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Arkansas PoliticsRead

Being Scared – Punishing Liberty

Maybe you are not scared of COVID-19 but most people are. People fear each other, because this virus can be spread through the air and from surfaces touched by a person who doesn’t even know he is infected. Although we have been told the death rate is much lower than expected, no one wants to be a part of that statistic.

To keep hospitals from being overwhelmed by the pandemic, politicians have imposed restrictions ranging from social distancing to prohibiting the opening of a business deemed “nonessential,” to closing churches, to turning back out-of-state-travelers, and even arresting a parent for playing catch with his child in an empty park.

Most of the conversation about the restrictions are either rooted in fear of the virus or rooted in disgust at the many crazy restrictions.

Several states are seeing protesters who are upset with arbitrary rules and who want to go back to work to feed their families. But fearful people reply, “Don’t listen to the protesters. If you loosen restrictions you are a murderer.

We can’t help but think that 99% of the social distancing effort could have been accomplished without arbitrary restrictions by simply asking people to follow the guidelines of the medical experts. But even if that had been effective, it would not have been good enough for those who want politicians to “fix it” no matter how much of a power grab it takes and no matter how much liberty is violated.

On April 15, Tucker Carlson of Fox News interviewed New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (D) Tucker Carlson asked about restrictions mandated by the New Jersey Governor. Carlson asked, “By what authority did you nullify the Bill of Rights in issuing this order, how do you have the authority?” Governor Murphy responded, “That’s above my pay grade, Tucker.  I wasn’t thinking of the Bill of Rights when we did this.” The New Jersey Governor still isn’t thinking about the Bill of Rights.

There have been some lawsuits filed against pandemic orders of various governors, but liberty may lose.  The courts have been busy for two hundred and twenty-eight years explaining away our rights and making up exceptions to our rights.  It won’t be the words of the Bill of Rights that will be the measuring stick used by judges, it will be the judicial precedent of limiting those words that will be used. And the judges — they are not immune from being  guided by the fear of the virus instead of the Constitution.

We want to follow the guidance of the medical experts in trying to slow the pandemic.  We don’t want to lose liberty.

“If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth.” ― Ronald Reagan

 

6 Comments

  1. The second law of thermodynamics applies to liberty also. Good laws decay into bad law. From time to time, liberty must be refreshed and that requires a new commitment from those of us willing to replace our complaints with actionable plans that make sense.

  2. What if “the experts” are wrong? What if none of this was necessary? Can we shut down the country and the world every time a flu comes by because “the experts” say so?

  3. My healthcare is being denied . Diagnostic testing canceled indefinetly and it was only checking for PPMS ????
    My health is being sacrificed for conjecture and possibilities . I’m considered an “unintended consequence” so in other words , my life is expendable . The mammogram that could have caught breast cancer early , canceled til next year . I have trigeminal neuralgia that flares up when I attempt to wear a mask . After removing it even , for hours if not days . It feels as if hornets are constantly stinging my cheek and eyeball . And if I go out without a mask , Karen looks at me like I’m licking old people in the mouth while infected ????????
    There is no longer freedom because how often has the govt gotten smaller . They asked us to flatten the curve then moved the goal poles . That bitch in Michigan should be the future posterchild for socialism . I have had to stand in line to get in the grocery store only to find no meat or canned goods while being told how to go through the store . Didn’t realize that I lived in Venezuela but here I am . This over reactive hysteria needs to end

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