Many liberals — such as Cass Sunstein, President Obama’s regulatory czar — used to say it was much better for the state to reward people for good behavior than to punish them for what you didn’t like. Giving someone a gift card if they get vaccinated is one example.
But today’s progressives are increasingly ripping off their masks and revealing their authoritarian bent.
Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic nominee for Virginia governor, has just announced he wants “every Virginia employer to require all eligible employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.” The former fundraiser bagman for Bill and Hillary Clinton added that, “Until we make it hard for people to get on planes or go to movie theaters, people just aren’t going to do it.”
Shaun Kenney, a former chair of the Board of Supervisors in Virginia’s Fluvanna County, is appalled. Ever since the beginning of COVID, he told National Review, people have been hit with prolonged and painful economic shutdowns that “treat Virginians as subjects rather than citizens; as children rather than adults.” McAuliffe’s statements demonstrate things will only get worse if he returns to the governor’s mansion after elections this November.
“Government after all is force — and if you give this boy McAuliffe a hammer? You will be treated as a nail,” Kenney concludes.