by Robert E. Wright
The American Institute for Economic Research
“All Hail the Reopening!” but the work of classical liberals is just beginning.
“The” science has spoken: only a clown would impose a lockdown. Not a funny clown, a demented, scary clown. Although I have been too sanguine in the past, it looks like this time America’s gubernatorial lockdown clowns are indeed piling into a comically tiny car, proclaiming themselves heroes, and driving off before they get recalled, or worse.
Before all the worst restrictions fade away, though, many Americans will have experienced about a year under socialism, i.e., a command-and-control economy featuring the destruction of the modern equivalents of the great enemies of the socialist state, the kulaks and petit bourgeoise; suppression of religious gatherings and local knowledge; breakdown of the rule of law; the mass warping of words; an election where party interests trumped Constitutional procedures; the regular ratting out and ostracization of neighbors and “followers” for speaking out against the party line; toilet paper, mask, and other shortages; and for-profit megacorporations nevertheless behaving increasingly akin to state-controlled media.