MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Of all the Mid-South’s governors, Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas has appeared to be the most reasonable in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hutchinson has not spouted nearly as much partisan political vitriol as his Republican counterparts in Tennessee and Mississippi over mask mandates in schools or vaccine requirements in the workplace. In fact, the leadership displayed by Mississippi governor Tate Reeves and Tennessee governor Bill Lee has been disappointing at best and shameful at worse.
And yet, Hutchinson took the easy way out this week when he refused to sign into law a couple of bills allowing employees to opt out of vaccine mandates. If the governor really wanted to take a strong stand about the need of employers to insist that workers get vaccinated, he would have vetoed the bills – and forced the legislature to override them.
Instead, the bills will simply become law without his signature – which might be a symbolic statement on his part – but nothing more.
To his credit, Hutchinson has been more forceful that other area governors in trying to lead people in his state out of the pandemic. And he is a strong supporter of everyone getting the vaccine. But Republican controlled legislatures in the Mid-South and other mostly southern states are clearly putting politics ahead of public safety, and it’s costing lives.
I can only hope that voters in every state will remember this at the next election.