Recently, there have been many small protests across the country against various lockdown orders initiated because of the global pandemic. Their impatience is understandable: the lockdown has made it impossible for many people to work, so ending it would have some benefits for the economy. However, the wisdom of opening back up while the virus is still spreading to some extent seems questionable to many Americans, and gathering together for a protest seems to be even more of a risk.
Many of the protests, at least the ones reported on by the media, are against Democratic governors, leading to the impression that the protesters believe the lockdowns are being used to hurt Republican support and not to help public safety. This position seems to be supported by Donald Trump’s tweets calling for the “liberation” of many states with Democratic governors. However, polling indicates that most Republicans would still prefer to stick with lockdowns for the time being, albeit at a lower rate than Democrats. Also, many of the protests are in states with Republican governors. To me, it seems possible that the media on both political sides has amplified news of the protests in order to make Democrats blame Republicans for not taking the pandemic seriously or to make Republicans think Democrats are being too strict. Donald Trump is likely backing up many of the protests in order to show his displeasure with governors who publicly question his methods. Regardless of their popular support, these protests may have had somewhat of an impact, as some Republican state leaders are already looking for a way out of the lockdowns.
Among the protesters, there is definitely a conspiracy theorist strain which believes the lockdowns, or even the virus itself, is part of a greater plot to restrict general liberties. Similar theories have been thought up and disseminated for some time now, even before the threat of a pandemic became real, as one of the more popular theories on how the government would take over was (or perhaps is) that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would take advantage of some sort of natural disaster in order to round up people into camps. Also, the rhetoric which places freedom above general public safety is similar to the justification used by many gun rights advocates. Donald Trump’s “LIBERATE” tweet for Virginia specifically mentioned gun laws which the state’s Democratic legislature and governor have recently enacted, which prompted similar protests in January.
In fairness, the use of emergency powers during a time of crisis should be well-regulated given the ease with which such powers could be abused. Such concerns have already been raised in a few countries, such as in Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who had already been viewed with suspicion by many for his seeming authoritarian ambitions, was given certain absolute powers by the country’s parliament. Trump’s recent closing of the borders to immigrants could arguably be classified as a similar overreach. In both cases, it remains to be seen whether these temporary powers will be abused as the pandemic winds down.