By Stephanie Innes | Arizona Republic
An Arizona legislator is likening state messages encouraging residents to get the COVID-19 vaccine to communism.
The COVID-19 vaccine is not mandatory in Arizona. But on digital billboards situated on state highways, the state has been urging residents to get vaccinated as a way of returning to normal life.
State Sen. Kelly Townsend, a Republican from Mesa, shared on social media last week that she thinks the signs are government overreach and similar to China, which has a one-party government — the Communist Party of China.
“Want to return to normal? Get vaccinated,” says the digital billboard message that Townsend photographed and included in a tweet on Thursday.
“Seen in Communist China today,” Townsend wrote in the tweet accompanying the photo. “Oops, I mean Arizona.”
The Oxford Dictionary defines communism as a political theory derived from Karl Marx that advocates class war leading to a society where property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs.
