How Rhode Island Stopped a Wrongheaded ‘Universal Vaccine Mandate’

S ince the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the political supremacists in seats of power cavalierly issued their edicts and their mandates, while the mainstream media cheered them on. Across America, the Big Media and their Big Tech and Big Biz allies have served as the official “hit men” for the Big Covid cabal.

And here in little Rhode Island, this unholy alliance conspired to advance the ultimate Big Government act of control. A misguided piece of legislation that would impose a “universal vaccine mandate” but that appeared to be going nowhere was suddenly revived and promoted by members of the local media.

Were it not for the action from a recently formed parents coalition, the legislation might have risen to see the light of day. Fortunately, in short order, the ParentsUnitedRI.com group successfully raised the alarm bells, apparently dooming any hopes of Rhode Island’s Big Covid elites to see the legislation become law.

Here’s the story — and its important moral. Rhode Island state senator Samuel Bell, who refused to go along with what he derided as “surrender policies” that ended pandemic mandates in our state, introduced Senate bill S2552. “Bell’s Bill” would require every Rhode Islander, age 16 and older, to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19. Failure to comply would result in fines of $50 per month and a doubling of any state income taxes owed. Only with three notarized doctor’s notes could a person claim a medical exemption. Religious exemptions need not apply.

Further, all employers would be forced to police the compliance of their own workers, or face a $5,000 fine per violating employee. A colleague of Bell’s, state senator Jessica De La Cruz, called the legislation “an unconscionable overreach of legislative powers.”

However, after its official submission on March 1, and given the national mood to return to a normal life, free of mandates and full of personal choice, the bill appeared to be going nowhere, as it had not even been assigned a committee hearing date.

But then the Boston Globe started a not-so-subtle attempt to resurrect the bill. Its Rhode Island bureau trotted out a highly discredited poll, ostensibly showing that 64 percent of Rhode Islanders supported a universal vaccine mandate — the sixth-highest rate of any state, the poll claimed.

Immediately, Senator Bell, the most progressive member of the state’s senate and an admitted member of the Democratic Socialists of America, seized upon the Globe’s report and poll, hoping to breathe life back into his bid to impose his vaccine mandate. But he did not suspect that the bill’s tone-deafness, unconstitutionality, and baseless scientific premises were about to be exposed by the parent group.

Some in the local media were quick to support Bell, including a once-credible and respected local host on the state’s largest talk-radio platform, who did his best to address the outcry by inviting Senator Bell on his show. Given the statewide radio platform to publicly explain why he thought his bill was backed by science and was actually “gentle” as compared with what it might have been, the senator falsely claimed that science fully supported mandates for a full regimen of vaccines and boosters. The only objection offered by the host was to the enforcement mechanisms; suggesting instead that the non-vaxed should be restricted in their access to public venues, rather than suffer fines.

But it was too little, too late. The ParentsUnitedRI.com coalition had already sprung into action, activating their rapid-response network. Initial Twitter posts decrying the legislation and its sponsors were relentlessly re-tweeted; the outcry the spilled into prolifically shared Facebook posts, followed by multiple radio guest and call-in spots by parents opposed to the bill, appearances and discussions on my In The Dugout video blog show, and finally to local television-news segments. The story was suddenly everywhere in the state. Within days, many high-profile senate co-sponsors of the bill who were called out by name quickly abandoned ship and publicly withdrew their support.

But the story continued to grow. Given the journalistic appeal of a passionate and motivated grassroots group of parents fighting back against such an outrageous bill, the national media became interested.

As of this writing, it appears that parents have successfully beat down Bell’s bill. However, in Rhode Island, the bill could be called back and fast-tracked at the whim of the senate president anytime before the end of the spring legislation session. But there is likely no political appetite for such a heavy-handed measure, especially in an election year.

There’s a very important moral to this great American story of citizen democracy in action. Despite the seemingly overwhelming strength of the Big Government, the Big Media, and, in this case, the Big Covid cabal, it is the citizenry that still reigns supreme in our country.

Despite an initial period of citizen obeisance that allowed a tide of pandemic-related restrictions to roll in, there has now arisen a new energy of “awokened” citizen vigilance. Citizens across America, and even here in the deep-blue Ocean State, are awakening to the illogic and divisiveness of the woke-Left agenda. They are also awakening to realization of their own power.

But these motivated parents don’t want to limit their energy to just the legislative front. As of this writing, the ParentsUnitedRI.com coalition had already recruited a slate of over two-dozen candidates under their pro-parental rights, nonpartisan brand to run for public office against woke incumbents. From school committee, to town and city council, to our state’s general assembly, and to state and federal office, these candidates and their supporters will present a unified and focused common-sense message to Rhode Island voters.

It remains to be seen whether this energy will be enough to turn the tide electorally in our Ocean State this November. But it is almost certain that the Big Government and woke agenda will no longer be allowed to be implemented, unabated, in the little state of Rhode Island.