Decentralization and Secession

Although national tragedies tend to bring a country together, it seems clear that the coronavirus will leave America as divided as it has been in modern history.

The lockdowns of the past month have not been conducive to the common good. While they have saved the lives of many people, they have also endangered—and are still endangering—the lives and livelihoods of many others. They have created a new and dangerous political precedent.

The fight against COVID-19 would benefit from a comprehensive deregulation of the market for testing. A brief look at India shows the damaging roadblocks to solutions that regulations impose.

Thanks to the growth of the state over time, political stakes have become much higher, and groups fear that they will be crushed by the other side if they lose. Crisis-induced cohesion is not a silver bullet, but rather a ticking time bomb.

Thanks to the growth of the state over time, political stakes have become much higher, and groups fear that they will be crushed by the other side if they lose. Crisis-induced cohesion is not a silver bullet, but rather a ticking time bomb.

The lockdowns of the past month have not been conducive to the common good. While they have saved the lives of many people, they have also endangered—and are still endangering—the lives and livelihoods of many others. They have created a new and dangerous political precedent.

We need to move beyond the stale platitudes of trying to fix politics in DC. The chattering class’s lamentation about the divisiveness of politics is frankly silly. In some ways, polarization is our friend.

So far, when it comes to disarming the population, governments haven't been quite as terrible as one might have predicted during the COVID-19 panic.

The fact that people break curfew just proves that smaller, decentralized communities are better at organizing than a few top-down planners. Barbadian neighborhoods do a much better job of self-regulating.

The lasting and far-reaching harms caused by this authoritarian precedent far outweigh those caused by the COVID-19 virus. The American people must decide for themselves how and when to reopen society and return to their daily lives.