The wave of right-wing protests against measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic came to Oregon this weekend, with a few hundred people gathering around the State Capitol building in Salem on Saturday. While their right to protest should be supported by all Oregonians, the lack of social distancing at the event, combined with the absence of mask-wearing by nearly all participants, demonstrates that their beef is not only with the state government’s measures, but with science and reason as well. How else to explain the lack of fear at spreading and being infected by this dangerous disease?
Rejecting basic anti-coronavirus measures while protesting state quarantines and shuttering of businesses, they turned a political rally into a potential super-spreader event. Not only does this threaten the lives of their fellow Oregonians, but it could well prolong the necessity of the very measures they came to protest. In this, their demonstration is not just against the explicit target of state government, but against the idea of solidarity with their fellow Oregonians. It is a statement of contempt for the rest of us. Attempting to portray themselves as heroes of a make-believe resistance against a fictional governmental tyranny, they are in reality the dupes and villains of the story, dismissive of both germ theory and democratic governance in one dumb, fell swoop.
“You can’t just place citizens under house arrest and enforce those orders,” said Adam Ellifritt, an event organizer. But of course “house arrest” is an intentionally incendiary and misleading term that decontextualizes the actual stay-at-home orders from their purpose. Like other such protestors, Ellfritt would have us believe that state governors arbitrarily issued such mandates because they hate liberty and freedom and America. Denying the reality of the coronavirus is essential, because otherwise they’d have to concede that the governors are indeed trying to protect our freedom — our freedom to live, and to prosper in a future in which this pandemic has been contained and defeated. Opening that door would also raise intriguing questions, such as why they choose to direct their ire at governors, rather than at the inept president who failed to act decisively against the spread of the virus, who called it a hoax and a Democratic plot as it spread through Washington state and New York City and beyond?
As these right-wingers attempt to raise a ruckus and claim that they’re the true patriots, and as frustration and fear begin to climb about the economic effects of social distancing measures, it’s essential to remember that the great majority of Americans have risen to this awful occasion. In what political writer John Stoehr describes as “the biggest political story of the year,” we are witness to “tens of millions of Americans sheltering in place for the sake of their own well-being and safety, and for the sake of all Americans.” Stoehr urges us to realize that our collective willingness to do so is a political act, one that should hearten us all about this country’s willingness to behave with democratic intent and a liberal spirit. In this, Americans are repudiating the (white) nationalist smallness of President Trump, and the scattered right-wing protests, with what constitutes a mass demonstration of patriotic sacrifice.
This is not to say that Americans shouldn’t be pressing our government to take actions that will allow the relaxation of extreme social distancing measures as quickly as possible — but not by ranting about governmental tyranny and overreach, but by ensuring that the government acts democratically, responsive to our collective interests in both protecting our health and our livelihoods. To demand that measures be ended without meeting necessary public health thresholds is simply to supercharge the virus’ reign of death and economic destruction. To make the point that should by now be a cornerstone of all such discussions: allowing businesses to re-open when the general public is too scared to patronize those businesses, and in a way that allows those businesses to act as vectors of disease for those customers who do venture out, only means that we will be seeing a second wave of the virus in the coming months. This is a horrific situation, but it is also our reality: a reality ensured by a sub-par federal response that continues to be crippled by a president who engages in denialism, magical thinking, and a sociopathic prioritization of his re-election effort above all else. Just as Americans have demonstrated great democratic spirit in adhering to social distancing guidelines, we now collectively need to take a more active role in demanding that state and federal governments have realistic, measurable plans for rolling back the virus.