Conservative Bulwark columnist Charlie Sykes is furious after watching a weekend's worth of Americans flocking to public places whether even if states haven't fully reopened.
Such was the case with one Castle Rock, Colorado restaurant where the owner admitted they had to do something or they'd lose the restaurant. She may now lose her business license for violating the orders. But at least people got to have their over-priced eggs.
Americans are telling pollsters they aren't ready for everything to reopen and they're continuing to worry about the risks they face. At the same time, however, they're done being cooped up in the house.
"Visits to fast-food restaurants and gas stations have already returned to their pre-coronavirus baselines in rural regions, Foursquare reported. While suburban and urban areas are still below normal, those areas have seen 15 percent growth since the end of March," Sykes quoted from Reason magazine.
It is understandable that people want their lives back. But as Dr. Anthony Fauci testified before the Senate Tuesday, returning to normalcy before we're ready “will not only result in needless suffering and death, but would actually set us back on our quest to return to normal.”
Presumably, that's why President Donald Trump has taken to drafting Americans into the "war" against the coronavirus. "Warriors" are well aware they might die in the line of duty.
"That chorus has been taken up by other 'thought leaders' who conflate American Greatness with going to Arby’s; and who seem to have confused recklessness with courage, and freedom with me-firstism," Sykes wrote. "This is not how healthy societies respond to a crisis."
Breaking the law to have brunch isn't a brave sacrifice for our country, Sykes argues it's a selfish move by people sick of the sacrifice to protect others.
"Imagine for a moment London during the Blitz, and thousands of residents simply decided to turn on the lights and open the shades because they were tired of the blackout," wrote Sykes. "Imagine a nation in the grips of a plague where the public decided that only cucks took precautions . . . oh, wait. The essential element in all of this is voluntary compliance. There are simply not enough cops, not enough bureaucrats, and not enough monitors for it to be otherwise."
There is no longer a call for a common purpose and sacrifice. An America bound to a social contract has fallen to a world of MAGA-hat wearing protesters flocking to the nearest sneeze-guard.
"Conservatives used to understand this," Sykes remembered with longing. "Insisting on responsible self-government is not the opposite of freedom, it is the essential predicate. Freedom-oriented conservatives used to argue that individuals and non-governmental institutions would act in their rational self-interest and would do a better and more effective job than bureaucratic top-down fiats."
He then noted that the decision by the president and others not to wear a mask is just another in a long line of selfish behaviors.
"Obviously, this breakdown is going to have huge consequences, because the key to fighting the pandemic is not simply technical (testing and tracing) but also political and social," wrote Sykes.
Stanford professor Keith Humphreys noted that experts haven't yet grappled with the idea that there are Americans who will be unwilling to be tested and refuse to self-isolate.
"Here is his kicker: In a mobile nation like ours, 'you can’t build a ‘no peeing’ section in the swimming pool,” Sykes cited Humphreys. He predicted that the result will be that the United States will be forced to use a herd immunity approach because people are unwilling to make the sacrifice to save others.
"Meanwhile, even as COVID-19 spreads through his own White House, Donald Trump will never wear a mask," Sykes closed.
