Ben Stein explains in an American Spectator column why the California governor’s recent actions should cause concern.
… [O]ur Governor, “Pretty Boy” Gavin Newsom, had just ordered us Californians to stay indoors and in our homes for the foreseeable future.
The reason, of course, is the highly contagious Coronavirus which apparently has spread like wildfire all over the Golden State in the last two months. …
… I feel as if I am in a police state. Now, Mr. Newsom has emergency powers authority. But if you study the language of those powers, it’s implied that these powers are meant for wartime use and there’s nothing in there about illness.
Still, all government behavior in a constitutional democracy is subject to being reasonable. Mr. Newsom could not, for example, order the California National Guard to invade Oregon and seize Medford.
So, what is the reasonableness behind this lockdown? That 55 percent contagion rate figure, by the way, turned out to be totally made up. It came from thin air and had no real world correlatives. That’s no way for a governor to behave. I assume of course that it’s about the highly contagious nature of the Coronavirus. And apparently it is highly contagious. But it’s not insanely contagious so far. …
… Does this merit a police state, even a “soft” police state? We have about 20,000 dying a month from the effects of cigarette smoking. So, what’s next? Arresting people as they buy their smokes? Pulling people over if they are smoking? And are we really forbidding freedom of assembly even for worship?
