Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) no longer sees any reason to continue the COVID-19 lockdowns, which have ravaged the U.S. economy, leaving millions out-of-work and millions more uncertain about the future.
Speaking with Breitbart News Daily, Crenshaw said that he supported the lockdowns initially to “flatten the curve” but now thinks that people have been mentally manipulating themselves into a place of fear.
“I think we had plenty to reason to lockdown at first for the stated goals of saving our hospital system and for flattening the curve to some extent, but I fail to see any excuse for the continuation of those lockdowns,” Crenshaw said. “We’ve kind of mentally manipulated ourselves into this abundance of fear.”
On the flip side, Crenshaw said that Americans do need to have a sense of duty with their freedom by being responsible out in public: wearing a mask in public, avoiding people in close spaces, etc.
“We also have a duty to live responsibly with our freedom, just as we always do. Put your shopping cart back, wear a mask in close spaces, and don’t touch people so that we can get back to normal life, maintaining the spread of the virus while also getting our economy back up and running,” Crenshaw said.
Crenshaw is far from the only conservative Republican questioning the veracity of ongoing lockdowns. Last week, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) sparred with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, over the idea that schools may still be closed in the upcoming fall.
“I think that … we’re going to have a national one-size-fits-all approach — nobody’s going to go to school, is kind of ridiculous,” Paul told Fauci. “We really ought to be doing it school district by school district, and the power needs to be dispersed because people make wrong predictions.”
“We ought to have a little bit of humility in our belief that we know what’s best for the economy,” Paul continued. “And, as much as I respect you, Dr. Fauci, I don’t think you’re the end-all. I don’t think you’re the one person that gets to make the decision. We can listen to your advice, but there are people on the other sides saying that there’s not going to be a surge, and we can safely open the economy and the facts will bear this out.”
Nevertheless, Democratic governors and mayors have been selling doom and gloom 24/7 with promises to never reopen unless a vaccine arises while advising people to accept this sad state of affairs as the “new normal.”
“You, too, should expect to continue with this for the foreseeable future,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) said on Monday. “Until either a proven vaccine is in our midst or proven therapeutics are widely available, we cannot firmly enter the new normal, which eventually awaits us when life will once again return to all of our workplaces, downtowns and main streets. Most importantly, we will continue to be guided by the principle that public health creates economic health. And if we begin to see a backslide in public health, we will have to also pull back on the reins of our restart.”
“We have to all recognize that we’re not moving beyond COVID-19, we’re learning to live with it,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said. “There’s no so-called ‘open state’ or ‘open country’ that doesn’t continue to have health orders telling us to cover our faces, physical distance and to tell people that you’re safest working from and staying at home.”
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