Not at all. The unprecedented amount of power being exercised by a single man *IS* what concerns me. Neither the big bad Delta variant nor the experimental vaccines worry me nearly as much as authoritarian government.
As a hat tip to One Brow, he did point out that current government actions aren’t entirely unprecedented in pointing to Wickard v. Filburn. Nearly all of that case has long since been overturned but it did come from a time where America did try to transform into the direction we once again seem headed.
Not only was the central government mandating how much grain farmers could grow as was decided in Wickard v Filbern by FDR’s handpicked Supreme Court, but the central government also mandated pricing. A tailor and cleaner named Jacob Maged was jailed for 30 days and fined for the crime of charging 35¢ cents to press a suit instead of the NRA mandated 40¢ cents.
It wasn’t just the centrally controlled economy but the government also constructed internment camps for those they didn’t trust. Some buildings at Manzanar where 120,000 Americans were incarcerated for no crime at all, are still standing.
The government also made it a crime to criticize the government. Walter Chaplinsky was arrested for calling a government official a “fascist”. The case went all the way to FDR’s handpicked Supreme Court in Chaplinksy v. New Hampshire who upheld the arrest, and now we technically have a “Fighting Words” exception to the First Amendment.
Maybe these intrusions on freedoms aren’t unprecedented, but at least FDR worked with a democrat majority House, democrat majority Senate, and a Supreme Court in which he picked 8 of the 9 justices. Biden has the House and Senate yet Executive Orders everything.
I am not a fan of central government intrusions on non-interstate business, not a fan of fighting words doctrine / hate speech laws, not a fan of shanty towns / homeless encampments, not a fan of internment / stay-at-home orders for citizens who have committed no crime, not a fan of the economic damage caused by politicians who think they can command an economy into vitality.
I am against government overstepping Constitutional bounds even in efforts that appear noble on the surface. It is the point, and I don’t think it is unfair to be concerned.