There are many Americans finding themselves involved in politics who don’t typically get involved in politics.  The situation has forced them into it.

If the main issue in the country were just the coronavirus, then people wouldn’t have to take a political position.  Maybe you could say that you trust or don’t trust government officials who are giving guidelines, but that would be about the extent of it.

Here is my point. You could believe that the coronavirus is the greatest threat ever to the human race, but if you don’t advocate for any government force in response to it, then I really have no issue. Maybe I could think you are naïve for thinking such a thing, but your thoughts are basically harmless to me.

If a lot of people believed this, then you might see a significant change in society. Some businesses might shut down voluntarily.  Again, I could think it is naïve, but I can’t claim they are denying me my freedom.  It is the right of the business owner (the property owner) to decide what to do with his property.

Even if half the people thought the coronavirus is the greatest threat ever but didn’t advocate a government response, it wouldn’t shut down society.  The other half could go about their lives.  Their lives would be changed in the fact that they wouldn’t have as many options of people to associate with, but there would likely be functional businesses in every industry.  Some hair salons might close.  Some might stay open without any change in policy (such as “social distancing”).

I don’t get involved in a lot of discussions on Facebook, but I couldn’t help myself a few times. There have been people posting things who don’t normally post political things.

If someone posts something ignorant about the virus, I will usually leave it alone.  It can impact me in the sense that it is making people more paranoid than need be, and this provides support for government shutdowns.  But hyping up the virus in itself is not a direct threat to me.

If someone posts something advocating government shutdowns or opposing the easing of restrictions, then sometimes I can’t help but respond.  They have gotten themselves into politics.  And with politics comes the threat of violence.

I could leave these people alone if it didn’t impact my family and me.  But it does.  When people are praising mayors and governors for closing down businesses, this impacts me, and it impacts millions of other people who would have chosen a different path.

You can spout off whatever nonsense you want, but I take exception when that nonsense is promoting the reduction of liberty.

Political Divide

There has been a major political divide in this country for a long time.  It didn’t start with Donald Trump, but I think the ascendancy of Trump exacerbated it.  It certainly exacerbated the rhetoric.

From a libertarian standpoint, I often see false lines.  I know the two major parties tend to agree when it comes to war.  I know the two major parties tend to agree when it comes to massive government spending and deficits.  If it wasn’t already clear, it should be now after the past month.

Still, there is a major divide.  I think there is also a major divide with the coronavirus.  There are certainly varying opinions on how serious it is and how much the media and government are hyping it up.  I know of nobody who says that the virus is a complete fraud and doesn’t exist.  But there are many people, including me, who think it is way overblown.

But really, the main divide comes down to whether you believe in the use of government force as a reaction to the virus.  You can think that the virus is the most deadly pandemic of the last hundred years, but it is still possible to advocate only voluntary responses.

I have found that there is more of a tendency to favor government shutdowns from the political left.  I have found there is more of a tendency to be opposed to government shutdowns from the political right.  But this is a generalization, and it doesn’t completely hold true.

There were young adults crowding the beaches during spring break in March.  They were being lectured and ridiculed by the establishment media.  I am sure that a majority of these beachgoers would not identify with the political right.

I think age does play some factor in this.  After all, the virus is barely dangerous at all to young people. I know you can always find one story out of tens of millions of people who supposedly died of the coronavirus, but it really is extremely rare.  The biggest threat by far is to elderly people.  So it is understandable that older people would be more paranoid and younger people would not care as much.  And the younger people on spring break probably weren’t stopping by the beach on their way to their grandparent’s house.

Whenever someone says, “But don’t you care about old people?”, I respond that old people are free to self-quarantine just like anyone else.  It doesn’t have to be any different for them than what is happening now.  In the meantime, allow young people (or anyone for that matter) to carry on with their lives, which includes working.

There have been hundreds of thousands of businesses that have been forced to shut down. Maybe the number is in the millions.  If they weren’t being threatened with violence by the government, then most of them wouldn’t have shut down.  Many of these people are very angry, and I don’t blame them.

The tens of millions of employees who worked for these businesses are now out of work. Many of them are happy because they get paid more in unemployment than they did working at their job.  Now they get to sit at home and make more money.  But they have to know that this will not last.

What happens in six months when some of these businesses have not reopened?  What happens to the millions of unemployed people? All of these people have a story.

Politics Will Find You

I have long-said that you may not take an interest in politics, but politics will take an interest in you.

Someone can ignore the world around him, but it doesn’t make things any less real.

I have to be clear that I don’t think people should obsess over politics.  You should focus the most on things that you can control. This is why I try not to go on Facebook much.

You also shouldn’t use politics as an excuse not to better yourself.  It is one thing to acknowledge the situation you are in. It is another thing to let it completely hamper your ability to function.

I think some people who previously considered themselves apolitical are now finding that it is hard not to take a position.  I don’t know of many people who don’t really care one way or the other whether there are government shutdowns.  There are some people who don’t want to speak out because they don’t want to get into an argument, but I think there are very few who essentially hold no opinion on the matter.

There are many small business owners who didn’t take an interest in politics at all who are now all of a sudden taking a position.  Their livelihood depends on being allowed to reopen their business. They didn’t expect a dictator governor or dictator mayor to shut them down completely.

I like to use an extreme example of politics taking an interest in people.

Imagine a Jew in Germany in 1933.  One of his friends comes up to him and says that we should probably be worried about this guy Hitler and what he is going to do in power.  The guy responds that he doesn’t really have much interest in politics.  He is apolitical. He doesn’t really have a strong opinion one way or another about this new guy Hitler.

In 1942 when he is being marched off to a concentration camp with his friend, is he going to say the same thing?  “I know I am being marched to some camp, probably for my own safety, but I don’t really take much of an interest in politics.  I’m sure it will all work out.”

We are not in that position in our country, but there is no question that the actions of state and local governments (dictator governors and dictator mayors) have upended the lives of many people.  If you spent the last 20 years spending a lot of money and time to build up a business and you see it evaporate in the matter of two months because of the government, what would you think?

The governors and mayors are actually not at fault though.  I like to blame government for many of our problems, but ultimately it is the people that decide this.  The governors and mayors are acting like dictators and getting away with it because a large percentage of the population is clamoring for the lockdowns.  Even if they have been propagandized by the government and its compliant media, they are still ultimately to blame for being duped.  And as I stated earlier, you can still believe that the virus is the greatest threat ever, but you can still not advocate for government responses.

When it becomes clear that the economy is in the toilet and not coming out of the toilet any time soon, then I think more people will realize that a continuation of government shutdowns is not a good idea.  Hopefully some will realize that it was never a good idea in the first place. I would really hope that most business owners see this already.