Americans growing impatient with heavy-handed authoritarianism

America: The land of the free and home of the brave.

But you would never guess that by how our nation has responded to a virus threat – even after the Armageddon the so-called experts predicted didn’t come to pass. Thankfully, President Trump acted Thursday to outline a return to normalcy in our society.

But in emerging protests across the nation, Americans are making it clear they are growing impatient with heavy-handed emergency authoritarianism. Especially as this virus has not followed the doom and gloom predictions of so-called experts.

Not even close to the 2.2 million initially predicted.

#NSTworld There have been scattered #protests in several #US states this week against #lockdown measures aimed at halting the spread of the highly contagious #virus. #Covid19https://t.co/VdDthPVHn6

— New Straits Times (@NST_Online) April 17, 2020

While the lives lost to this virus so far are certainly tragic, those losses are no less a tragedy than the lives lost because of the economic shutdown of the country. Suicides are up. The economy is in a shambles. Lives are being ruined.

You can’t destroy a person’s livelihood and offer them little or no hope and expect at least some of them not to respond to over-the-top tyrannical edicts from a governor or mayor. Or perhaps to petty coronavirus rule enforcement by an over-eager law-enforcement officer.

What do you mean I can’t buy a car seat for my new baby? Or go fishing? Or jog alone on the beach. 

Thankfully, surprisingly, our politicos here in Illinois haven’t actually gone off the deep end with tyrannical decrees via executive order as has Michigan. So far. And cops have shown prudent restraint, respecting the Constitution more than social distancing “rules.”

Other states? Well Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer seems to come out with a new prohibition every other day.

Beginning Friday, people aren’t allowed to travel between homes they own in Michigan or to vacation rentals, and large retail stores must cordon off areas dedicated to furniture, gardening and paint, which aren’t viewed as essential supplies. https://t.co/RSB2LDwiJe

— The Detroit News (@detroitnews) April 10, 2020

From “The Worst Governor in America” at The American Spectator…

…Among the complaints was that Whitmer had prohibited sale of seeds and other garden supplies at a time when vegetable gardens need to be planted. Executive Order 2020-42 is titled, “Temporary requirement to suspend activities that are not necessary to sustain or protect life,” and it is quite specific about which activities are and are “not necessary.” Stores with “more than 50,000 square feet” (e.g., Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot) are ordered to close areas of the store “by cordoning them off, placing signs in aisles, posting prominent signs, removing goods from shelves, or other appropriate means” that sell carpet or flooring, furniture, and “garden centers and plant nurseries.” So if grandma went to Walmart for groceries and hoped to pick up some tomato plants or cucumber seeds while she was there — sorry, grandma! You could get a thousand-dollar fine and 90 days in jail for disobeying Whitmer’s orders.

No buying flags in MI. This is Costco.🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/n5ouXjzJ4M

— Pure Michigan Girl (@PureMichGirl) April 12, 2020

.@GovWhitmer has banned us from growing our own food. This is fucking insane. pic.twitter.com/qOGMsBBVXJ

— Whatevs II (@joesichspach) April 10, 2020

Gov. “Half” Whitmer also banned motorized watercraft. But canoes are just fine in her world.

Yes, some like Champaign, Illinois’ mayor and city council have given themselves sweeping new powers in an illegally convened council meeting. As have plenty of other Illinois towns and cities reacting similarly to what turned out to be faulty predictions and models.

But these local governments haven’t actually implemented their self-appointed authoritarian “powers.” That has probably saved a more than few lives and kept everyone’s families safer.

The worst of these political “leaders” threaten people with arrest for attending church or buying mulch while releasing violent prisoners and jail populations. Furloughing or releasing prisoners because they might be infected does not make for good public policy. Nor does it make our families safer.

Furthermore, we as a nation need to ask questions of our leaders — city, state and federal — before we blindly comply with unlawful orders attempting to strip people of their Constitutional rights. Especially people who aren’t infected with the Chinese virus.

Those who enforce these unlawful orders would be wise to ponder their oath before implementing enforcement of Constitutionally faulty orders against healthy people.

And here’s why: Because the people will soon rise up against police if they see cops enforcing a “stay at home” order by cuffing a father playing T-ball with his 6-year-old daughter by themselves in a park somewhere. Or imposing house arrest upon healthy people listening to a church sermon in their cars at their local church.

First, the uprising will take place with angry phone calls, letters and public condemnation. Eventually, if and when the soapbox uprising fails, a cartridge box uprising could be next.

And nobody wants to see that happen.