“There will come a day when a governor demands that all people wear masks when outdoors.”
If I had heard such a startling line of nonsense a year ago I would have suspected the speaker of inhaling something other than a virus. It seems like something that transcends even the grimy fog of D.C. arrogance and overreach. I mean, dare an elected official demand that the public place something over their faces when outside of their homes? Ever? For any reason?
Well, it happened. Gina Raimondo, The wretched Regina of Rhode Island, stood in all of her glory before the peasantry and declared that the very air from our lungs was toxic to her state. Those wishing to stroll the scenic streets of the Ocean State will cover their septic orifices with some means of environmental protection. The CAFE Standards of cough were unceremoniously levied upon the laymen sans the mundane work of unruly science or representative government. That would take far too long to deploy during this second Black Plague.
Lest we, the unwashed, think to complain, Gina cut that whining off at the pass. Her admonishing couldn’t be complete without the Democrat pledge of allegiance.
“We have to embrace new ways of living our life so we can live with the virus…” and “We need to really accept that the virus is here to stay with us for at least a year until a vaccine or therapy is developed. Accept that we are going to have to live within new limits and start to get creative and figure out how to live our lives and run our businesses within those limits.”
It seems that everything that happens is a reason to change our freedoms and liberties. It seems that everything that occurs in nature and in the daily interactions of mankind requires the intervention of these larger than life, heroic beings. Where would we be without someone to issue planet saving platitudes and virus killing edicts? We would be in that “dangerous” land of the free and the home of the brave.
I realize that hip-booted thugs aren’t frog marching convicted free breathers to solitary confinement. I get that the Brown Shirts aren’t storming the homes of those deemed unacceptable to the state. I also get that the seeds of an oak tree aren’t sixty feet tall. They don’t have to be. All that is required is time and compliance…I mean nourishment. They’ll get there some day.
But insidious incrementalism has hit a growth spurt and is testing its taproot on the foundations of individual liberty at the speed fear. Some may find it a harmless sprig of caution. Some may regard this as nothing more than the bumbling brambles of ineptitude in a few state leaders. The thorns, they assume, can be plucked out after we get where we are going. That is a personal determination, at this moment. Those that make such assumptions may believe what they wish.
As for me, I see it as a team working to reach the same end zone that they have always hoped to reach. They don’t have to meet up in a huddle. No one hauls the adoring democrat fanbase aside and instructs them on the appropriate time to rise and shout their approval or dismay. The collectivist team just moves the ball east…Way east.
In the meantime, our team sits in a knitting circle talking about the rude behavior of the one that didn’t make it to this session. “Peggy Sue, Did you hear about those Conservatives speaking out and demonstrating in the streets like common patriots? The nerve!” Heck, we might even state for the record that democrats are mean. My goodness. What will the neighbors say about us?
This weak willed, jelly spined, knitting circle, bow to the fear of the day kind of citizenry will never maintain freedom. This will nourish the growth of tyranny and overreach. What else could it do?
Of course, I don’t want to go calling the future or anything. Last year I couldn’t even guess that the governor was going to demand that I stifle my breathing habits to save the world. My mask must be affecting my foresight.