Fred Weinberg: The Government Is Embracing a Worrying Concept Under Cover of COVID
The big news of Thanksgiving Day was that the Supreme Court of the United States ruled the night before that New York’s Emmy-winning butthead governor could not restrict the religious gatherings of Orthodox Jews or devout Catholics.
In point of fact, the ruling mimics a 1977 ruling.
“In a per curiam opinion, the Court held that Illinois must provide strict procedural safeguards, including appellate review, to deny a stay for an injunction depriving the Nazi Party of protected First Amendment rights,” according to Oyez.
That was the Warren Burger court’s ruling in the case of National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie.
That’s right. The American Nazi Party versus the then-largely Jewish town of Skokie, Illinois, in which the American Civil Liberties Union represented the Nazi Party as a matter of First Amendment principle.
The ACLU is no longer as principled. In fact, it condemned the Thanksgiving eve decision. The executive director of the affiliate New York Civil Liberties Union said the ruling would “undermine New York’s efforts to curb the pandemic.”
“The freedom to worship is one of our most cherished fundamental rights, but it does not include a license to harm others or endanger public health,” said Daniel Mach, director of the ACLU Program of Freedom of Religion and Belief.
Especially if that claim of endangering public health comes from the flapping piehole of a socialist wannabe dictator like Andrew Cuomo.
That’s funny. And it spells out that liberal orthodoxy is more important in 2020 than actual civil liberties, at least to the American Civil Liberties Union.
You know what “undermines” New York’s efforts to curb the pandemic?
A certain governor who directed COVID patients to be admitted to nursing homes where many of them subsequently died.
As a friend of mine put it, if the government were put in charge of the Sahara Desert, the sand would be gone in three years.
Why is it that government officials suddenly embrace the concept that the people who elected them are too stupid to make other decisions for them?
In Nevada, we have a governor who thinks that casinos should be able to operate more freely than religious institutions. And we’re guessing that the Thanksgiving eve decision by Justice Amy Coney Barrett and the Supremes may serve as the writing on the wall to him.
Denver’s mayor told his constituents not to travel — just before he boarded a flight to Houston to visit his daughter in Mississippi, and said that his wife was already there.
Now that’s leadership!
In point of fact, there is good reason not to celebrate Thanksgiving with ten 70+ family members who have diabetes, fresh from the airport after flying in.
But moronic dictates from public officials who almost never get it right is the wrong way to go about it.
Just like the ACLU embracing liberal politics before actual civil liberties.
You just can’t trust liberals to be consistent anymore.
If there’s a message in all of this it is that you, I and most of America are not stupid. If we’re smart enough to elect some of these putzes, we’re smart enough to evaluate the risks involved in everyday life. And if we make the wrong decisions, well, this is America and that’s life. In a free country, those decisions are ours to make.
Everybody has the option to stay home, not have guests and isolate.
Those decisions depend on circumstances, current health, etc. But they are best made by us, not some politician with a wannabe dictator complex.
Andrew Cuomo and Steve Sisolak were not elected because they are so smart they can make decisions for all of us despite the fact they know nothing about us individually.
If there is an error to be made, let’s follow the Supreme Court and err on the side of liberty.
The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
