The Coronavirus Narrative: What Happens When We Mix the Government’s Job with the Individual’s Job

I read a tweet the other night. It said:

“Who you should be mad at when you miss college football this fall:

1. NCAA

2. Universities/Presidents/ADs

3. Trump/Trumpsters/Clay Travis/Aubrey Huff/Any mouth breath who encouraged you to go out without masks as a means of political expression.”

Now, as a diehard Clemson Tiger, I certainly do NOT want college football to be canceled. 🤦‍♀️ It’s rather absurd to think that there is a possibility for it to be canceled. However, I was perplexed when I read this tweet. The fact that there have been protests and riots, non-stop, around the country, was not even one of the options.

I looked at the tweeted replies and had to keep scrolling and scrolling to find one person who finally mentioned the protests and riots as another possibility for a “spike” in cases that could end up causing college football to be canceled.

I was puzzled. Just pure, plain, logic would seem to lead people to believe that mass gatherings of people all around the country for months on end might, just might, play a little role in the supposed “spike” in cases the U.S. is seeing—in some areas.

Two Realities

Although I know it to be true, it sometimes hits me harder than I expect. Americans really are operating in two different worlds. One group is being fed one agenda and one storyline, while another group is being fed an entirely different agenda and storyline.

It’s a little horrifying. How can we all be “Americans” if we read and watch completely different “facts”, “statistics” and “views”.

Seriously, things have gotten to the point now that people in the medical and scientific communities are saying completely opposite things. Go to one news source and you’ll find doctors referenced who say that masks and social distancing is incredibly important, that the coronavirus is deadly, and that hydroxychloroquine is dangerous. Go to another news source and you’ll find doctors referenced who say that mask wearing is actually worse for the community, that social distancing doesn’t even work anyway or that people should be around each other or their immune systems will be compromised from lack of exposure, that the coronavirus is merely a less lethal flu, and that hydroxychloroquine is a vital resource for helping people with the coronavirus.

And what do these constant mixed messages do to the American public? They destroy any hope of compromise or reasoned discussion. If one side presents “facts” to support their angst and arguments and then the other side presents “facts” in return to support their angst and arguments, there is no middle ground.

(I’m going to say this: if hydroxychloroquine turns out to actually work and the media and poltiicians who are vehemently arguing against it knew that it worked and have intentionally been lying to the American public because it doesn’t fit their agenda for the coronavirus to end yet, they are pure evil.)

A few problems about these disagreements in the scientific and medical community:

• THESE SCIENTIFIC ARGUMENTS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH GOVERNMENT.

• Constitutionally, the government has no, absolutely no, right to tell Americans how to take care of themselves or manage their health. That’s far too much power for government to have.

• Disagreements among researchers is healthy and normal, but it now has taken a political slant because government has far overstepped its job. Its job has never been, nor is, nor ever should be, to keep people healthy. The American system gives freedom so that the medical and scientific communities can freely research and produce to help keep people healthy.

• If the government were in its proper place and the American public was simply left to decide which studies to believe and how to run their lives (in other words, no politics involved), such a discussion would like be a fair and honest portrayal of both sides. As a political issue, the media silences and destroys any who disagree with their agenda.

• Human nature is nowhere accounted for in any of these political/medical arguments.

We’ve taken and egregiously conflated two very distinct issues: the coronavirus and health and government/politics.

These two do not and never should intermingle. When they do, we’re banking on the “goodness” of our government officials. And friends, if you think our public officials have our best interest in mind (I don’t care for which party they represent) you are grossly naive. Power corrupts. Those in power want to keep power. The best way to keep power is to keep people afraid and to take away individual responsibility and freedom.

Patrick Henry warned: “Show me that age and country where the rights and liberties of the people were placed on the sole chance of their rulers being good men, without a consequent loss of liberty! I say that the loss of that dearest privilege has ever followed, with absolute certainty, every such mad attempt.”

John Adams said: “There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.”

And Samuel Adams argued: “Power is intoxicating; and Men legally vested with it, too often discover a Disposition to make an ill Use of it and an Unwillingness to part with it.”

Since when did we forget this? Since when did we, Democrats and Republicans alike, begin to believe that government actually has our best interest at heart?

We should only want government to be responsible for our health if we believed they had our best interest at heart.

American’s mindset is completely out of whack. I want to pull my hair out when I hear people say things like “Well our governor needs to do more. Or, the president needs to do more”.

No.

In the same way that it is not the government’s job to prevent the common cold from spreading, or stop the flu, it is not the government’s job to stop the coronavirus. It is not the government’s job to solve our problems. Our health is our problem, our education is our problem, our wealth is problem. That’s the point of liberty. That’s the reason for such limited government power. If you’ve read my blog posts on the Constitution, you will remember that the federal government’s job is severely limited, while state governments are only slightly more powerful.

Why? Because government only exists for one thing. To protect our private property. Thus, the Constitution gave specific limitations to Congressional power—in order to enhance individual power.

When we mix the government’s job with the individual’s job or medical community’s job, we reap the divisiveness and “two different worlds” reality that we are living in today.

What if, instead of the politicalization of everything, government did nothing about the coronavirus and it was completely left to the medical community to figure out how to solve this problem, unhampered by regulations? How different would that be? What if people were responsible for themselves and began to work together to follow what the medical community finds and produces? What if local doctors and hospitals worked to take care of their own communities and local communities took care of themselves?

Conclusion

Listen friends, good, bad or wrong, I’m ready to be done with this whole coronavirus ordeal. I’ve about had enough. It’s the weirdest experience I’ve ever personally walked through. I’m ready to move on. I’m tired of watching the government squeeze out every drop of power from the cornavirus that they possibly can. I’m tired of watching people take it. I’m tired of watching governors turn into mini-dictators, relishing their power. I’m tired of communities asking for it. I’m tired of watching Americans be run by fear rather than liberty and responsibility. I’m tired of Americans turning to government to “take away their fear” instead of turning to their churches, hospitals and local communities. I’m tired of medical issues being politicized. I’m tired of people believing that government actually cares about them. I’m tired of Americans refusing to educate themselves about both sides of the political debate and I’m tired of Americans refusing to educate themselves about government’s job in the first place.

And lastly, I’m tired of the Constitution being ignored and trashed.

Jefferson said: “Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy, and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power; that our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no farther, our confidence may go”

Ah, if only more Americans knew, understood and believed in such a statement.

The Liberty Belle