Are Vaccine Mandates "Un-American"?
Unpacking The Rhetoric
Some of the criticism of the political left was well over due, the anti-woke crowd went from trying to establish evidence, reason, and logic at the forefront of American politics to almost regurgitating right wing talking points. You know, the Tucker Carlson’s and Ben Shapiro’s who are “skeptics” of the Covid-19 vaccine mandate yet probably have no idea what the existing data suggests or even outright states regarding risk of being unvaccinated and long COVID.
While those who define themselves as “moderates”, “centrist”, “politically homeless”, “anti woke”, “independent”, etc. might concede to the efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccine they’re often still opposed to a vaccine mandate. Typical arguments revolve around freedom, liberty, not having a totalitarian government, free will, autonomy, and choice. I’ve heard many of these arguments and have outlined why they might be mistaken. Nevertheless, some of the most interesting arguments I have encountered pertain to this concept of being American versus Un-American.
What is American?
Typically the anti woke and the political right will state a vaccine mandate is “Un-American”, but what do they even mean by that? I assume and often hear it refers to the American value of freedom, but as I went over in a past article freedom is more complicated than do whatever you see fit. Freedom invokes responsibility when living in a society, to be truly free would give way to the possibility of harming others thus negating their freedom. However, even if we were to concede attributing something to be American rather than Un-American has to do with the nations foundation, not necessarily freedom, we still have to define what that means.
If we were to appeal to antiquity given the seemingly mythic fight against tyranny often portrayed in American history we have to put this into context. While the founding framers intended to build a nation with certain values and attributes this nation did not often live up to that standard and might still not. There were institutions dedicated to the subjugation of African slaves, Native Americans were forced out of their lands by gunpoint, women were often subservient to their husbands, those with disabilities were sterilized, same sex marriage was not legalized federally until 2015, and American has a history of discriminating based on religion. While the United States has ideal values of tolerance, freedom, liberty, choice, and the pursuit of happiness these ideals were often hindered if not devoid in practice.
The idealization of America can be summarized through American Exceptionalism. American Exceptionalism is the idea the United States is somehow different from other nations thus better. This is a persistent belief which permeates political discourse across the political spectrum and American history, there are elements of these ideas in George Washington’s farewell address to President Biden’s inauguration. Yet many challenge this assumption from a historical perspective.
Perhaps the reality, as evidence from both past and present suggest, is America is not exceptional and it has it’s issues. This nationalist message of being “American” vs. “Un-American” is more of a false dichotomy meant to distract you from the actual issues. Mandating a vaccine we know is effective and safe to end the pandemic is more than “American” it is the right choice to make based on what we know. This isn’t the first time Americans debated over a mandatory vaccine either.
American Vaccine Mandates
Smallpox is an infectious disease, currently eradicated by vaccines but for centuries it plagued humanity. Nearly 3 out of 10 people died from smallpox and many were left with scars or blind. It is so deadly governments such as the United States have to consider it a potential bioterrorist threat if it comes back. With all that said many did not want to receive the vaccine for smallpox including pastor Henning Jacobson.
Jacobson cited numerous reasons like other Americans at the time (and some current Americans) for not getting the smallpox vaccine. Including it “invaded his personal liberty” and was “oppressive”. His trial made it all the way to Supreme Court with the case Jacobson v. Massachusetts ruling in favor of vaccine mandates. Subsequent mandates for diseases such as measles, polio, and whooping cough are also put in place around the country.
While COVID-19 is not smallpox it is still a highly infectious virus which possess a serious health threat to millions of people worldwide. Vaccine mandates are constitutional, if we defined what is “American” by the law it is American to pose vaccine mandates. Unfortunately, we have many individuals still not vaccinated in the United States so a mandate might be necessary.
If we go back to the antiquity definition it can be argued mandates related to public and social issues are American. Laws and mandates had to be passed for voting rights, slavery, women’s rights, desegregation, clean water, combatting air pollution, and more.
We need to let go of the arbitrary distinction between what is “American” vs. “Un-American” as this is a vague unhelpful distinction. America has a history riddled with areas in stark contrast with its ideals, America is not exceptional, nationalist messages are actually in support of authoritarian ideology, vaccine mandates are constitutional thus “American”, and no totalitarian regime ever came into power through vaccine mandates.