OPINION:
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is taking a lot of heat for daring to go where no other state has gone before — by gasp! opening his state back up for business, even as the rest of the country’s political leaders sit on pins and needles, waiting for word, any word, any word at all that says it’s safe to get back to work, that the coronavirus won’t kill.
But what Kemp is really doing is something called Leadership.
He’s taking the current situation in his state, weighing it against the best available facts and figures and assessments, assessing the safety of citizens versus the needs of citizens — health risks versus economic devastations, for example — and coming up with a conclusion that works for Georgians.
He’s bravely bucking the cover-your-butt trend of politicians, the cover-your-a— really, or CYA, and tossing that moniker to the side for the betterment of his state and state’s citizens. If only other nail-biters in the political world would step out in this same manner, maybe America’s economy wouldn’t still be tanking.
Maybe fathers playing at the park with their little kids wouldn’t still face handcuffing and arrest.
“I spent all weekend working with Dr. Toomey, who’s a great epidemiolog[ist] — a great public health official, one of the best I think in the country,” Kemp said, on a recent Fox News segment with anchor Martha MacCallum, Mediaite reported. “I did not make this decision without her support. We pored over this data. We’re looking at all kind of different models. I’ve had hospital CEOs that I’ve been in contact with that reached their peak way back on April 6.”
And here’s a key to Kemp’s common sense post-coronavirus strategy: He has faith in the people.
Of fitness center owners, for example, he said this: “I have great confidence in them spreading people out when they are doing a workout.”
Of people who might consider going to their fitness center, he said this: “If people don’t want to go, they don’t have to go.”
In other words: The people aren’t stupid. The business owners aren’t stupid. The people and business owners of Georgia are quite capable of protecting themselves from getting sick, or spreading sickness to others, or staying at home if they want to protect self and others. He might as well have added, “thank you very much.”
Because that’s true.
And that’s not only true in Georgia.
It’s true around the nation.
People around the nation are quite capable of deciding how best to protect against a virus — and people around the nation ought to have the right to make that decisions themselves, absent the overbearing nanny guidance of politicians.
America’s well aware of coronavirus. Americans are well aware of how to protect against coronavirus.
The fact that other governors in other states besides Kemp in Georgia are having difficulty translating that fact into political reality — and, in the face of dwindling coronavirus threats, opening businesses and rescinding executive orders that limited human movement and interaction — shows one of two things: A) they’re reluctant to cede back the powers they stole from the people or B) they’re afraid of the potential for bad press.
They’re afraid that a coronavirus case might crop and the media will swoop and the negative coverage will start and their reputations will be tainted — along with their political careers.
That’s fine; that fear is based a bit on truth. The media has been a horrible fueler of panic in this whole coronavirus time.
But CYA is not a political platform.
Kemp is blazing a good trail that other governors should follow.
Politicians are supposed to fall on the side of supporting the Constitution, after all. In the end, that’s the real CYA upon which they should be focused.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE.
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