As we fight through the long days of April, we will have to resist every day those who would like to turn our national fight against the coronavirus into a political weapon.
Political disagreements should always be addressed, but there will be no respite from the blame game, where counterproductive rehashes of what various leaders did or did not do weeks or even months ago will not abate. The main attacks will be absorbed by the Trump administration and Republican governors who did not immediately dance to the choruses of shutdowns that filled the air as the pandemic threat began to mount. But Democrats will also be criticized, especially as New York and California grapple with the toll on their populations.
The record will show that leaders who moved early on to restrictive policies will be seen as possessing prophetic wisdom, from California Gov. Gavin Newsom to Republican Gov. Mike Dewine of Ohio. But April America is not the same patch of America it was a few weeks ago. We don’t have a full-blown stay-at-home order, but we do have a powerful federal stay-at-home recommendation from every vote in the daily White House briefings that have become a staple of late-night television.
We are a cooperative nation today, and we likely will remain so for some time. There are pockets of protest, as some wonder when the government’s extraordinary powers might become a contentious violation of various constitutional rights. But there is little evidence of growing American anxiety. We are suffering, but there is a consensus that our voluntary economic shutdown was, if not necessary, then at least prudent in the face of the virus’s mounting death toll.
It has required leaps of faith and trust that are often difficult to find in our relationships with government. The normal American appetite for cynicism has been largely curbed as we listen to leaders recite a litany of things we must not do if we are to protect our fellow citizens.
But what long-term plans do some of these leaders have for when the threat has passed enough for us to be able to leave our homes, restart our halted lives, and rebuild our shattered economies?
The term you may hear is “new normal.” This may be a reference to the duration of our current misery or an anticipation of what awaits us in a changed nation. The term should be rejected in both applications.
There is nothing normal about these times when we are risking our livelihoods to save lives. This will not last forever. It would be better if it did not last until summer. As long as it does, it should be seen as an extraordinary and entirely transient aberration caused by circumstances we hope to never see again.
We must also reject the notion that America will be forever changed after the coronavirus, warped to a “new normal” level of government control over our lives. I would never suggest that the left rejoices in the carnage caused by this virus, but it is certainly exploiting it in its quest to replace the president with a Democratic successor. That may or may not happen, but regardless of the results on November 3rd, rest assured that the current repression of American freedom is a delicious feast of experimentation for those who lament that conservative victories, whether they come from the Reagan era or three years of Trump, are a disease that requires the vaccination of progressivism.
Their dream is for us to be so enthralled by the loosening of the iron grip of federal and local laws that we will barely notice the abuses they seek to maintain indefinitely.
Governor Newsome’s Wednesday press conference included the question of whether the virus and its accompanying shackles on citizens offer “an opportunity for more progressive steps at the national and state levels.”
“The answer is yes,” Newsom replied, musing on “the opportunity to reimagine a more progressive era with respect to capitalism.” Identifying as a capitalist, as virtually the entire left will do in an attempt to cover up attacks on economic freedom, Newsom concluded: “We see this as an opportunity to transform the way we do business and the way we govern.”
In his response, he used two adverbs that should send shivers down the spines of freedom lovers: “systemic” and “sustainability.” The former referred to the desire to extend government control to all levels, the latter to the intention for it to last forever.
Bathed in the spotlight that would naturally fall on the governor of a state that has recorded more than a third of the nation’s coronavirus cases, New York’s Andrew Cuomo also spoke nostalgically of systemic change: “We should start looking to the future to understand how this experience changes us, or how it should change us, because it will be transformational. It will be transformational on a personal level, a societal level, a systemic level. We will never be the same again.”
Let us pause to assess what lasting change would be desirable. If we focus on a modern discovery of God, a modern ordering of personal priorities, and a modern appreciation of our families and communities, that would be wonderful. Somehow I do not think that is what the Democrats in power at the federal and city levels have in mind.
“When are we going to get back to normal?” Cuomo asked. “I don’t think we’re going to get back to normal. I think… we’re going to get back to a new normal.”
I intend to return to the very normal that was ripped from us weeks ago. I will fight to make sure that no one, from my local district courthouse to the state capitol to the halls of federal power, tries to accustom me to some “new normal” that includes any vestige of government control.
In fact, once I enjoy this blessed status quo that I will never again take for granted, I plan to find ways to improve it. If there are any virus-based lessons to be learned from this chapter in government life, they should be how many of them we can get around. While Americans tend to our wounded family finances, the government should confront the forced austerity that will devastate our households.
If this terrible chapter in our history is to change us, let it be a change that makes us a better society – our people more grateful and less belligerent, our families more tightly knit, our churches more crowded.
The liberal legacy of never letting a crisis go to waste is already starting to work, hands rubbing in anticipation of a compliant America. When we are done fighting this virus, we need to make sure we still have the energy to fight the opportunistic instincts of anyone seeking a progressive “new normal.”
