(This Op-Ed was published in the Concord Monitor on 10/04/2021.)
By Andrew J. Manuse, chairman, RebuildNH
Last year the governor took unilateral control during his declared State of Emergency, making detrimental decisions for citizens’ lives and livelihoods, showing by example in modern New Hampshire why our Constitution doesn’t allow one-man rule and why we need elected leaders checking each other’s power who are accountable to the people in three branches of government.
Today, the governor is asking our Executive Council and Legislative Fiscal committee to accept a combined $27 million in federal funds for vaccine propaganda and an unconstitutional vaccine registry that shares individual’s personal medical decisions with federal bureaucrats and comes with other ominous strings attached. By accepting this money, the state would cede all authority to make decisions about public health to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and not even the governor could do anything to stop this federal usurpation of state sovereignty. If a one-man government within the state is wrong for New Hampshire, then contractually handing over authority to an unelected bureaucrat in Washington—not to mention constitutionally-protected private information—to literally control our daily lives is a nightmare scenario waiting to happen.
Our Founders were wise to set up a deliberative body made up of citizen legislators to determine what laws ought to govern our state, and the emphasis in our state Constitution grants these representatives power to protect the rights of citizens and a level-playing field that allows individual liberty and private enterprise to advance the best ideas in a free market of ideas and solutions. No one group of people and their freedom to choose the best outcome for their own lives should ever be impacted by another group’s freedom, or vice versa. Our government is not a Democracy; it’s actually a Republic, where the law is king, and the Constitution defines what laws can be made. This design protects the minority from oppression and discrimination by the majority, and this is the rule of law we all want. At some point, each of us could be in the minority.
The federal government under the Biden Administration is attempting to take complete control over every individual American’s daily life, and they are using our own tax dollars and an obscene amount of debt as a form of bribery to prompt state officials’ agreement. Many other states have already signed up for this program, but we don’t have to be one of them. New Hampshire’s autonomy is important, and our freedom is critical. Our state is in a great position to set an example of how a hands-off government creates better outcomes for free adults who make their own informed choices.
Whether or not you agree with the idea of vaccination in general—or even specifically the COVID-19 vaccinations—should not be a part of this discussion. That’s not what this debate is about. This debate is about the minority’s “natural, essential, and inherent right” to “live free from government intrusion in private or personal information,” a right that 82 percent of the population voted to add to our state’s Constitution as Article 1, Part 2B in 2018. This debate is about an individual’s right to determine what substances are injected into his or her body without fear of persecution or discrimination in society and in the workplace.
Accepting the federal funds would force New Hampshire to comply with the following untenable requirements, among others, as stated in the contract:
- “Comply with existing and/or future directives and guidance from the Secretary regarding control of the spread of COVID-19,”
- “Assist the U.S. Government in the implementation and enforcement of federal orders related to quarantine and isolation.”
- “Further, consistent with the full scope of applicable grant regulations … the recipient is expected to provide to CDC copies of and/or access to COVID-19 data collected with these funds, including but not limited to data related to COVID-19 testing. CDC will specify in further guidance and directives what is encompassed by this requirement.”
Funding 13 propagandists to push vaccination on people who don’t want it and further develop an unconstitutional public government database of individual’s private medical decisions advances a society that discriminates and persecutes people who don’t obey, even without the strings that come with the program. Add the strings, and now federal bureaucrats can order the same type of top-down restrictions we had last year that shut down businesses forever and destroyed the lives and livelihoods of so many of our people, and we will be powerless to stop it. This cannot happen.
New Hampshire cannot commit to a contract that forces the state to give up its sovereignty and violate its own constitution. Any official who votes for such a thing is in violation of the law and ought to be held accountable.
Andrew J. Manuse is chairman of RebuildNH, which is also known as ReopenNH, a grassroots group devoted to restoring the rule of law and rebuilding the economy.
A related story. I called 211, a phone hotline that is operated by NH Health and Human Services specifically to provide information about the covid-19 vaccines. I had a question about the vaccine. The operator asked for my name, phone number, and zip code. When I refused to provide the information—because I object in principle to the way this pandemic has been used to expand government tracking of citizens—the operator said, “This information is required since covid-19 is a public health issue. If you won’t provide the information, then I can’t answer your question. My hands are tied.” Just think about that: they’re trying hard to encourage vaccination, and they have the opportunity to promote vaccination to a citizen, but they actually choose to give up the opportunity rather than take an anonymous question. The tracking is so central to the effort that they can’t give it up. Certainly this $27 million would only expand the surveillance of citizens and further “tie the hands” of New Hampshire to cope with coronavirus or any other issue.