2021-05-25
The USA has the advantage of us in the UK when it comes to pioneering different approaches. We have only a handful of devolved governments, and when they all try to out-compete in the same direction then choice and the ability to compare results from differing approaches suffer.
In the US with fifty one independent state governments, the scenario is that many states are (a) very aware of the freedoms that are enshrined in the Constitution and (b) sufficiently independently-minded to go their own way.
The latest states to effectively ban the use of "vaccine passports" are Iowa and Alabama, joining Florida Texas and South Dakota (these are the ones I have heard about) in upholding the right of their residents to medical privacy - also thus upholding the principle of individual responsibility over coercion by those who presume to know best.
The latter is a good and much under-rated principle which is our effective defence against slavery.
Once the rights of the individual are permitted to be whittled away by overbearing government, those rights once given up will not be voluntarily restored, and we may expect the ratchet to be progressively tightened. "Progressive" politicians have a label to live up to.
