Government Regulation

Everything that we touch in our daily lives; everything that makes our lives possible; everything that makes us more comfortable and more prosperous; comes to us in only two ways. It is either grown or it is mined. That is a universal truth. Everything is either grown or mined. Fortunately, nature has given us a superabundance of resources and left it to us to responsibly reap and manage this bounty. But it is precisely these resources that the left has waged war against for a full generation. The very things that make us prosperous and comfortable are the things the left attempts to put off limits. Is it any wonder that the more they extend their domain, the worse the human conditions that they produce?

We are now nearly a year into the most self-destructive social experiment in the recorded history of human civilization. On this day a year ago, we enjoyed the greatest economic expansion in our lifetimes. The poverty rate was the lowest in 60 years. The unemployment rate was the lowest in 50 years. Wage growth was the strongest in 40 years. The wage gap was narrowing, with blue collar wages growing the fastest. Unemployment rates for minority groups and women was the lowest ever recorded. And then, over a course of just a few catastrophic weeks, our government took a wrecking ball to it all. In the second quarter, GDP plunged by a third – the worst decline in productivity ever recorded. Unemployment exploded to its highest levels since the great depression. Tens of millions of Americans lost their jobs. Trillions of dollars of the nation’s wealth were squandered.

Many Americans still have serious concerns about the integrity of the vote in this election, and rightly so. In-person Election Day voting, with all the safeguards inherent in that system, has been replaced with mass mailing of ballots to every name on voter rolls that may be deceased or have moved, often followed by ballot harvesters to collect the surplus ballots and with no chain of custody.

Governor Newsom made a truly stunning discovery regarding Covid-19 last week. Apparently, it has learned to tell time. This is why, acting under the strictest of scientific standards, he has used his galactic powers to order Californians to run home before 10 pm, lock their doors and hide from this insidious virus until daybreak. Unfortunately, Covid doesn’t seem to be following the curfew, so Newsom is now threatening a “hard lockdown” of virtually the entire state throughout the Christmas season. Don we now our plague apparel. There’s just one nagging question the Governor hasn’t bothered to answer: if these lockdowns are so successful, why do we need to keep having them?

I rise this morning in defense of Governor Gavin Newsom who recently defied his own idiotic Covid edicts as he partied at one of the few restaurants that he has not yet forced out of business. I defend him because he was doing what we all once did in a free society: make our own decisions over what risks we are willing to run and what precautions we are willing to take according to our own circumstances to protect our own health.

The NATURE of democracy is that in every election there is always a winner and a loser. The SUCCESS of democracy depends on the loser believing the vote was fair and accepting the result. The VOTE is not the foundation of our democracy – the INTEGRITY of the vote is its foundation. That is just as important for the winner as it is for the loser. The winners depend on the integrity of the vote for their legitimacy. The losers depend on it for their acceptance. That is precisely the issue in the aftermath of this election.

Quarantine is the forced confinement of a person who has contracted or been exposed to an infectious disease. Although it is a long-standing police power of governments, it is seldom used because seldom needed – sick people generally stay home on their own. When it must be used, it is subject to due process: the right to contest the order in court, to present evidence that the order is invalid, and to have it vacated. What is happening today is radically different and profoundly un-American: the indefinite and indiscriminate home detention without due process of perfectly healthy people on the pretext that they might catch a contagious disease...

Marijuana decriminalization may be one of the few issues upon which bipartisan agreement can still be reached in this session. It doesn’t require endorsing cannabis – on the contrary. There is clear evidence that marijuana use can cause long-term neurological problems in children and adolescents, and no one should approach the use of any drug without caution and moderation. I believe we should do everything we can to prevent its use by children and warn of its use by adults. But it should be crystal clear that our laws have not accomplished their goals...