Prove it. Treat Vaccination Passports like Voter IDs.

Americans think the "other guys" cheat to get advantage.

The fight over "election integrity" sounds oddly similar to the fight over "vaccination passports." 

Democrats should re-think their position.


Suggestion: Treat proof of vaccination the same way we treat voting. If you want the privilege of going mask-free or the privilege of voting, you need documentation. Distrust and verify.

The current GOP position is to say that one's vaccination status is nobody's business but one's own. Florida governor Ron DeSantis issued a news release last week announcing "landmark legislation to ban vaccination passports and stem government overreach." He is quoted saying, 

In Florida, your personal choice regarding vaccinations will be protected and no business or government entity will be able to deny you services based on your decision.

In the Fox-Newsmax-GOP media universe the chief value is freedom, personal choice, and medical privacy. They position the communal value of protecting one another from contagion as Democratic, socialist, and authoritarian. "We're generally a country that doesn't approve of requiring you to carry your papers," Alan Dershowitz told a Newsmax TV audience. Tucker Carlson on Fox said if government can track and report vaccines they can move on to HIV status and abortions. 

Another vehicle in farm and ranch country

The CDC put the issue front and center in American politics. It divides the country into two groups. The CDC said fully vaccinated people can safely go maskless indoors in almost all cases. Non-vaccinated people need to wear masks and social distance.  

CDC guidance posits an implausible America, one out of sync with the reality of the politics of COVID. There is significant overlap between people who choose not to be vaccinated and people who are openly and proudly contemptuous of rules regarding masks. These are the people who put stickers on their trucks and cars depicting urinating on Oregon Governor Kate Brown. If vaccinated people can be mask-free and back-to-normal indoors, they won't hesitate to enter mask-free.

An honor-system approach puts most venues in an impossible situation. Armed and uniformed TSA officers have the status to demand compliance; a minimum-wage employee at the door of a grocery or department store does not. The solution would be a third-party document--a passport.

This issue takes place simultaneously with a second issue on the national stage--"election integrity." The same people who oppose vaccination passports are pushing laws in most states to require stronger documentation for voting. Proving oneself to be a legal voter is just common sense, they say. Proving oneself to be eligible to enter indoor spaces without spreading infection is tyranny. There is mental justification--election laws are just and COVID rules are unjust.

My card

Of course, the disconnect goes the other way, too. Leading Democrats who support the country's governors' mandates to mask up, have termed GOP efforts to tighten voter ID requirements as voter suppression and tyranny.

Distrust. A majority of Republican officeholders and voters, led by Trump's assertion that he got far more votes than Biden, distrust Democrats and elections. They think Democrats have an incentive to cheat, to the disadvantage of the general public. Therefore, the responsible thing is to demand good documentation for voting.  Meanwhile, Democratic officeholders and the COVID-concerned distrust COVID minimizers. They think COVID minimizers have an incentive to cheat, to the disadvantage to the public health, so the responsible thing is good vaccination documentation.

There is a logically and morally consistent solution to this distrust: Treat both issues equally. Democrats need to re-think their position on voter IDs. Democrats are out of touch with the post 9-11 mindset. People have become accustomed to showing ID. Democratic arguments that it is too much of a burden gives the powerful impression that they are hiding something. Give it up. They could advocate for equal rules on voting and vaccinations.

Hospital confirmation

People who want the public privileges of vaccination, but who lie about it, might face exactly the same penalties as people lying about voting. In Oregon it is a Class A misdemeanor, subject up to 364 days in jail and a $6,250 fine, or both. We need not fill up our jails with vaccination scofflaws--fines would be a better, revenue-positive result. We could do spot checks and round ups, verified by in-store videos of people inside but un-masked. These would be easy cases to prosecute. Either people have a record of vaccination or they do not. In the first few days there would be tens of thousands of people to arrest, then it would dry up. The word would quickly spread of the danger of cheating. 

Such an approach works best for Democrats if they simultaneously embrace voter integrity as a Democratic value. Pair the issues. It would spotlight the GOP inconsistency, and put Democrats back into a consistent position in favor of enforcing integrity in government,  In the aftermath of the January 6 insurrection, the battle lines between Democrats and Republicans are best framed by Democrats as Democrats valuing elections versus Republicans who are willing to overthrow the government if their side loses. That is a winner for Democrats. 

A loser for Democrats is if the issue is framed as Democrats wanting "trust-people-because-nobody-cheats" elections versus Republicans who want well-run ones. That is a frame that Republicans win, because people assume bad motives and behavior. Democrats need to be on the side of well-run elections.  Americans simply don't trust one another not to cheat. Democrats should accept that reality and work with it.

Democrats should get consistent.