VIVA THE PROTESTERS BY SYDNEY WILLIAMS
Protests have been around for centuries. The Protestant Reformation in northern Europe in the early 16thCentury was a protest against the universality of the Catholic Church. Americans protested England, beginning with the Boston Tea Party in 1773 and ending at Yorktown in 1781; the French stormed the Bastille on July 14, 1789. The Russian Revolution of 1917 toppled the Tsars. Mao Zedong’s Communist revolution in China in 1949 forever changed that country, killing an estimated 20 to 40 million people. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 followed protests. In our country, in the past half century, we have seen marches for civil rights, women’s rights and gay rights. We have had anti-war protests. More recently we had the Tea Party movement, Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, the Woman’s March and March for Life. How productive they have been is a matter of debate. Writing last year in “Perspective Magazine,” Chaya Benyamin wrote: “Protest rhetoric is more about preaching to the choir than it is about changing hearts and minds.” A Harvard study of the Tea Party movement, three years ago, had similar nebulous conclusions. But, as an observer, it seems that all these protests resulted in change, some revolutionary.
A reader in Louisiana, a retired lawyer, e-mailed a week ago: “President Trump’s having essentially accepted the epidemiologists’ over-reaction to an admittedly dangerous virus will be historically judged to be by far his greatest first-person policy error.” I tend to agree. Never before, in the history of this Country, was a decision made to intentionally shut down the nation’s economy. In an essay titled “Innovation versus the Coronavirus,” Bill Gates referred to the current pandemic as “the first modern pandemic.” But is it? The 1957-1958 H2N2 virus was called a pandemic, as were the 1968 H3N2 virus and the 2009 H1N1 pdm09 virus. Those three pandemics killed 2.25 million people worldwide, including 230,000 in the U.S.
The President was put in an untenable position. In early January, when China knew of how contagious and deadly the virus could be, scientists and medical experts around the world, including the WHO, CDC, FDA and Dr. Anthony Fauci of the NIAID downplayed its malignancy, as did politicians from both Parties. It wasn’t until February that models, many using erroneous data inputs, began showing horrific projections. So personal and political fears, as well as the dread of litigation, obviated a calculated, rational response. Politicians did U-turns, with the media, which had been largely silent in January, jumping aboard. Lockdowns were imposed. Executive Orders were issued and, if not obeyed, offenders could be arrested. In truth, the virus was worse than Pollyanna’s first claimed, but not as bad as Cassandra’s later suggested.
Nevertheless, a cataclysm was unleashed. The consequences have been grim: the biggest increase in unemployment in the nation’s history; the bankruptcy of thousands of small and big businesses; the biggest deficit spending plan in the nation’s history; the possible default of states, counties and cities, and a reckless printing of money by the Federal Reserve. President Trump’s, and others’, calls for negative interest rates will only add fuel to a future inflationary cycle. The decline in incomes will negatively affect future tax receipts, propelling higher deficits of federal, state and local governments. Should shutdowns persist, the result will be a surge in suicides and deaths from opioids and other drugs associated with depression.
We have entered an economic sinkhole from which extrication will be difficult. Politicians will be watching their backsides. Businesses, without some form of limit on liability, will be worried about class action lawsuits, and consumers have been so frightened by the effects of the virus that a return to “normal” will take months, if not years. And any reopening must include protection for those most vulnerable to the savages of COVID-19 – the elderly, the obese; those with preexisting health conditions. People and businesses must respond by being personally and socially responsible – health consciousness, social distancing and commonsensical behavior will become the new norm.
Across the country, protests have begun over the lockdowns, and a few states have begun to lift restrictions. Twenty-six million people have lost their jobs in the past five weeks. Many of these people live paycheck-to-paycheck and for whom the dignity of work is important. Avik Roy, president of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, wrote in an op-ed in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, “Reopening the U.S. Economy:” “Reopening the economy is not merely about livelihoods, but also about lives.” Andrew McCarthy, in the National Review on the same day, noted that “…governments have a compelling interest in public safety…It is, nevertheless, the foundational conceit of the American republic that governments are created to secure fundamental rights of a nation’s citizens – our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Moreover, the legitimacy of government is dependent on the consent of the governed.”
The media has pilloried protesters, characterizing them as “right wing,” exemplifying “white privilege” and that behind them stand “the quiet hand of conservatives.” Politico had a recent article about how a tea party-linked group planned to “turbo charge lockdown protests.” Katherine Shaver, writing in the Washington Post on Saturday, quoted George Rutherford, an epidemiology professor at the University of California in San Francisco” Letting people decide for themselves because they’re bored is not a good way to do it.” Perhaps Professor Rutherford should familiarize himself with the Constitution, and, no, they are not protesting because they are bored but because they need jobs to pay for rent and food. As well, protesters provide cover for governors skittish about re-opening their economies. Blame for subsequent increased hospitalizations and deaths can be put on those who lobbied for a reopening. Early on, President Trump endorsed the protesters. He has since backed off but has encouraged re-openings when done safely.
Despite myriad groups working on vaccines and therapeutics, there is little doubt that the virus will linger, and deaths will persist. But the nation cannot afford many more weeks of hibernation. We need a vaccine and we need more tests, which will give assurance to consumers and employers and that will provide officials with a more thorough picture of the spread of the virus. We need government officials to be honest with the people, as to the cause and facts related to morbidity. We need a press that dispenses factual information, rather than sensationalizing personal stories of tragedy. We need more detailed reporting of those who have died: age, gender, preconditions that played a role in death, geographic locations and workplace. Such information will offer perspective and should instill confidence in those least likely to be subject to the most harmful effects of the virus.
Confidence needs restoring, not just so consumers can return to their role of generating 70% of the nation’s GDP, but so businesses will not be censured by politicians, condemned by reporters, or harassed by trial lawyers. Examples of countries like Sweden and of states that did not impose draconian lockdown laws (or have since lifted them) should give inspiration to an economic resurgence. The protesters have played the role of a citizen’s revolt. Viva the protesters! As the song goes, “The people has risen, we’re free again.”[1]
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