In recent days we have seen protests across the United States in support of opening up America and against what the protesters are calling authoritarian and tyrannical government.
It’s important to note that the reopen protests have been generally small (at most, hundreds of people in states where millions of citizens are responsibly staying at home).
As a political movement, the Make America Great Again crowd relishes turning criticism from ideological opponents into a badge of honor. A confrontation of any kind is currency, and people taking offense to their actions is a surefire sign that they’re correct. This mind-set prioritizes freedom above all – especially the freedom from introspection, apologizing or ever admitting mistakes.
This response is disguised as an expression of liberty, but it’s a twisted, paranoid and radicalized version. It has become a political ideology where supporters believe that thinking about other people’s needs or interests in any way is tyranny. This wholesale rejection of collective thinking is the cornerstone of the anti-vaccine and “health freedom” movements, which reject public health because they don’t think their choices affect other people.
The result is images of protesters demanding their governor relax restrictions while hoisting Trump signs, guns and Confederate battle flags. This coronavirus protest movement and its perverted liberty ideology has created the result of flattening all arguments of science and politics into a simplified struggle between patriots and tyrants.
We have now come to this, protesting statewide lockdowns intended to save lives while thousands of Americans across the country grow sick and die each day.
As usual, at many of these of protests, we see placards with quotes from our Founding Fathers, especially Jefferson and Franklin. In these trying times perhaps we should remember this one from Benjamin Franklin: “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
(John Hayward lives in Allenstown.)