In March 2020, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott responded to the pandemic by following the herd and shutting down “non-essential” businesses across the state. In doing so, he prevented business owners from finding innovative ways to remain open while keeping employees and customers safe. He prevented individuals from judging the risks posed by COVID-19 and then acting accordingly. In early June 2021, when he signed a bill that prohibits businesses from requiring a “vaccine passport” for customers, he again made it illegal for business owners and consumers to act on their own judgment.
In both instances, Abbott usurped the judgment of individual Texans. He imposed his judgment on the entire state, and made actions contrary to that judgment illegal. Greg Abbott thinks that he knows better than you when it comes to how you should live your life.
At the time he signed the “vaccine passport” bill, the governor said in a Twitter post,
Texans should have the freedom to go where they want without any limits, restrictions, or requirements.
If we take Abbott literally, which we should, then restaurants should not be allowed to require a shirt and shoes. Hospitals should not be allowed to limit a patient’s visitors. Amusement parks, zoos, movie theaters, and sports venues should not require individuals to purchase a ticket as a condition of entry. Clearly, the absence of such restrictions and requirements would be preposterous.
Freedom does not mean doing whatever one desires without any limits, restrictions, or requirements. Freedom means an absence of government coercion. It means that one can act on one’s own judgment, so long as one respects the rights of others to do the same.
If a business owner judges that certain requirements for entry onto his property are in his best interest, he has every right to establish and enforce those requirements. If employees or customers judge those requirements to be unacceptable, they are free to go elsewhere. Each individual remains free to judge the situation for himself and act accordingly. Abbott has made it illegal for business owners to act as they think best, and he is using the coercive power of government to do so.
That Abbott has banned “vaccine passports” in the name of freedom is an admission that he doesn’t know what freedom is. But that doesn’t matter to the governor, he has the power to force his judgment on you. After all, Greg Abbott knows better than you.