A while back, more precisely four weeks ago, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey was busy trying to undermine public health measures and committing impeachable offenses.
Okay, I guess i need to be more precise. He issued several executive orders making mask mandates illegal in school. Then, when they did it anyway, he threatened to withhold funding from them. Despite the fact that a Maricopa County judge ruled a recently-passed law unconstitutional, and pressure from the Department of Justice, Ducey refuses to back down, a move that might make Arizona lose $100 million worth of grant money.
Any way, back to four weeks ago. Ducey has said that he is pro-vaccine, and he has encouraged people to get the Covid vaccine. I decided to call his bluff by contacting his office.
I have a question about your statements about your position on vaccination.
You have repeatedly stated that you are for vaccination, even saying, “We need more people to get vaccinated, but [mask mandates are] not the way to get it done.” So, what is the proper way to get people vaccinated — or even slow the spread of Covid — and how have you taken steps to make this happen?
I have not seen you actually back up those words with any kind of action, such as volunteering at vaccination sites (like Senator Mark Kelly did earlier this year in Tucson).
On the other hand, you have been helping the spread of Covid by your Executive Order prohibiting the establishment of polices designed to slow it; in particular, mask mandates. And you want to enforce this order with financial punishments, which looks like an abuse of power to me (but I am not a lawyer).
As the old saying goes, it is time to put your money where your mouth is.
So I threw down the gauntlet. Here’s his reply:
(I hope that didn’t take too long to read.) The governor and his PR staff have had almost a month to pick up the gauntlet and slap me in the face with it, by mentioning even one thing that Ducey has done to combat Covid. They came up with … nothing. Zip. Nada. Nichts. A big fat goose egg.
Okay, that’s not 100% true. They sent out the usual boilerplate letter right away. But since then, it’s been so quiet that even the crickets haven’t been chirping.