Biden's Mandate About More Than Vaccines, And States Must Resist

Most Americans following the developments of Joe Biden’s presidency saw this coming a mile away.

It was never believable that President Joe Biden would keep his promise and refrain from imposing a nationwide vaccine mandate. In an article back in August, I wrote that Biden would be unable to resist using OSHA, Medicare and school funding to force Americans to take the jab.

Just a few weeks later, that’s exactly what he’s done.

Now, the only question is — how will we respond?

Will we acquiesce to this clearly unconstitutional power grab? Will we get on our knees, roll up our sleeves and submit to the dictates of King Biden and his hordes of Deep State bureaucrats?

Or will we fight back?

Based on just-released polling from Trafalgar Group and Convention of States, the American people are planning to fight back. Nearly 60% of Americans do not believe that Biden has the constitutional authority to impose a vaccine mandate.

And it’s not just conservative voters who are upset: a large majority of independent voters (68%) side with Republicans (84%) that Biden has overreached.

Americans aren’t content to live under this tyranny. Fifty-six percent of voters want state governors to push back against these mandates.

And, once again, that number reflects bipartisan support — 62% of independents, 79% of Republican voters and even 30% of Democrats say they support the governors who are working to block the mandate.

So far, 26 states have vowed to challenge Biden’s mandate. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster vowed to fight Biden “to the gates of hell,” and Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said he has no plans to require school employees to get vaccinated.

“It’s a terrible policy, what the president did yesterday,” Parson said. “It undermines the Constitution. The states should be making choices for ourselves.”

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey called Biden’s “dictatorial” approach “wrong,” “un-American,” “unprecedented” and “dangerous.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called the move an “assault on private businesses” and issued an executive order protecting the rights of Texas to choose the vaccine or not.

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts released a statement characterizing Biden’s order as “a stunning violation of personal freedom and abuse of the federal government’s power.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has issued the strongest challenge to Biden’s overreach. He’s matched Biden’s $14,000 OSHA fine with a fine of his own — a $5,000 fine per violation if local governments require their employees to get vaccinated.

It doesn’t cover the many employees who will still face a vaccine mandate under the president’s order, but it’s more than many governors have done so far.

Predictably, Democratic governors haven’t offered any resistance. Even though the sovereignty of their states is being attacked just as forcefully, they’re being obedient members of their political party. But they would be wise to consider what powers they are handing future presidents who may not have the same political beliefs.

The American people have more foresight. According to the Trafalgar/COSA poll, 56% of Americans believe that Biden’s national vaccine mandate sets a precedent that could be abused by future presidents on other issues.

Now the fate of our country hangs on how the courts decide the lawsuits brought by a handful of Republican governors.

If you think that’s hyperbole, consider this.

If the federal government can use federal bureaucracy to force businesses to impose vaccine mandates, what's next?

Will the federal government force private businesses to fund abortions, prohibit gun ownership, or advance progressive sexual ideologies?

Will they force private businesses to mandate that their employees undergo critical race theory training?

Will they force private businesses to prohibit their employees from attending religious services that preach against progressive ideas?

Radical progressive thinking can justify federal mandates for each of the above examples. Right now, nothing is standing between Biden and any of these mandates. He has more than three years to impose them and Congress can't do anything about it.

We’ve gotten to this point in our country in part because Congress has frequently abdicated its lawmaking authority to executive branch agencies like the Department of Labor. These bureaucrats have the power to create laws, but they don’t answer to American voters: They answer only to the president.

But Congress isn’t the only one at fault — the Supreme Court shoulders the lion’s share of the blame. Their bad decisions over the last 100 years have massively expanded federal power.

Now, the federal government can and does, regulate virtually anything they want, including healthcare. These are often bad decisions, but they are the existing law of the land.

We should hope and pray that the legal challenges brought by these Republican governors are successful. But we’d be wise to not trust the courts to save our country. We need a better solution, and we can find it by looking back to the people and the states.

There are two current solutions available and I advocate both. We must begin by standing with our governors. They’ll be on the front lines of this fight and they must know that we’ll have their backs.

If your governor has voiced opposition to these mandates, call him or her and express your support. If not, call and ask when they plan to stand up for the rights of their citizens.

The second, more long-term solution is an Article V Convention of States. It’s called and controlled by the states and it has the power to propose constitutional amendments. These amendments can clarify that Congress — and only Congress — can create laws.

They can undo the last century of activist Supreme Court decisions by getting the federal government out of healthcare, education, energy and the environment.

And they can limit the power and jurisdiction of the executive branch and shrink the size and authority of the federal bureaucracy.

The people of the states must fight back against Biden’s tyranny, but even a victory here will not put the genie back in the bottle. While a victory for the states against Biden’s vaccine mandates will delay federal overreach, it will not stop the never-ending power grab of the federal government.

The only mechanism that can accomplish that is the awesome power the Founders gave them in Article V of the Constitution — it’s time we put that power to use.