One Million French Sign Up For Vaccinations After Macron Demands Passes for Restaurants, Cafes
by John Lawrence
French vaccination rates were lagging in France as they are here. Then French President Emmanuel Macron got on TV and told Frenchmen they would not be able to go to cafes and restaurants unless they had a vax pass. Qelle horreur! A Frenchmen not allowed to enter a French cafe or even bicycle home with a batard? It is, je ne sais quoi, impensable. So why couldn't Joe Biden do the same thing here? Just get on TV and inform the American people that they won't be able to go to bars and restaurants or baseball games or theme parks unless they are fully vaccinated and show their card proving this at the entry gate? Because in America you have to tread lightly around what Americans think are their rights. In this case they think they have a right to infect not only themselves but those around them and to demand service from overworked doctors and nurses when they get sick.
I think France is a democracy, but Macron seems to have a lot more power than a US President who evidently cannot mandate that the American people do anything. This is definitely not the roll up your sleeves and get to work World War II generation. This is not Gen X or Gen Y. This is Gen Selfish. Gen not give a damn about anyone but themselves. No wonder they like Trump so much. He exemplifies their values. Even in France young people think they should be able to do what they want. “I’m getting vaccinated because I want to have a social life and go on holidays,” law student Marius Chavenon, 22, said, adding: “I don’t think vaccination should be compulsory. We live in France, we should be able to do what we want.” Man the barricades, the ancien regime is about to fall. Instead of Marie Antoinette saying "Let them eat cake," Macron is saying "Let them get vaccinated."
The US central government is weak because of states' rights. States have the prerogative of overruling Federal mandates. Oh excuse me, has Joe Biden overstepped his bounds when he demands that people get vaccinated? Not in my state says the governor of Florida and the other southern states. We will not be told what to do by the central government. This does not happen in most democracies. The provinces are subordinate to the central government, but not in the US. This is one of the flaws in the American version of democracy. It doesn't have to be this way for a nation to qualify as a democracy. America is a nation of spoiled brats. They are a bunch of selfish misinformed, stupid A holes. They figure that that's their right as an American.
The virus has its own methodology. It has no respect for American sensitivities. While Joe Biden has to walk on eggshells, COVID does not. It doesn't care about the fact that Americans want to get back to their normal life of going to bars and restaurants, baseball games and theme parks. It doesn't care about Americans' right of self-indulgence. Facebook should be mandated to take down any misinformation about getting vaccinated, but that's how they make their money and the central government would be overstepping its bounds if they mandated Facetime to do so. So what to do? Local governments and businesses can mandate that their employees get vaccinated. They have more power than does the US government in this circumstance evidently.