Thread by @SteveSchmidtSES

We are at a crossroads, really an impasse of sorts. We have to make a choice and this is what I think it is. Maybe I’m not understanding something about this because it seems pretty commonsensical to me. I suppose my belief is rooted in the now dead pragmatism of moderate (1)

Republican politics in a state like New Jersey. I’ve always believed it is the job of government to protect us from each other, not ourselves. We have lost more than 600,000 Americans to Covid 19. The pandemic could be quashed already but for the refusal of a large MINORITY (2)

(25%) of the population that refuses a vaccine that is saving lives. We now have a pandemic of the unvaccinated where people are dying at alarming rates because of the lethality of the Delta variant. Here is the problem. Twelve year olds and under cannot be vaccinated. There (3)

are significant numbers of Americans who cannot be vaccinated on the basis of legitimate medical conditions. Here is where the concepts of liberty, responsibility, obligation, duty and personal responsibility collide. They should be unpacked. NOBODY should be FORCED by the GOVT 4

to take the vaccine. EVER. (military doesn’t count). That means never, ever: not even to protect children and our most vulnerable citizens. Lies, misinformation and immoral conspiracy theories peddled to vulnerable minds by @FoxNews and @TuckerCarlson @IngrahamAngle ect …(5)

Have cost tens of thousands of lives for nothing but the self interest, power and profit of the nihilists who don’t blink an eye at the suffering and pain they have caused. Nevertheless, they have convinced significant numbers of Americans not to take the vaccine. THAT IS THEIR 6

CHOICE. Many are and will pay for it with their lives. What is the cost of accommodating this intransigent minority? Should we keep the economy shuttered? Close schools to protect our children from the Delta variant? Should cancer patients be denied the ability to see a concert 7

and baseball game? What about flying? It is a price too high to pay for the reasonable majority who are as protected as they can be. The Federal Government should use its LAWFUL AUTHORITY to protect America’s most vulnerable populations from idiocy. The overwhelming majority 8

should not have to endanger their lives to accommodate people who refuse to be vaccinated. The FAA should impose a vaccine mandate on all domestic travel while the pandemic rages and kills because of unvaccinated people. The Federal government should impose vaccine mandates in 9

as many public buildings as possible. Hopefully, other public venues including places like @starbucks @MLB @NBA @NFL stadiums, arenas, private transport will follow suit. That is what liberty looks like. Death Governors like De Santis have embraced the idiocy and many more 10

will die in Florida than elsewhere. That die is cast. Someone is going to have their world shrunk because of Covid. Should it be all of us? Should it be the kids for a third straight year of ruined schooling? What about the infirm, elderly, and disabled? cancer patients? 11

Pregnant women? I have a better idea. How about we do an experiment and test the power of incentives? It will be amazing to watch the rush to the vaccination line as selfishness hobbles the ability to be selfish and irresponsible. No one has a right to go to Yankee Stadium or 12

Fly on United. Broadway? Nope. Monster Truck? No way. Congress should immediately change liability laws to make any venue think twice about moonlighting in the Super Spreader space. Someone has to be in charge. We decide that through elections. The winners get to govern. They 13

have legitimacy to act in times of crisis because they have been vested with power, lawfully, to act, within the boundaries of a system that restrains the power of government through a Constitution constructed around the supremacy of individual rights. Enough already. Talk of 14

New mask mandates for vaccinated people is disincentivizing reluctant vaccine candidates. Time to flip the script. Decisions have consequences. Some people choose to live in the middle of the woods without plumbing and electricity. So long as you don’t mail bombs around the 15

country, knock yourself out. Be happy. Decisions have consequences. By all means, don’t get the vaccine if you don’t want. Between the two of us, I think your world should shrink, not mine and there are more of us than you, by a lot. That’s the way it works. When holding 16

power restraint is an admirable quality. When restraint yields to passivity and inaction fueled by naïveté and willful blindness it’s a different matter. Time to clarify the choice. Time to Choose as conservatives used to like to say.