Put kindly, unself-awareness, put unkindly, sheer hypocrisy, just got a unique boost from the governor of Texas.
If President Biden were to impose a national mask mandate, Gov. Abbott would be among the first and probably the loudest to object. People can decide for themselves! is his point of view. The people know the facts. It isn’t for government to tell the people what to do. They have the intelligence and should have the freedom to figure it out for themselves.
This is not a quote, but it is the substance of Abbott’s position. Yet, inexplicably, inconsistently, not to mention unwisely, Abbott has prohibited local governments from mandating vaccines and barred local officials from requiring face masks. It is illegal for all levels of government in Texas to decide for themselves.
There is no difference in principle between a president of the US imposing a law on a state and between a governor imposing a law on a locality.
If it is unwise for the president to dictate a one-size-fits-all vaccine or mask policy for every governmental entity in the union, and we believe it is, it is equally unwise for a government to dictate a one-size-fits-all vaccine or mask policy for every locality in Texas.
Abbott denies freedom in the identical way he would no doubt object to were the president to do the same.
Not to mention, a statewide prohibition of a vaccine or mask mandate prevents a flexible, agile response to changing conditions. If COVID-19 has shown anything, it is that it is changeable and that knowledge about it is changeable. Abbott thinks he can overturn this by fiat.
Abbott’s policy ties the hands of the citizens’ elected officials. What kind of freedom is that?
Meanwhile, President Biden thinks he can urge universal vaccination in the US selectively — a contradiction in terms. If it’s selective, it’s not universal. In April it was reported in The New York Times that there is no COVID testing for people who enter the US illegally and few if any vaccinations in this population, which is housed in tight, confined quarters, ripe for the spread of COVID. If the goal is herd immunity for America, and if it is impossible to test, house and vaccinate illegal immigrants safely, they should be turned back. The president contradicts himself by urging universal vaccination throughout the land except on the southern US border.
To an extent, politics, not wise policy, governs COVID policy on both sides of the aisle.
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