal employees and government contractors and fix the courts (including the Supreme Court) so she isn’t challenged.
The third possible reason the Harris campaign is requiring the shot is much more fundamental: Getting it is simply part of being a leftist today. Just like gang members have elaborate tattoos to show they are with a certain gang, true leftists have records of taking the shot, along with dorky social media posts celebrating this fact. In most cases, the actual health benefits are secondary. The real purpose is to signal to the rest of the tribe that they are not some weird, dangerous anti-vaxxer (i.e., an independent thinker).
In all likelihood, the Harris campaign’s effort to bring back the mandate is a combination of all three of these reasons. It assures that only loyalists join the campaign, it lays the groundwork for wider mandates in the future, and it maintains a culture of ignorance that makes Democrats easy to manipulate and mobilize.
On a deeper, more disturbing level, there also seems to be a genuine feeling of nostalgia for Covid-19. This may shock conservatives and independents who want to forget all about that time, but for many on the left, it wasn’t so bad. They had extended time off from work and school and received “free” money from the government.
Even better, they could easily cancel their political opponents, rampage through city streets in the name of social justice, and claim the title of victim throughout. The oligarchs, ideologues, and dependent classes — the main constituents of today’s Democrat Party — all have something to gain from reviving Covid hysteria.
So when their chosen candidate and leader does something reminiscent of that dark time, everyone should pay attention. This is Harris’ “joyful” vision for the future, and Americans can expect a sequel to 2020 if she’s elected this November.