Governor Gavin Newsom (CA-D) visits the President of El Salvador, Salvador Sánchez Cerén. April 8, 2019. Photo courtesy of the office of the president of El Salvador.
David Catron writes in The American Spectator (abridged):
Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously wrote that an advantage of America’s federal system of government is that a state may “serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), for example, has refused to say when his stay-at-home order will expire, even in a purported reopen plan that that he announced last Tuesday. When asked when Golden State residents would again be able to exercise their First Amendment right to attend church, he vaguely replied, “months, not weeks.”
Democratic governors have made it clear that they plan to follow the California model of indefinite lockdowns
Meanwhile, this refusal to seriously discuss reopening has also been adopted by the blue states of the Northeast. The Democratic governors of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Delaware have all adopted New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan to remain locked down until May 15, and each echoes his refusal to say what the plan will be will be after that date:
Further south, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) has long since imposed the nation’s longest mandatory lockdown, which will remain in effect through June 10.
It’s obvious why these Democratic governors refuse to lift their job-killing lockdowns, despite clear indications that their ostensible goal of “flattening the curve” has been achieved.
The actual point of the exercise has little or nothing to do with public health. They hope they can delay reopening their states long enough to drive the economy into a depression for which the voters will punish President Trump and the Republicans.
David Catron is a recovering health care consultant and frequent contributor to The American Spectator.
