The argument over vaccines has become one that reflects the divide between the political parties in the United States.
Most Republicans are against President Biden’s executive order mandating that companies with more than 100 employees require COVID shots for workers, while most Democrats favor the president’s order.
“Anything that gets more people vaccinated, to me, is a good idea,” said Indiana Democratic Party chairman Mike Schmuhl on All Indiana Politics. “We are over 50-percent in terms of people in Indiana that have had both shots. To get that herd immunity, we need to get closer to 75-percent.”
Schmuhl is urging Gov. Eric Holcomb to take a more aggressive approach in pushing for people to get vaccinated.
Holcomb has called President Biden’s order “a step too far.” That thought process is loosely in line with what most state Republicans believe.
“If employers want to do it, that’s fine. We’ve been supportive of that. Employers should be allowed to do what they want,” said Indiana Republican Party chairman Kyle Hupfer. “But, to come in and try to mandate that from the federal government is a substantial overreach.”
Hupfer is also the general counsel for the Republican National Committee. He said that the party is pushing to take the federal government to court over the mandate. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has been among those who are threatening to lead the charge in court.
“I think that Attorney General Rokita sort of wakes up every morning wondering how he can cause trouble,” said Schmuhl of the lawsuit effort. “I think he’s more focused on his political future and sadly wasting taxpayer dollars with these frivolous lawsuits.”
Rokita and 23 other attorneys general across the U.S. said in a letter to the White House last Thursday that the mandate is “disastrous and counterproductive” and “amounts to an illegal use of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.”
3 comments
It’s honestly not a political issue. It’s about 2 things: trust and science.
Many people rightly do not trust the government, especially on the vaccines.
Science is never settled, and when a group tries to silence dissenting hypothesis it’s usually because they cannot defend their own positions and therefore cannot be trusted.
Science says that masks don’t work, but carry some really impactful negative side effects. Science says that the experimental vaccines don’t work as well as claimed, and that there are legitimate hazards that are being downplayed by untrustworthy players.
At this point, people declining the vax, especially the mRNA variants, are doing the right thing considering the lack of science in the debate and the lack of honesty from the people trying to force the vax.
Yup, “science” has been used as a political gadfly to silence any dissenting opinions. It has been used by people with no idea what they are talking about to shut down opposition to the religion of global schmarming. “The science is settled!” said no actual scientist ever.
The politics in conflict are the politics of truth vs the politics of lies and no one is trusting the talking heads.
Schmuhl YOU are the one who wakes up every morning wondering how you and your DEMONCRAT liberal agenda can cause trouble. You want to turn Indiana blue with all your BS! Thank God we have elected people like Todd who actually care about this great state and want what is best and are willing to fight for us. U are disgusting!!!!!