Posted on by Californiacontrarian

What Have We Learned ?


Years down the road we will have to address lessons learned from this Covid pandemic. Now here I am not referring to medical lessons learned. I am not referring to which medicine worked or which didn’t work. I am not referring to masks . . . are they actually worth anything outside of an easy reminder that distancing is important? Social distancing ? How much? In Europe they use one meter (approximately 3 feet), whereas in the US, 6 feet is apparently without dispute. And finally I am not referring to whether or not singing “Happy Birthday” spreads the virus more than other songs because of certain consonants. (Honest . . . a real issue by some!)

I am referring to the issue of “How much dictatorial power does an elected official have?” If Joe Biden wins in November, and subsequently commands that everybody in the entire U.S. wear a mask at all times when outside, is he overstepping his authority? When a governor says everybody must do X, at what point is he/she overstepping his/her authority. How can someone arbitrarily make some businesses “essential,” and others “non-essential? By what criteria? Out here in California we have a non-elected individual who has been appointed as Health and Human Services Commissioner. He is not an elected representative, yet apparently has the power to close businesses in counties, because certain counties have violated an apparent arbitrary set of criteria on number of cases . . . or does he actually have this power? 

In Wisconsin back in May an appointee of a Democratic Governor arbitrarily made some diktats that were eventually ruled non-constitutional by that state’s Supreme Court. Just recently in Pennsylvania a judge ruled that “the liberties protected by the Constitution are not fair-weather freedoms,” and the judge overturned Dem. Gov Wolf’s use of some emergency powers. 

It’s about time, especially when the U.S. Supreme Court recently ducked a religious freedom issue from the state of Nevada . . . perhaps better said that Justice Roberts ducked the issue. (Sometimes when I read some of Justice Roberts’s opinions, I wonder if he is being hypnotized or threatened.)

Hopefully when this Covid mess abates, lawsuits will be filed challenging the dictatorial power of some elected officials and their appointees. Only then will we be able to answer the question, “What have we learned?”

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