OPINION:
The government, on COVID-19, has gone amok; on that, there is no question. But a question that does arise is this: Who’s in charge here, anyway?
It’s supposed to be the people.
COVID-19 has made it the government.
And American citizens need to fight, fight, fight on this point or forever after cede the notion of rights coming from God — and forever after deal with the insufferable fate of asking, petitioning, cajoling, even begging government for permissions that just a few months ago weren’t needed.
This is the “new normal” of citizen-government relations, amid coronavirus chaos. And it’s ridiculous; American citizens know how to wash their hands and protect their selves and loved ones from a virus. The growing nanny state disagrees. The growing police state has found its wedge for power.
“California bans private gatherings amid record COVID-19 surge,” Reuters just wrote in a headline.
The state’s already been struggling under onerous coronavirus dictates — minus the hypocritical governor, Gavin Newsom, of course, who has ordered residents to stay home at the same time he parties it up with friends and family and lobbyists in cushy restaurant style, face mask free. But this week, with COVID-19 case counts on the rise, new lockdowns, new crackdowns, new infringements on individual freedoms are coming.
Small businesses are preparing for more storms. And it’s the uncertainty that’s really killing.
As Pacific Legal Foundation wrote, “The dire situation these small business owners face is bad enough. But what should frighten all of us is there is simply no end in sight to the continued shutdowns. Since March, Newsom has unilaterally adopted one shutdown and reopening scheme after another, repeatedly changing his mind about what businesses are allowed to open and how, and he shows no indication of stopping. Indeed, the governor has made it clear … he does not anticipate the state returning to normal any time soon.”
Not until every small business owner has been shut down, put on the taxpayer dole. Right?
This is abysmal.
And it’s a scenario that’s being replicated in spots across the country — mostly in Democratic-controlled spots where it’s ultimately exposed that the Democrats in charge of issuing the crackdowns aren’t holding themselves accountable to the same standards. They’re stealing citizens’ rights, but not ceding their own. They’re ordering what they themselves won’t obey.
They’re not just lousy leaders. They’re not just hypocritical leaders.
They’re tyrants.
And they must be stopped — because tyrants, historically speaking, don’t just wake up one day and repent of their tyranny. They only grow more and more emboldened, more and more tyrannical.
What’s inspiring is that many across America are realizing just that — and yes, fighting back.
” ’I suggest you not wear your mask’: Bedford Co. citizens fight against Northam, COVID-19,” one ABC 13 News headline out of Virginia stated.
“Some Southern California business owners will defy governor’s coronavirus shutdowns order,” the Orange County Register just wrote.
“Restaurant Holdouts Defy Covid-19 Shutdown Orders,” The Wall Street Journal just reported, of a handful of small business owners in Illinois.
The more who buck the government, the more who rebel against the unconstitutional government mandates — which aren’t laws, but rather executive orders — the more emboldened the buckers and rebels will become, and the greater in number the group of buckers and rebels will grow.
More civil disobedience. More fight-the-power pushback. More, more, more citizen uprisings against overreaching government.
That’s the only way the scales of power will then begin to tip back where they belong: in the hands of the people. On freedom, in America, the default is the individual.
• 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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