~5-7 min read
Comply, but beware of overreach
As of April 2020, the Rubicon has definitely been crossed. It is unmistakably true that a precedent of virtually unlimited state authority has been established in the United States, at least in some places. Different states have varied in the extent to which they have tapped into their police powers. Iowa has not locked down at all, Oklahoma has been pretty lenient, while California and New York have been aggressive. Nonetheless, after this pandemic ends, the experience of totalitarian power, whether mild or severe, will be known to more human beings than ever before in world history. There is something incredibly ominous about that. Hundreds of nations are taking virtually the same actions at the same time regardless of their political makeup or their cultural traditions. It is as if a singular global behemoth is being created before our very eyes. Before the shutdowns occurred, most American citizens probably thought that they would never allow their government to push them around without at least some resistance. How naive. Now that a global pandemic has been thrown into the equation, the American government has brandished the sharpest sword that it has forged since World War I. The people have seen it and they have surrendered quickly. They were too scared of the disease to put up much of a fight anyway.
Once a population becomes familiarized with totalitarian power, they soon grow accustomed to it. As citizens acclimate to the new norms, it becomes much easier for the presiding government to wield its power because the people become much more docile and pliable. A two week “shelter-in-place” becomes an indefinite total lockdown. Guidelines become orders, maybe behind the barrel of a gun. Certainly, other countries have been far more draconian than the United States during this pandemic. In India, police have been beating citizens who venture outdoors with sticks, commanding them to return to their homes. In France, outdoor workouts of any kind have been banned. Comparatively speaking, America’s version of lockdown has been mild, but it has still constituted an unprecedented use of authority in this country.
It is important that American citizens do not allow their civil liberties to be snatched up from beneath their feet even as a public health emergency is taking place. This is not to say that recommendations and guidelines should not be followed. People should be staying home and using common sense to make sure that they are not putting themselves or other people at greater risk of becoming sick. The point is that people should keep a watchful eye on what steps the government is taking. Some individuals are fervently urging the federal government to put the entire country on an extended lockdown and to keep people indefinitely locked in their homes to fight the coronavirus. They seem not to realize that some states are different, and therefore, should act in disparate ways based on how the disease is playing out within their boundaries. The individuals who are clamoring for the executive branch to assume indiscriminate authority seem not to care about state’s rights or the limits of the federal government according to the Constitution. Moreover, they are talking about taking most extreme measures possible without considering the impacts that such drastic decisions would have besides disease prevention.
Truly, it is myopic to become so emotionally wrapped up in the chaos to the point that nothing else matters beyond fighting the coronavirus and “flattening the curve.” People who do so fail to see the big picture. How would such harsh mitigation measures impact the U.S. economy short-term and long-term? How many people will lose their jobs, perhaps for an extended period of time? How many people may go hungry? How many businesses may go bankrupt? How many children would miss out on valuable schooling? How many people will resort to crime or some other recourse out of desperation? What about domestic violence? How many people will commit suicide out of despair and loss of hope? How will the quality and nature of American life be affected in the present and in the foreseeable future?
By Felipe Esquivel Reed – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=87846813
People who have blind faith in the government, and who hastily surrender their personal freedom to a fallible sovereign are playing with fire. Countless examples can be taken from the past wherein empires and nations composed of willing citizens gleefully leaped from cliffs and plunged to their deaths after recklessly believing that they could reach the adjacent plateau. As they fell, their final moments were filled with regret for not properly judging the distance of the jump beforehand. Citizens should always be ready and willing to press the stop button on an overzealous government. An overactive state coupled by a frenzied citizenry is a recipe for disaster.
Brave men and women sacrificed their lives to ensure that modern Americans can enjoy their Constitutional rights. The American values that our predecessors struggled so hard to obtain should not be fulsomely revoked or relinquished when any disaster strikes. That has not happened in the United States, at least not yet. But the citizenry should be on their guard. In the case of the coronavirus, of course it is necessary to use the proper precautions and act as any rational citizen would to limit the spread of the disease. But as the police power of the state is being applied in unprecedented ways to curb the spread of the pandemic, Americans should remain wary of granting the state all of their natural rights in exchange for protection. Fear is a rational human response to danger, but prolonged fear is not. Pervasive interminable panic and hysteria cloud judgement, lead to poor decisions, and increase one’s vulnerability to predatory action. It is in uncertain conditions like a war or a pandemic that the continued existence of the American republic is the most dubious and that is why the American people should remain steadfast and vigilant. In theory, the purpose of the U.S. government is to protect its citizens. But as history has shown, the government has abused that privilege many times over. Elected officials, bureaucrats, and “experts” have betrayed the trust of the American people on many occasions.
While the U.S. political structure is designed to safeguard the rights of the American people, the paradox is that the political apparatus is also run by fallible people, and those people have their own interests in mind. Some of those interests are nefarious. As a result, the government does not always stay true to its stated purpose, and sometimes, fear and confusion among the population is harnessed to consolidate power. When the government permanently enlarges itself in the process of abating a crisis, it does irreparable damage to the principle of popular sovereignty in the United States. As the coronavirus situation continues to unfold, Americans should not allow themselves to be used as pawns in any potential chess game that is being played, nor should they automatically trust and believe every statement that is being given by authorities. Americans should be mentally engaged in every move that the government makes henceforth to ensure that the “emergency” laws and ad hoc statutes for the pandemic do not outstay their welcome and become cemented in the framework of American politics and American life.
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