But I still find the whole idea pretty creepy. People who have valid ethical or religious or medical reasons for not getting vaccinated should not be barred from any kind of public accommodation for exercising a fundamental right of conscience. Nor should people be penalized when they might not have easy access to a vaccine. Obviously I hope as many people as possible get vaccinated, but we should respect the rights of those who don’t, whatever we feel about their reasoning.
Also, if people still need additional reasons never to board a cruise ship, well there you have it.
Gail: I must have told you that once, not long after college, I had a summer job working for an advertising company, and as a reward for good work, their client the cruise company gave me a special reward of a weekend Cruise to Nowhere. The boat made circles on Long Island Sound while we were supposed to savor the buffet and shuffleboard contests.
Bret: Memo to Dante Alighieri: There was a 10th circle of hell, and Gail Collins survived it.
Gail: So that turned me against fun on the ocean forever. But about the present. Do you think your crankiness about early childhood education is just part of a general post-Trump reaction against government? I mean, you were really sort of a Biden enthusiast for a few minutes.
Bret: The president is governing much further to the left than his campaign led anyone to expect. I think that’s going to hurt him, just as Bill Clinton’s sharp turn to the left in his first two years nearly sank his presidency and ushered in the Gingrich Revolution. Again, I’m all for childhood education, but the feds were already spending tens of billions on it before Biden came to office. More government does not always equal better government.
Gail: Well, obviously. But I’m pretty confident that in general more early childhood education is a very good thing.
Bret: That being said, it’s nice to have ideological differences with a Biden presidency as opposed to moral differences with the Trump one.
Gail: I was wondering about how the lack of Trump terribleness affected your overall view. Now that he’s gone, do you still find Biden admirable, or are you realizing it was only his non-Trumpedness you liked?