“You have no rights; it’s a Pandemic!!!”

This pandemic is exposing the “summer soldiers” and “sunshine patriots.” So willing to cast off their unalienable rights because “it’s a pandemic!!!!”

Patriot Retort

It seems many Americans believe that unalienable rights aren’t unalienable after all.  In the face of a pandemic, our rights are all kinds of alienable.

And many of the same people who, for three years, have sputtered in outrage that President Trump was shredding the Constitution are now, thanks to a pandemic, eager to shred our Constitution.

I stumbled across a tweet this morning that pretty much sums up this belief that a pandemic makes our rights “non-essential.”

After a Minnesota Democrat expressed outrage that Minnesotans took to the capital to protest their state’s draconian pandemic response, attorney Robert Barnes replied with this tweet:

Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t see anything especially horrifying about Barnes’ tweet.

The First Amendment protects “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

Showing disgust or anger over Americans doing just that seems a bit bizarre to me.

Then again I believe our unalienable rights are, well, unalienable – unchangeable no matter the circumstances, in good times and in bad, in normal times and during a pandemic.  That’s what unalienable means.

Then I saw this reply to Barnes’ tweet and my jaw dropped.

You hear that?  You have no rights to peaceably assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances because “it’s a pandemic!!!!!”

For this guy, “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances” comes with an asterisk.

*Except when it’s a pandemic!!!!!

“Instructed government orders” is also a deeply troubling phrase, isn’t it?

Not “laws,” but “instructed government orders.”

I read that tweet and I couldn’t believe it was written by an American citizen.

I said the other day, that what “I find terrifying is how many of our fellow citizens welcome being bossed around by their Karen Overlords.”

No free American should hold our Liberty and our unalienable rights in such low regard.

And yet, read that tweet.

This person isn’t alone in this. Far too many are willing to cast off their own unalienable rights in exchange for “safety.”

We were founded by men who pledged to each other “our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor” to defend Liberty.

And now there are some who pledge to be obedient sheep — obeying “instructed government orders” because “it’s a pandemic!!!!!”

In December of 1776, Thomas Paine wrote:

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated”

Well, in many ways this pandemic is one of those times that try men’s souls.  And we are seeing far too many “summer soldiers” and “sunshine patriots” – fair-weather believers in our unalienable rights who, at a moment of crisis, shrink from the defense of those rights.

How easy it is to cast off our Liberty while bending to obey “instructed government orders” – all in the name of “safety.”

As Benjamin Franklin once said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

But so many are willing to make that trade.  All because “it’s a pandemic!!!!!”

No government can deem our unalienable rights “non-essential.”
Not the President, not Congress, not the courts, not governors or mayors.

But they are because “it’s a pandemic!!!!!”

And so many of our fellow citizens line up to obey.

What part of “unalienable” do they not understand?