{"id":15199,"date":"2020-10-27T11:40:28","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T15:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=15199"},"modified":"2020-10-27T11:40:56","modified_gmt":"2020-10-27T15:40:56","slug":"defining-despotism-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2020\/10\/27\/defining-despotism-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Defining Despotism Down"},"content":{"rendered":"
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American Institute for Economic Research, October 27, 2020<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/form>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Defining Despotism Down<\/a><\/h1>\n<\/header>\n
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\"JamesJames Bovard<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The simultaneous defining down of both democracy and despotism is 2020\u2019s darkest legacy<\/strong>. Voters are recognizing that their ballots merely choose elective dictators who can exempt themselves from the Constitution simply by pronouncing the word \u201cemergency.\u201d At the same time, despotism is being redefined to signify government failing to force people to do the right thing.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of millions of Americans were locked in their homes via governors\u2019 shutdown orders earlier this year. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has said he may decree a national lockdown<\/a> if Covid infection numbers rise. More than 10 million jobs have been lost thanks to the shutdown orders and countless misery has been imposed on scores of millions of people unnecessarily isolated from friends and family.<\/p>\n

New York, the state hit worst by Covid<\/a>, had one of the earliest and strictest lockdowns in the nation. After Gov. Andrew Cuomo swayed the legislature to give him \u201cauthorization of absolute power<\/a>,\u201d as the New Yorker<\/em> declared, he issued scores of decrees, including one compelling nursing homes to admit Covid-infected patients and permitting Covid-infected staffers to keep working at those homes. More than 10,000 New York nursing home<\/a> patients died of Covid. In June, Cuomo said the nursing homes deaths occurred \u201cbecause the staff<\/a> brought in the infection,\u201d<\/p>\n

A New Yorker <\/em>profile explained that Cuomo and his aides saw the battle over Covid policy as \u201cbetween people who believe government can be a force for good<\/a> and those who think otherwise.\u201d For many liberals and much of the nation\u2019s media, placing people under house arrest, padlocking schools, and bankrupting business vindicated government as \u201ca force for good.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the lockdowns failed to prevent almost nine million Americans from testing positive for Covid (the actual number of cases may be ten times higher<\/a>, according to the Centers for Disease Control). As AIER\u2019s Jeffrey Tucker quipped, \u201cMitigating disease through compulsory lockdowns is like cleaning your house by bombing<\/a> it.\u201d The World Health Organization\u2019s envoy for Covid-19, David Nabarro, warned that \u201clockdowns just have one consequence that you must never, ever belittle, and that is making poor people<\/a> an awful lot poorer.\u201d Nabarro also warned that \u201cwe may well have a doubling of world poverty by next year\u201d or \u201cat least a doubling of child malnutrition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lockdowns that were initially justified to \u201cflatten the curve\u201d have been perpetuated on increasingly ludicrous pretexts:<\/p>\n