As I scrolled through Facebook this morning, a sponsored post caught my attention. It was from Iowa Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver and it involved a promise of no vaccine mandates.
Here is the post:
“We’re saying NO to a federal vaccine mandate. Show your support and help us stop Biden!”
People are then encouraged to give their contact information to Whitver while signing a “petition.”
Keep in mind Biden’s OSHA vaccine mandate was thrown out a long time ago. And it is a CMS rule that continues.
I’ve been told by members of the Iowa House that Whitver is the biggest Republican hang-up to stopping vaccine mandates in the Iowa Senate. No idea if that is true. I have been told that Whitver said the Medical Freedom & Privacy bill — the original, the one that actually dealt with the issue — promised it wouldn’t advance in the Senate regardless of what the House did.
I have no idea if that is true or not since the House didn’t pass it. And, I tend to give the Iowa Senate the benefit of the doubt because they have sent plenty of legislation to the House that has died the last couple of years.
So, consider me a skeptic.
But, there’s one way legislators could show Iowans they’re serious about opposing vaccine mandate. It’s literally in their title as legislators. They could legislate.
That’s always an option, especially during the legislative session.
Sure, it might make lobbyists upset or the “big business” community or the “health care” industry.
And it is much easier to just boost a Facebook post saying no federal vaccine mandates as opposed to actually doing something meaningful against vaccine mandates at all levels.
But this is real world. These vaccine mandates are not hypothetical. It’s not a drill. It’s not “down the road.” It’s here and now.
So the Facebook post is nice and I’m sure it will garner hundreds of new contacts for Whitver’s campaign and the Iowa Senate Republicans.
But I guarantee it won’t do one thing — stop vaccine mandates.
And after two years, shouldn’t that be the goal by now?
It all reminds me of the campaign by Honest Gil Fulbright from years ago… It was a satirical campaign for U.S. Senate. But it also contained a lot of elements of truth. Here was one of his ads:
