No. 82 of 108
September 3, 2025
Headline: “Florida moves to end all school vaccine mandates, the first state to do so.”
It is true. States are where government innovation occurs. We just forget that innovation, by its nature, is a neutral thing and can happen forward, backward, sideward, upward and downward towards innumerable ends. We are in a remarkable swing of the federal government riffing off of the most libertarian, conservative, populist, no-rules-and-maximum-enforcement experiments ever undertaken by a handful of states. Just as those who are currently in the winners’ circle were undoubtedly repulsed by the federal government’s riff of the most progressive, liberal, woke, use-rules-and-balance-the-police-state experiments born in a handful of states. It is not enough to riff and double down, and count on rules to hold the course. Well past the time and therefore now is the time for more fundamental and serious conversations, in the commons. Who are We? What do We Stand for? Why? Towards what Ends?