We’ll pass on the passport

By Prioleau Alexander

The American people are now being vaccinated by the tens of millions, which is a wonderful thing and a miracle of science. We will soon reach herd immunity, and hopefully booster shots can deal with the emerging new strains.

Not so wonderful is the accompanying concept of a “vaccine passport,” which is now being discussed in earnest. We believe this may be the greatest danger to civil rights and personal freedoms in our nation’s history.

The issue will be avoided by the government, as every elected official across the fruited plains will virtue signal with speeches about the potential loss of freedoms and if possible cast a public vote to prohibit governmental passports. What they won’t do, of course, is make the use of them illegal by private corporations.

When President Trump was censored and banned from Twitter, half of America defended the decision. “It’s a business! We can’t tell businesses what to do!” The same pronouncement followed Amazon’s destruction of Parler by kicking them off their rented servers.

This stance must be at least partly grounded in ignorance and hatred of Trump. The government tells Big Auto what gas mileage they must achieve. They tell Big Pharma the steps they must take to have a drug approved. They regulate and audit banking. They demand untold safety measures within the airline industry. They practically tell Big Energy when to go to the bathroom. Shall we go on?

The federal government grows every year — no one can dispute that. Why? To expand the power of the ruling class. Once the federal government provides itself a new power, it very, very rarely agrees to release that grip — no one can dispute that. As proof we offer George W. Bush’s horrifically unconstitutional Patriot Act, still being used by federal law enforcement to spy on American citizens.

It is quite reasonable to state that the federal government’s lust for power over the people is insatiable and inherent — ergo it is quite reasonable to conclude that if they could get away with it secretly, the vast majority of the remora swimming in the D.C. swamp would wholeheartedly support a vaccine passport.

Utilizing data from Big Tech (and they do), the government can currently track where you go, what you buy, what your opinions are, what your medications are and with whom you interact. The power they lack, for the most part, is the ability to control all of the above — and the intoxicating power of control is what gets them up in the morning and adds the zip in their step.

If one agrees with the supposition that the federal government would enjoy this expanded level of control, then one must ask how they can achieve it without appearing to.

Regulations, of course.

If some airlines force passengers to provide a vaccine passport and others don’t, what are the Feds to do? They want control of who is allowed to do what, but they don’t want the appearance of that. Thus, in the name of “safety,” they can insist the no-passport airlines reconfigure their seating to allow for “social distancing.” It is already difficult to remain profitable in the airline business, which is why the seats are packed together like molecules in a diamond.

Faced with reducing seating by 50 percent, the anti-passport airline would then have to choose between requiring passports or going out of business.

Controlling interstate travel would be the governmental equivalent of winning the lottery — international travel even more so. If you are freedom-loving nation and refuse to participate, Uncle Sam can fix that during an unrecorded meeting between diplomats: “We need to protect our citizens and we think your refusal to use the vaccine passport system fails to do so, so we’re going to withhold aid until you do.”

As was evidenced by the New York City law to ban soft drinks of more than 16 ounces, some politicians would even like to control what we eat and drink — so what magical combination of “bad” food and drink could Fauci dream up a year down the road that “exacerbates” COVID-19? Alcohol? Red meat? Junk food? In the name of “safety,” wouldn’t it make sense to require cashiers to check for the vaccine passport? People using food stamps have a variety of products they aren’t allowed to buy — so why not enforce the same regulations among no-passport desperadoes?

There are more examples than there is space to write them: A vaccine passport could be used to control where you dine, what buildings you can enter, what events you attend, where you do business, whether you get health/life insurance and how you travel. The list is limited only by the imaginations of the kings and queens who rule us.

Perhaps the ultimate power for the government would be knowing, by name, everyone who refused take the vaccine or refused to participate in vaccine passport program based on principle. Why? Well, ask the question “What kind of person would refuse?”

Those who don’t trust the government.

And a “known enemies list” is a spreadsheet every politician and bureaucrat would kill to have.