“Panicked Americans surrendered a lot of power during the pandemic,” wrote J.D. Tuccille last Friday. “Now they want their country back.”
On the same day, Matt Welch concluded his somewhat more caustic piece, “They Just Keep Closing Schools and Mandating Masks,” with a warning: “If you think Tuesday was a bad day for Democratic busybodies, let them keep trying to squeeze the walls in on this rat cage of an American life.”
The main theme of these two Reason pieces is about right. Americans got snookered into giving up too much; the only silver lining is that we may have learned a few things.
One lesson? People who talk up “follow the science” are least reliable at relaying scientific findings, much less “following” those findings . . . or sticking to scientific method.
During the pandemic, the Science Pushers lied to us, hid truths, spun us helter skelter, pushed government force willy nilly, and stuck out on limbs with less reason than the hokey pokey.
But, through all the deception, fear-mongering, and downright bullying, one thing became clear: elite pharmaceuticals, bureaucrats, politicians and corporate media shills nurture interests wildly at variance of the American people’s.
For those who have read the economics of Public Choice, X-efficiency, and old-fashioned “political economy,” this is hardly a shocking lesson. It is as familiar as a well-worn slipper.
Yet this lesson, pretty clear to most sane folks, needs driving home. Repetition will help it really sink in.
It’s too important to forget, for it was liberty that Americans surrendered, power being what was unconstitutionally expanded and exercised — making the limiting of government the proper response.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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