Kass: How much liberty do we want to give up as government fights deadly coronavirus?

Photo by Charles Rex Arbogast of The Associated Press / Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker listens to a question after announcing a shelter in place order to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus during a news conference on Friday, March 20, 2020, in Chicago.
Photo by Charles Rex Arbogast of The Associated Press / Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker listens to a question after announcing a shelter in place order to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus during a news conference on Friday, March 20, 2020, in Chicago.

When Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced his statewide stay-at-home order Friday to help fight the coronavirus, I faced a conflict of interest:

I love that old American motto from our War of Independence from England: Live free or die.

But here's the conflict. When it comes to the coronavirus, I'd rather not die. In fact, I wouldn't mind if I were able to remain very much alive.

Pritzker clearly knew of the dangers of crowds spreading the infection. He warned about the spread of it in bars and restaurants and sporting events. So, he shut them down.

Yet he also stubbornly insisted the polls be open last week for the Illinois primary, with thousands of voters and poll workers put in close contact, and quite possibly contracting and spreading the illness.

But I'm also a late onset Type 1 diabetic - a member of "immunocompromised community "at risk of the coronavirus. And so, I've hunkered down, like many of you.

In announcing his order, Pritzker was compassionate and reasonable. He said: "I am choosing between saving people's lives and saving people's livelihoods. But ultimately you can't have a livelihood if you don't have your life."

Such logic is impeccable. I only wish he'd employed it to postpone the primary elections of last Tuesday. It's quite likely that the people of this state were exposed to serve the personal ambitions of the political elites. And it's that kind of elitist attitude that erodes confidence in government when we need it most.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, America was united. We were so united that we didn't see the national security state descending upon us, the cameras, the spymasters listening to our phone calls. Americans were so rattled they'd say ridiculous, stupid things like, "Let the government listen. What do I have to hide?"

And it was then that the Constitution moaned in pain. But those Americans welcoming government to search their cellphones without warrants were oblivious.

The conservative in me instinctively rebels at government using a crisis to increase its reach. What makes this one worse is seeing the political operatives and their mouthpieces stoking and playing a dangerous game with their sharp toys of fear and tribal loathing, in order to leverage power.

But the realist in me understands that Pritzker's stay-at-home order is exactly what government is for.

Because if government is for anything, it's about enforcing our borders. And protecting its citizens from a pandemic like this, or at least attempting to mitigate the absolute social chaos that could follow as resources become scarce. One day, we're fighting over toilet paper. How viciously will we fight over ventilators and hospital beds?

Those who can hold two opposing views in their heads at the same time understand this. Government uses crisis and fear as a means to extend power. It's natural progression. It's more about bureaucratic efficiency than about some spy fantasy involving classically educated overlords sitting at a great mahogany conference table, one with a cat, laughing mercilessly.

That comes later, as James Clapper, the Obama administration's director of national intelligence, proved in 2013. He lied to Congress when asked by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon if the NSA was collecting "any type of data at all" on millions of Americans. "No sir," Clapper said. He also said, "Not wittingly."

Clapper was not punished. Clapper was a made man. And now other made men and women, United States senators, have been revealed to have dumped stock worth millions after private briefings over the virus, and before the market tanked.

Among them is Sen. Richard Burr, the Republican of North Carolina and chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, considered to be the Senate's expert on pandemics. He should be fully investigated, and if found guilty of insider trading, he should be sentenced to prison.

We each have our responsibility in this war against the virus. We stay inside. And government has its job. To preserve order.

But the last thing the republic needs right now are pigs who might feel like proclaiming that all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

The Chicago Tribune

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