The Progressives’ ideological DNA orients them to a lust for power. No better example can be found than in Michigan’s Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. She’s currently dithering between clamping down again or opening up under a regime of continuing restrictions such as masking, restaurant dining caps (50), and pleas to get vaccinated. Obviously, opening up means something different to a progressive than a normal person. They just can’t let people be free even when they loosen the reins. If they can get way with it, their reins will still be firmly attached to the popular bridle.
Read about Whitmer in a piece by Ingrid Jacques, deputy editorial page editor at the Detroit News.
Unbeknownst to our mandarins, the vaccine changed the entire virus paradigm. If you took the jabs, you’re risks for getting or spreading the bug are greatly diminished. When sick, the symptoms are manageable. You’re not a super-spreader and not likely to be an occupant of an ICU. You’re free . . . or should be.
If you choose to avoid the shots, it’s totally on you. You attend the public square at your own risk . . . or maybe the threat is still miniscule because of good health, being young, or you possess the antibodies due to prior infection or the fact that you’re just plain biologically gifted. What’s the point to the masking and closures if the means to escape its clutches is abundantly available and the only ones left in the danger zone are those willingly choosing to remain exposed?
If you’re a hypochondriac or borderline obsessive/compulsive, quarantine yourself. Walmart has home delivery and curbside pickup. Amazon and the rest of the online retailers would be happy to take your money without disrupting the tranquility of the couch.
Oh, I can hear the refrain from our progressive brethren that the refuseniks are costing us in higher insurance premiums, federal outlays, and hospital beds. Come on, that’s the “social cost” gambit run amok. It’s a dodge because it has no limiting principle and is therefore a blank check for state control of all aspects of our lives. Robust “social cost” and liberty are the matter and antimatter of a constitutional order.
Risk is a part of life. Get used to it. And some periods have greater risk than others. The Whitmers of our political landscape have no leg to stand on. It comes down to a lust for power by authoritarian busybodies riding under the banner of progressivism.
Jefferson put it quite succinctly: “The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God.”
RogerG