When coronavirus hysteria began sweeping the nation back in March, I wrote an article expressing the concerns of many conservatives that a government long desirous of turning America into a tyrannical, socialist state could use the so-called pandemic to permanently alter if not outright eliminate liberty. Sadly for constitutional conservatives and other lovers of liberty, all signs point to the reality that tyranny and the end of liberty are much closer than we realize.
As we approach nearly nine months of “14 days to flatten the curve,” coronavirus tyranny can no longer be written off as the fearmongering tactics of constitutional conservatives. In hindsight, there can be no doubt that socialism and tyranny have grown during this so-called pandemic.
I’ve documented how Republicans and Democrats have worked together to make Ivanka’s feminist socialist dream of government-mandated paid family leave a reality. One of the first coronavirus bailouts — Families First Coronavirus Response Act — included taxpayer-funded paid family leave and provisions for taxpayer-funded sick leave. Socialist ideals such as prison reform, so-called gun control, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal have also seen major advances.
In the March article I mentioned above, I referenced an an excellent piece by John Whitehead, the founder and president of the Rutherford Institute, where he explains how coronavirus could lead to the end of liberty and the introduction of a full-blown police state and tyrannical government. He said, in part:
“This coronavirus epidemic, which has brought China’s Orwellian surveillance out of the shadows and caused Italy to declare a nationwide lockdown, threatens to bring the American Police State out into the open on a scale we’ve not seen before.
“If and when a nationwide lockdown finally hits — if and when we are forced to shelter in place — if and when militarized police are patrolling the streets — if and when security checkpoints have been established — if and when the media’s ability to broadcast the news has been curtailed by government censors — if and when public systems of communication (phone lines, internet, text messaging, etc.) have been restricted — if and when those FEMA camps the government has been surreptitiously building finally get used as quarantine detention centers for American citizens — if and when military “snatch and grab” teams are deployed on local, state, and federal levels as part of the activated Continuity of Government plans to isolate anyone suspected of being infected with COVID-19 — and if and when martial law is enacted with little real outcry or resistance from the public — then we will truly understand the extent to which the government has fully succeeded in recalibrating our general distaste for anything that smacks too overtly of tyranny.
“This is how it begins.”
Government’s coronavirus tyranny has been used to launch a 9/11-styled war on liberty, where our God-given rights are systematically destroyed and replaced by lockdowns, masks, and isolation, and where violators of this “new normal” (aka believers in the Constitution) are fined or imprisoned if they refuse to comply.
A primary target of government tyrants is the First Amendment, specifically Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion, at least that’s the opinion of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito as expressed in a recent live-streamed keynote address to the 2020 Lawyers’ Convention sponsored by the Federalist Society.
Alito noted how coronavirus tyranny has “resulted in previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty.” Concerning the threat to freedom of speech, he said:
“One of the great challenges for the Supreme Court going forward will be to protect freedom of speech.
“Although that freedom is falling out of favor in some circles, we need to do whatever we can to prevent it from becoming a second-tier Constitutional right.
“We should all welcome rational, civil speech on important subjects even if we do not agree with what the speaker has to say.”
Alito also warned that coronavirus tyranny has “blatantly discriminated against houses of worship” and has put religious liberty “in danger of becoming a second class right.”
“It pains me to say this, but in certain quarters, religious liberty is fast becoming a disfavored right.
“Whatever one may think about the COVID restrictions, we surely don’t want them to become a recurring feature after the pandemic has passed.”
Justice Alito — a nominee of former President George W. Bush, by the way — noted that “hostility” toward “unfashionable views” toward the First Amendment existed before the pandemic, and he referenced the Court’s 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges that imposed same-sex marriage on the nation as evidence of the end of liberty.
“You can’t say that marriage is a union between one man and one woman. Until very recently, that’s what the vast majority of Americans thought. Now it’s considered bigotry.
“That this would happen after our decision in Obergefell should not have come as a surprise. Yes, the opinion of the Court included words meant to calm the fears of those who cling to traditional views on marriage. But I could see — and so did the other justices in dissent — where the decision would lead.”
Alito also made it clear that no one should “twist” his words because he wasn’t “diminishing the severity of the virus’ threat to public health”, he was merely raising a red flag that First Amendment should be protected in America.
The assault on our God-given rights at the hands of the people we elect to protect them has been going on for quite some time, but coronavirus tyranny has allowed them to realize victories never before imagined — making the end of liberty much closer than we realize.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.
Follow the Strident Conservative on Twitter and Facebook.
Subscribe to receive podcasts of his daily two-minute radio feature: iTunes | Stitcher | Tune In | RSS
sp;
1 comment for “Coronavirus tyranny: The end of liberty is much closer than we realize”