Has the Public Lost Patience With the Lockdown?

By Twila Le Page-Hughes

There is a growing concern, impatience and grumbling with this never ending lockdown.   Patience is clearly wearing thin.

America has always been a country of doing.  We have been defined as such– as that is and what new things we are doing.

We have been on the move ever since we were founded.  A bunch of nomads if you will.

The population centers have changed with the westward movement.  As the pioneers ventured west, and then the gold prospectors ventured to California and Alaska, we found ‘there’s gold in them thar’ hills,’ not only in the gold nuggets found in creeks and rivers, but in the form of new land, new ventures and a future not ever seen before.

We built hundreds of miles of railroad tracks so we could more easily travel back and forth across the country.  It was a huge celebration in May of 1869 when the east and western part connected with the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads finally met at Promontory Summit in Utah Territory. Then women could travel alone, where they could not before.

All the major population centers, such as Philadelphia, New York and Boston were thriving centers of huge economic activity.  The Southern aristocracy, which had dominated before the Civil War, lost out to the Northern capitalists.  Commerce and industry were the main modes of economic life. 

We have a market society, with interaction, socialization and chance-taking is in our genes.  This rugged individualism, in fact, breeds an intense interdependence. 

The destruction of the market economy is justified by the fact that it makes us more prosperous over time, and that is what we really want.  For an overwhelming majority of Americans any form of socialism used to idle our days, just seems like a bad prospect.

There’s been an argument of what businesses are essential and non-essential.  In the long run, the notion of essential industries does not make much sense.  We are all interconnected to to everyone else in the U.S.  Shut down the restaurants and they default on their loans, putting pressure on the banks which increases a strain on credit for other businesses, then they have to lay off employees, as they close their doors.  For a short time the government can shut its doors and shut us down and we rely on federals stimulus and easy access to money from the Federal Reserve, to take care of us in the meantime, but eventually we are going to collapse, which will bring others down in turn.

This is not new.  This story has been around several times in our history.  In 1872 there was financial panic in New York City.  But the country was not so integrated then so it did not make a lot of difference.  But starting in 1819, several panics have washed across the country every few years, starting with certain industries, then spreading near and far. We had a Great Recession downturn under Obama in 2008-2010.   Where 8.7 million private-sector jobs were lost. Unemployment was high.  Partly due to overregulation and mismanagement of the funds. He also blamed Bush for inheriting his so-called mess.  Many companies moved out of the U.S. due to heavy regulation and taxes, taking a large chunk of taxes with them.  Then Trump came along and got rid of a lot of the over regulation measures, and was business friendly, so that the economy started to take off again, until this sudden– out of nowhere–corona virus shutdown literally destroyed the economy overnight.

That what’s going to happen if this shutdown lasts much longer.  You are destroying every kind of business and then everything else will fall apart in time.  Every industry, and economic activity depends on every other industry.  Our fate is determined by economics.  The only way I can do new and interesting things is if you get to do them too.  That is not happening now.

We always want more.  And we can’t have more if we are all sitting at home watching Netflix.  The key to our prosperity was a U.S.  diversified economy with commerce and industry proliferating across the country. 

The upshot of all of this is that our children and grandchildren are going to have to pay through the nose for all of these stimulus bailouts.  Much of which billions are added by liberal Speaker Pelosi as goodies to fit her agenda to further the cause of the liberal/leftists, thus spending billions more on those added benefits–like Planned Parenthood bailouts, Cannibas, and Illegal Immigration, the Kennedy Center for the Arts, PBS, and she also wants all states to have votes by absentee only. (a great way to ballot harvest by the way, which brings on much voter fraud).

We need to get back to work.  We are a nation of workers and always have been.  We need to be productive.  Working at home, if we are lucky, and home schooling our kids if we can, does not take the place of participation at our work, nor of kids in school.   Depression is setting in with so many out of work and out of income, causing a rise in suicides and other maladies.        Medical needs are not being met.  We don’t even know for sure if masks (Some experts tell us that masks, breathing in our own bacteria and CO2 is not healthy either) and social distancing really helps or not or even washing our hands 20 times a day.  Heard of herd immunity. If left alone that builds antibodies, that give us immunity.  That is what vaccines do. 

We do know we are tired of the government (governors and mayors) telling us what to do with our very personal lives. Maybe we have had a taste of socialism, where the government tells you what to do. And it does not feel all that good.   Our Constitution is set up so that we, the people, are to tell the government what to do. 

If there’s anything to gain through all of this it might be that its given us a chance to step back and look at the scheme of things, to look at ourselves, to enjoy family and friends more, to maybe change our goals, and perhaps search for something more meaningful in our lives. We need the spiritual contact that our churches give us, as governors deem churches as non- essential businesses.  

Interaction, socialization and taking of chances is who we are.  While we appreciate that people have died from the Covid 19, so have many more died from the regular flu and overdose and other natural causes.  We did not shut down for them.  So why now?  We are all essential workers, none are inessential.  We need our interdependence and our individualism.  That’s who we are, as a country and as individuals.  So let us get back to work and to school and get on with our lives as we have known them.   Enough is enough, yet!     

Twila Le Page-Hughes is a writer, columnist, author and Program Chairman and Vice Pres. of South Bay Republican Women, who meet in Torrance, CA who has been interested in politics since age 11.  Her email is [email protected]

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