It appears we’re entering the phase of the pandemic when even the pettiest of tyrants are beginning to see the absurdity of their mandates. But don’t give them full credit just yet. With the public pressure mounting and tolerance for bureaucratic edicts waning, they didn’t really have a choice.

Look no further than Washington, D.C. This week, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that the district-wide vaccine mandate for restaurants, bars, gyms, and other entertainment venues would come to an end on Feb. 15, just one month after its enactment. The indoor mask mandate now expires on Mar. 1.

While I’m certainly thrilled these mandates are being canceled and allowed to expire, I must ask, did this happen because Mayor Bowser finally saw the light when it comes to the ridiculous nature of vaccine and mask mandates? Was that the reason for the quick reversal? Or did she see the writing on the wall that spelled out a tale of protest and noncompliance?

I say it’s the latter. The truckers in Canada have certainly made their point. Imagine if D.C. workers and families resisted!

Washington is the capital of what is supposed to be the freest country in the world. A mandate that forces you to prove vaccination status before eating at a restaurant or working out in a gym doesn’t sound like freedom at all. That’s why, last month, I introduced legislation to repeal the indoor vaccine mandate in D.C. The D.C. government should be in the business of protecting and cultivating business opportunities, not conscripting private owners to be the vaccine police.

There’s still work to be done, though. The Big Board is a D.C. restaurant and bar that was recently shut down because it refused to have staff act as enforcers of the government’s discriminatory policies. My staff and I dined there the night they were shut down. It was heartbreaking to hear how horrible the D.C. government has been to owner Eric Flannery.

As he told several of the media in attendance that night, he “decided that this bar was going to be what it is, which is a place where everybody is welcome.” I’m really proud of him and supportive of what he’s doing. He essentially said, my individual liberty is worth the price even of losing my business.

That invites the question, though: How have we gone from shutting down a small business for refusal to submit to unscientific mandates to lifting those same mandates just a few weeks later? According to recent reports, The Big Board’s liquor license will continue to be indefinitely suspended. That’s not just ridiculous, it’s retaliatory. They dared to resist, so now they will be punished even after the restrictions are gone.

If this weren’t such a shameless display of hypocrisy, it would almost be laughable that these same mayors and bureaucrats who killed off businesses with their Fauci-ist decrees are now coming around to where the rest of the nation has been for the last two years.

The general public is over the pandemic, plain and simple. The weather is getting warmer, and people are getting restless. Most folks are ready to stop living their lives around a virus that isn’t actually avoidable because it infects vaccinated and unvaccinated people alike.

We’re also starting to see signs that the high and mighty elites may finally be tired of explaining away their “masks for thee but not for me” theatrics. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti didn’t even pretend to hold his breath this time when photographed maskless at the Super Bowl.

This is the time to keep resisting. Your government and local leaders are watching closely. They certainly don’t want a trucker convoy moving throughout the United States or protests to erupt like they have throughout Europe. (If you haven’t heard about the protests in Europe, you can thank the media for refusing to cover them – they don’t want you to see that others are also refusing to comply.)

Keep up the pressure. I know I will. Our liberties and freedoms are at stake.

You can read the op-ed HERE.