Some people reading that would shout, "Hell yeah!" in support, but it's precisely because we are not a pure democracy that a mandate is not in effect right now.
It's not for lack of trying on the Govt's part that we don't have a mandate. The Biden administration would be patrolling the halls of your business checking vaccine papers right now if it had its way. If it weren't for federal court rulings and in the case of Florida, state legislatures, acting against the administration's overreach, we would be subjected to the forced vaccination policy that they want.
There is a popular misconception that our form of government is a democracy. In fact, the term democracy appears not once in the US Constitution. Though certain aspects of our government are democratic, we are not a pure democracy. If we were, the majority would rule. No matter what rights were violated or how unfair the policy was, if a majority of voters supported it, it would be law. Majority rule quickly devolves into tyranny of the majority. As the late great Walter Williams once said, if we lived in a democracy, then a majority of people could mandate turkey on Thanksgiving while making ham illegal.
So why do I think we would have a vaccine mandate if we were a pure democracy? It's because I believe a majority of Americans support forced vaccination. I would not have said that two years ago. But Covid happened. And lockdowns happened. And forced masking happened. And I was surprised at how many people not only complied, but did so without questioning. Many of them did so because they believed the Govt. They thought we all "did our part" then the virus would go away. But it didn't go away. There are more deaths this year with Covid than last year, and that's with the vaccine.
No matter what has transpired over the last two years, one thing is clear. Government actions to "flatten the curve" did not beat the virus, but it did flatten us. We are experiencing record setting inflation and at the same time we have record Govt spending. We have low workforce participation in part because the Govt is paying people to stay home. A family with 5 children can make $1500/month in tax credits. That's close to what someone would make working full-time in a minimum wage job. Why work?
So be glad we don't live in a democracy. Be glad it's a representative republic which in theory protects individual rights and rejects tyranny of the majority. Or be sad we aren't a pure democracy because you'd like to see everyone do it just the way you would, because you know best.
