Call Them ‘Right to Life" or ‘Freedom’ Passports! If They Are Vaccine Passports, Conservatives Will Freak Out – CounterPunch.org – CounterPunch

Marjorie Taylor Greene is characterizing vaccine passports as Joe Bidens mark of the beast, so they must have some value. But we have to come up with a different name for them if were going to get the conspiracy nutserRepublicans on board.

And that includes rightwing media. The headline in The Washington Post sums up todays health crisis: The Dangerous Game [Fox News] Tucker Carlson is Playing on Vaccines.

If our country is going to open up again in a way that preserves the lives and liberty of millions of Americans whove stayed virus-free so far, were going to have to confront the GOP death cult, head-on. Freedom shouldnt mean the right to force other people to die all alone in a hospital ICU hooked up to breathing tubes.

Airlines, retail stores, restaurants and bars, workplaces, office buildings, colleges, stadiums, theaters, you-name-it all will have to start exercising their Supreme Court-certified right to the freedom to prevent un-vaccinated people from entering their premises.

That sweet new Ad Council Its Up To You campaign wont be enough. Too many Republicans have taken in Donald Trumps lies and Qanons bizarre conspiracy theories to be influenced by sweet pictures and nice words.

Fully 59% of registered Texas Republicans say they have doubts, and about half of all Republicans in Congress where the vaccine is, daily, freely and easily available on demand have chose not to get vaccinated.

Americas venues have to kick some ass to save lives and rebuild our economy. Its going to take both the carrot and the stick.

I got my first vaccine passport in 1979 when I traveled to Kenya, Uganda and had an onward ticket to Somalia on behalf of the Salem international relief organization.

To get on a plane to those countries, and then to get through their own passport control, I had to prove that I was immunized against cholera, yellow fever and typhoid, as I recall, and there might of been a few others; I remember the shots hurt like hell and made me sick as a dog for a day or two.

But that yellow card, with the proof of vaccination stamps in it, periodically updated, sat inside my passport for the next 20 years and not only got me into multiple Third World countries on three continents, but also got me through US border stations and back into the United States from them.

The idea of vaccine passports is nothing new.

Although my kids didnt need them to get into school 40 years ago (the schools just took your word for it), my grandchildren do today. Theres pretty much not a school or summer camp in America thatll let a kid in without proof of vaccination against, at least, measles and a few other childhood diseases.

Right now the Biden administration is reportedly working with 17 different organizations and private companies to come up with some sort of vaccine passport thatll work for America, which is apparently why Newsmaxs White House Correspondent calls the idea totalitarian communism.

Want to own the cons? Put photos on the passports and require states to allow them as voter ID. But, seriously

IATA, the International Air Transport Association, which licensed the travel agency Louise and I owned in the 1980s and oversees international travel, is working on one, as is the office of World Tourism with the United Nations. IBM is developing a digital vaccine passport, and Clear, the company that speeds you through airport security lines, has already announced that they, too, will soon have one.

Israel rolled them out last month, and Denmark has announced theyll soon be doing the same.

The way to sell these freedom passports to right wingers is pretty straightforward: tell them its the free market, andthat it has to do with religious liberty.They love those words even when they dont know what they mean.

These are the same people, of course, who want a business to refuse an LGBTQ person the freedom to patronize that company based on who they are or love. If conservatives believe an American business must legally be able make a decision like that, why shouldnt companies have the freedom to refuse service to someone who may be spreading a deadly disease?

Doesnt freedom include the freedom to stay alive in the midst of the worst pandemic in a century?

Freedom is a much misused word. How is it that anybody can say with a straight face that person A should have the freedom to refuse a vaccine or wear a mask and spread a deadly disease in the direction of person B, but that person B shouldnt have the freedom to remain free of illness?

Its a good argument for calling them Freedom Passports.

For that matter, vaccine passports are the ultimate statement of belief in the sanctity of human life.

Its truly bizarre that legislators in Arkansas and Texas think a woman who wants to get an abortion should go to prison or even get the death penalty, but if a red-state Republican wants to breathe a deadly disease in your face because theyve joined an anti-mask, anti-vaccine cult, thats just fine.

Maybe we should call them Right To Life Passports.

Crazed Republican conspiracy-mongers aside, the main international objection to vaccine passports comes from groups and organizations concerned about increasing the gap around the world between the haves and the have-nots. One billion people in the world dont even have proof of identity, much less a passport or birth certificate, and this would leave them even farther out of the loop.

On the other hand, those are not generally the folks trying to get into the Super Bowl, your local supermarket or wanting to sit next to you on a flight from Omaha to Cincinnati.

Back in the 1980s, restaurants around the country experimented with being all non-smoking, or having well-spaced smoking sections with separate ventilation. Restaurants today could do something similar.

The taco place down the street might only let you in with a vaccine passport, a modern-day variation on the no shoes, no shirt, no service slogan. Farther down the block, the burger joint may opt to ignore the passports and run at 1/3 capacity or even throw caution to the wind and pack the place in.

Nobody, at least so far, is arguing passports should be required by the gummint the way those communist drivers licenses are issued and required to speed down the highway. Although I disagree with President Biden on this issue, it looks like its going to be entirely up to the free market.

The NFL has already weighed in, promoting vaccination among their fans so people can show up knowing that Covid isnt floating around inside the stadium.

Meanwhile, Floridas Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, arguably responsible for thousands of unnecessary deaths (that he appears to be hiding), is swearing that hell never allow a private business in his state to require a vaccine passport for service.

Hes fine with Florida businesses refusing to do business with LGBTQ folks, but Republican cult members who refuse to get vaccinated because theyre convinced Bill Gates is gonna chip them so they can be tracked? No way! (Dont tell them about that GPS thing in their cell phones, please; they may not be able to handle it.)

As Republican politicians, judges and lawyers constantly repeat, private business should be able to refuse service to people on their deeply held beliefs. This ones gone all the way up to the Supreme Court, and repeatedly gotten the Republican seal of approval.

And, even for them, Freedom Passports could encompass it all: Freedom! America! The Free Market!Saving innocent lives!

What red blooded, Nazi-arm-band-wearing, Confederate-flag-waving, Capitol-invading, gun-toting American patriot could possibly object?

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Call Them 'Right to Life" or 'Freedom' Passports! If They Are Vaccine Passports, Conservatives Will Freak Out - CounterPunch.org - CounterPunch