Posted on 05/02/2020 5:18:41 AM PDT by EyesOfTX
So, I’m sitting here on a Saturday morning contemplating the fact that our country is now at a point in which it has become normal for talking heads on TV and print commentators to talk about “free states” and “prison” or “lockdown states”. I did it myself in a piece the other day without even thinking about it.
At any other time in the last 150 years, this kind of discourse would have been shocking, but today it is part of the “new normal” that aspiring despots like Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer now talk about, echoing the kind of language Barack Obama used during his term to convince people to accept his own efforts to regulate every aspect of their daily lives.
It’s easy to tell which states are “free” or becoming more free, anyway, and which states are “prisons”: The Free States have Republican governors, and the Prison states, with a few exceptions like Ohio, are run by Democrats like Whitmer. This dichotomy between the governance by the two parties in this national emergency over a virus with a mortality rate well below 1% becomes increasingly stark with every passing week.
Friday, May 1 was a great example. In Texas, GOP Governor Greg Abbott moved to reopen a vast swath of businesses (with limited capacity restraints), state parks and the beaches along the Gulf Coast. On the very same day, Democrat California Governor Gavin Newsom moved to close all state parks and beaches. As a result, free Texans flocked to local shopping malls or to reopened restaurants to enjoy their first meal out in six weeks, while thousands of imprisoned Californians staged a massive protest in the city of Huntington Beach:
Think about the brutish stupidity of that beach closing order: Given that we now know that heat and sunlight kill this virus, what better place for Southern Californians to spend time than on the damn beach? But Governor Newsom, acting on his fascist impulses, shuts the beaches down because he was personally “disturbed” by video of people enjoying a day in the sun earlier in the week.
Americans all over the country have clearly shown that they are willing to cooperate with restrictions to their freedoms that make sense in fighting the spread of this virus. But irrational nonsense like this and Gov. Whitmer’s ban on motor boats has got to stop.
If these Democrat governors do not begin to relent soon, and stop treating the rural residents of their states as if they all live in densely-populated Manhattan, the peaceful protests we have witnessed all over the country in the past few weeks will begin to turn more aggressive, possibly even violent. This is not something I’m encouraging: It’s simply an inevitable outcome of dictatorial governors insisting on continuing to deny people their constitutional rights.
Make no mistake about this: Each and every one of the lockdown orders issued by Republican and Democrat governors alike are blatant violations of individual rights. These governors – and various mayors and other local officials – can only maintain these orders so long as they are able to maintain control over their law enforcement agencies to enforce them. Already, we see this level of control beginning to crack.
We saw it in Houston last week, when associations of both Houston police officers and Harris County sheriff’s deputies made it known they would not try to enforce an abusive order made by the idiot county judge there. We saw it in Orange County, CA on Friday, where the sheriff issued a statement informing the public he would not attempt to enforce Gov. Newsom’s beach closing order.
Because, you see, law enforcement officials read the constitution, too, and they promise to uphold it when they are sworn into office. Just because some governor or mayor doesn’t give a damn about individual freedoms does not mean the local police chief or sheriff or head of the state police agency feels the same way.
We know enough about this viral plague brought to us by China and have enough effective treatment regimes in place now to move away from the “flatten the curve” stage to a “protect the vulnerable and treat the sick” stage. Hell, if these governors would just focus on dealing effectively with the nursing homes in their states, that would take care of half the problem. In Texas, the median age of those who have died from this virus is over 80. Let that sink in.
Everyone who has been paying attention and is not just a brain-dead outrage monkey on Twitter can clearly see that the time for these statewide, one-size-fits-all lockdowns has passed. The situation now calls for the aspiring South American junta leaders like Whitmer, Newsom and Ralph KKK Northam to stand down and engage in more thoughtful and intelligent governance, and to stop the systematic violation of the rights of their citizens.
It’s time for there to be no justification or need for any talking head to use the terms “Free state” and “Prison state” anymore. We’re supposed to be the United States, and dichotomies in governance like the ones we see continuing to grow over this virus cannot persist for long before they threaten to become permanent.
Republicans call out Rep. Torres-Smalls during Stop the Madness
That is all.
Replace prison state with slave state and you have 1860 all over again.
I live in NYS.
Prisoners have more rights than I do.
NYS is a slave state.
Cuomo, LET MY PEOPLE GO.
Thinking the same thing. And the party divide is largely the same — Democrat governor=slave state; Republican governor=free state.
Of course, I’m in MA and my Republican governor is acting like a Democrat. As usual.
Prison state Illinois opened up some more non essential businesses with restrictions. He also opened state parks and golf courses with restrictions. I was able to play golf yesterday. Had to walk and no more than 2 players in a group. When I got done playing, I went to the the main retail shopping area in town. It was packed. In fact it was even more packed than a typical Friday afternoon.
Maryland has a rino governor. We’re still in prison. But what really bothers me is that most people are all in favor of being enslaved. God help you if you try to explain that they’re in prison.
Ditto for Maryland. Our gov is a Trump hating RIMO.
I wonder what the rank and file Democrat thinks of what the slave states are doing? Surely they don’t like it. Also I wonder what the lib lawyers think: like Dershowitz, Turley
I as at the Huntington Beach rally, where I watched as mounted police lined up like a cavalry troop to block access to the pier, and there was a police car parked on the deserted beach, presumably to see to it that it remained deserted..
When the magic free money is no more..and or they crash the economy.. they are not going to enjoy it nearly as much.
OUTSANDING! Naming names while calling out grievances. Thank you, sir.
Dossier names. List grievances. Doxx when necessary. Avoid violence (although you’re a target for them).
535++++++ vs. 330 MILLION - snowflakes - turncoats
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbL0r_Lbd_4
For all of us law abiding citizens who thought the local Police would be on our side,
wow were we wrong!
The Police Officers who are Neighbors and in some cases friends, turned into the Jack Booted Gestapo within minutes. Just look at those two deputies in Wisconsin who were ready to arrest the women who let her daughter out to play. You know they live in that same town. These power hungry Barney Fife’s are way worse than anyone could imagine.
They’ll just blame Trump.
Sad that people didn’t rush the beach...
They were just following orders. Where have we heard that before?
I’ve been thinking along the same lines of prison/free states.
I live in a prison state (Ohio) right now. If things don’t get better, and it doesn’t look like they will get better, I’ll have to move to a free state, probably Florida where I have family.
I live in the metro area of a red state. We have the vast majority of cases for the state. It makes no sense for the counties that have recorded zero cases not to be able to operate. No, I don’t intend to flock to those places to do business. My area will open more slowly and with some restrictions in place that won’t apply to the rest of the state. My Pilates studio has been in touch with the county health department. They have the go ahead for private classes for now and group classes June 1 with some recommended changes in studio policies.
That to me is a sane approach.
“These power hungry Barney Fife’s are way worse than anyone could imagine.”
The German Gestapo never suffered from a shortage of volunteers.
Yes, I make that comparison. Fallen human nature is what it is.
Kentucky is a free state in spite of the Democrat governor.
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