Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a news conference about the opening of a COVID-19 vaccination site at the Hard Rock Stadium on Jan. 6, 2021, in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
By Kipp Jones September 4, 2021 at 8:47am
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida ripped COVID vaccine passports Friday as he continues to navigate his state through a public health emergency that has quickly evolved into a tyrannical crisis.
Since last year, when a novel coronavirus first struck the country, DeSantis has remained a steadfast champion for constitutional liberties.
While governors like Phil Murphy of New Jersey, Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gavin Newsom of California embraced their power over the lives of people, DeSantis stood as a figure that countered big government control.
He survived an early assault by the establishment media in 2020, but now faces a renewed onslaught in the age of the vaccine. The governor won’t sit idly by while people demand to have a say in what other people put into their bodies.
“Vaccine passports … I’m vaccinated and I’m offended that someone would even ask that someone would ask for a piece of paper just to go to a restaurant or just to live life,” the governor said Friday at a news briefing in Pensacola.
“We gotta protect people’s ability to live their lives. I don’t want a biomedical security state in which we have to constantly have to do this,” he added. “Just to live everyday lives. At the end of the day, vaccines have helped people ward off severe illness.”
The comments were made as DeSantis vowed to implement a fine of $5,000 for any company, school or local government that asked people for a vaccine passport, according to WFOR-TV.
While people now have the choice to become vaccinated, federal government cronies, corporate America and the Democratic Party are demanding proof of vaccination. DeSantis, a champion for Floridians, views the issue differently.
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When people called for Florida beaches to be closed last year, DeSantis called for liberty.
When Democrats demanded that schools mask young children, the Republican governor stood in their way.
While many leftists and libertarians have hit the governor for enforcing laws that dictate how private businesses behave, the governor has said that by not acting, he’d already have lost the fight.
It’s no surprise that the GOP rockstar is leading the charge against vaccine passports, which are about the most anti-American thing leftist Democrats and their ilk in academia and “science” could have come up with.
If you could transport yourself back to 2019 and tell people in Florida that in a matter of two years, people would want papers with their personal health information on them, you would have been called crazy. Thankfully, Florida has the right man for the moment.
DeSantis narrowly won the 2018 gubernatorial election against depraved Democratic candidate Andrew Gillum.
Gillum, who according to GQ magazine was caught following a scandalous night spent with a male escort despite having a wife and children, was roughly 32,000 votes away from being governor amid the COVID madness. Could you imagine what Florida might look like today had DeSantis lost?
The Democrat would probably have every citizen of the Sunshine State submitting to an overreaching government.
Thank God Florida picked a man with principles and an appreciation for individual liberty.
If not, Miami Beach would probably look a lot like New York City right now — assuming the Democrat made it though an entire term as governor.
We all saw what happened to Andrew Cuomo. The man was taken down without a single session on Grindr.
Johnathan “Kipp” Jones has worked as a reporter, an editor and a producer in radio, television and digital media. He is a proud husband and father.
Johnathan “Kipp” Jones has worked as an editor and producer in radio and television. He is a proud husband and father.