COVID gave Americans their first taste of what it is like to live in a police state. Most of us were caught off guard with the three weeks to flatten the curve promise and willingly surrendered our freedom for what we thought would be the common good and temporary. Few of us expected this COVID “emergency” would drag on for years and result in strict government controls on the basic aspects of our lives. This attempt at fascist control lost traction in part because it became ridiculous. Wearing masks outdoors, closing churches and bowling alleys yet keeping big box stores open, watch our children suffer from social isolation yet rioters and looters could run loose in the streets were just a few of the ridiculous edicts that caused people realize they were being lied to and were needlessly surrendering their freedom.
We can hope Americans have learned their lesson and will revolt the next time they have their freedom revoked.
One aspect I don’t see mentioned much, is the local, state and federal courts seemed to prolong executive powers without much push back. As an example a state court judge in Illinois found that the state mask mandate was unconstitutional. It took a while for the case to get some legs at the circuit court level and then an appellate court agreed with the lower court after a bunch of time. By the time the state appealed to the Supreme Court of Illinois, the governor rescinded emergency powers. The state Supreme Court said the case was moot because emergency powers ended. There was no resolution if the mask mandate was unconstitutional as directed by the governor...