Schrodinger's Pandemic
Leftists cannot demand law enforcement and first responders enforce COVID-19 restrictions while simultaneously branding them as racists.
Recent events in Portland should be an eye-opener for folks wondering whether or not the “peaceful protesters” are just being spoiled by a few rotten apples. The logic runs accordingly:
Rs: "So you will not unequivocally condemn Antifa?"
Ds: "The bad apples of course! But keep them separate from the protesters..."
<feds start picking up the bad apples>
Ds: "THIS IS FASCISM!!!"
Rs: "But wait -- you said these were the bad apples we should arrest?"
Thus the cognitive dissonance ensues, with cries of being Pinochet’d — which is as ignorant of history as it is cheapening those who lived under the Chilean dictator’s regime — somehow earning their way into the public discourse.
Uh huh.
Here’s a hard truth folks might not want to hear.
The very fact the so-called "reasonable left" cannot bring themselves to separate from the violent actors means precisely one thing -- they might say they deplore the violence, but they'll tolerate it so long as it bends the world their way.
That’s literally the entire ballgame. If they are excusing the violence, then they are complicit in the violence in the hopes that this Leviathan will eat them last.
But of course, while trash talking our law enforcement personnel and first responders, the political left in this country does a very quick volte-face when it comes to wearing masks — where they openly expect Virginia’s putatively racist LEOs to start writing up citations to anyone violating Governor Northam’s executive orders.
Does anyone else see the dichotomy here?
For starters, America is still in the middle of the first wave of this pandemic, with new COVID cases starting to overwhelm ICUs in certain parts of the country. The second wave once schools and universities open back up will be far more pervasive as temperatures and humidity levels drop.
Of course, this will bring back the specter of quarantines. Precisely who does the political left in this country expect to enforce such a quarantine? Social workers?
If we do lock down the country, make no mistake as to whom the the political left will turn to and expect to enforce the next round of restrictions: first responders, LEOs and National Guardsmen
Yet the very same people we would be asking to enforce any future restrictions? Will be doing so in a politically manufactured environment where every first responder, LEO and National Guardsman is by definition a racist — and a tool of "white supremacy" (sic).
But if we don’t lock down the country -- or if these racist tools of white oppression (sic) are unable to enforce the quarantine -- we will without question overwhelm our health care system in the fall, which is precisely what Dr. Fauci and the White House have been warning about should we fail to behave as adults.
Maybe the grand answer this fraction of society wants is to replace our LEOs with social workers and contact tracers... but best of luck with counselors running amok trying to enforce a quarantine.
You see the bind?
Thus the political left finds themselves in this strange perpetual motion machine where COVID must be taken seriously except during violent mob protests, where LEOs are simultaneously derided in the public square yet relied upon to as a measure of last resort.
We can't shop, but we can loot.
We can't worship, but we can riot.
We can't play outside, but we can protest outside.
We can't go to school, but we can scream at city hall.
We can't call it fascism, but we can call it democracy.
We can't hear all opinions, but we can hear the correct ones.
We can't protect our families, but we can call a social worker.
We can't have free speech, but we can only have good speech.
We can't go to the beach, but we can shut down Virginia Beach.
We can't have our past, but we will have their prefabricated future.
We can't enjoy America's pastime, but we can condemn America's past.
We can't trust our law enforcement, but we expect them to enforce (some) laws.
We can't paint Trump 2020 on a sidewalk, but you can paint BLM on a sidewalk.
We can't have open public debate, but we can abase ourselves to the movement.
Is it any small wonder half of America distrusts the other half to such a degree, much less take a global pandemic seriously?
Of course, the infringement upon our rights by the mob isn't new. Our Founders expected that... which is why there is a feverish effort to further erode our 2A rights in Virginia and elsewhere.
They can't have both sides of this argument and expect the silent majority to stay silent for long.
Yet like most, I'm a little worn down with the Catch-22 that treats law enforcement and first responders as garbage human beings while expecting them to do the heavy lift during a pandemic or any other emergency situation.
That's not fair; that's not fair by design... and folks are going to have to make a choice between worn out socialism and the old American communitarian ethos very quickly.
Either way, the political left in this country is going to have to make a tough choice. Either Antifa’s actions define the whole, or they do not.
Certainly the political right in this country has bent over backwards to reject the alt-right — now is the time (if ever there was a time) for the political left to do likewise with Antifa.
The dichotomy won't last much longer; this will come out of superposition.
Shaun Kenney is the editor of The Republican Standard, former chairman of the Board of Supervisors for Fluvanna County, and a former executive director of the Republican Party of Virginia.