“Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” These are listed as three of our unalienable rights in the Declaration of Independence that are to be protected by our government. Life during the COVID-19 pandemic, however, has left people with an overwhelming sense of helplessness, restriction, and despair. Our freedom, a central facet of American democracy, feels like it has been taken away from us with stay at home orders, requirements to wear masks, and the lack of normalcy we’re experiencing. The circumstances make us feel as if we’re living in a communist society rather than our cherished democracy.
The American people are experiencing increased frustration with their limited freedom. Protests are breaking out, and it seems as if distrust in the government is at an all-time high. In any government, a certain amount of freedom is given up in order to ensure the overall protection of its people, but being confined to our homes was certainly unprecedented. Many Americans are clinging to their rights now, and seem more fearful of compromised liberty than they are of a virus that jeopardizes the health of themselves and their loved ones.
Are current restrictions on daily life truly reflective of a loss of liberty, though? Is it not the responsibility of our elected officials to govern in accordance with what’s in our best interest? Would they upset their constituents so deeply without good reason? Would a government that has championed a firm belief in individual liberty since its founding place that in jeopardy just for the sake of it?
Our freedoms are not being limited by an authoritarian regime on a power trip; rather, for the sake of our country and its people, we are being called to put aside our pride to “promote the general Welfare” of our beloved nation. Submission to the laws that protect us do not compromise our freedom––they ensure it. For example, the law prohibits us from assaulting someone. This law limits our freedom by prohibiting certain actions. Despite this, we accept it as necessary for our safety and respect the government’s right to enforce it. Just as laws prohibiting assault do not diminish our freedom, neither do temporary stay at home orders.
COVID-19 may be making us feel repressed, but we must be cognizant of our nation’s overwhelmingly strong sense of democracy. The transparency with which our current administration has been dealing with the matter evidences the benefits we experience over nations like China. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) initial condemnation of Dr. Li Wenliang after his foresight of the virus reflects a regime that values its image over the general well-being and protection of its people. Our commitment to democracy through free speech and the ability to criticize our government’s policies reinforces our strength. We still have our freedom, even though we may not be able to express it as liberally as we would like to at the moment.
The U.S. government is trying to preserve our freedom as best it can, whereas China has been able to manipulate the situation to extract more private information out of its people. As a way to combat the spread of the virus, tracking apps have been developed that, when installed on one’s phone, can monitor who someone’s come into contact with (even in passing), and notify them if they may have been exposed to the virus. People throughout China have been required to install these apps and are assigned different levels of restrictions based on their risk level. So not only does the government have access to their locations, but some individuals’ movements will be restricted over others. The CCP can easily abuse this system to silence perceived threats from the public––an action that would not be surprising coming from their authoritarian regime. The United States is working on similar technology that is expected to come out soon, but participation is likely to be voluntary. Though the technology would certainly be useful in silencing the virus, our democracy is firm enough to recognize when one’s right to privacy has been totally breached. This is a privilege that those in communist countries do not have the benefit of experiencing.
Though still holding onto our freedoms, the pandemic cannot help but give us some insight into what life in a socialist state entails. We have seldom faced food shortages and limited resources, but now, the items we took for granted are missing from their place on the shelves, and going to the grocery store resembles a battle more than it does a shopping trip. Shoppers line up before stores even open in an effort to purchase the items their families need. Leisure has left the equation. Necessities as basic as toilet paper and paper towels are sold in limited quantities to each shopper. Hospitals are struggling with the resources they have, desperate for face masks and even medicine in general. This may not be abnormal in a socialist country like Venezuela, but it is certainly not what one expects in a democracy like the United States.
The dissatisfaction and uncomfortable way of living that Americans refuse to get used to is perhaps emblematic of the inevitable failure a socialist leader would face in the U.S. The prospect of socialism has been making a revival in the U.S. in the past few years, especially by the presence of the populist Bernie Sanders in his two consecutive attempts at securing the Democratic presidential nomination. Americans value freedom and prosperity, and either of these being compromised would result in even more extreme displeasure if it were the result of permanently intended legislation. The implications of socialism would not fare well in a strong democracy such as the United States.
COVID-19 has placed Americans under unforeseen restrictions that have often felt like an infringement on our freedom. And though we are temporarily unable to move as liberally as we once did, we must stay resilient by practicing social distancing if we wish to experience our freedom in its full form soon. We are fortunate to be under the leadership of a democratic state that acts in a way that seeks to ensure our individual liberty and takes any limits on it with the utmost seriousness. It is now that we must come together as a nation by staying apart.