“What a bunch of [gash darned golly gee bovine excrement]!!!” said a man I know who lives on the golf course of his private country club. “He’s welcome to come try to arrest me!”

That understandably profane rant, which followed Gov. Steve Sisolak’s latest order saying that golf courses and other outdoor recreation be shut down to fight the coronavirus, then devolved into griping about how overblown the whole public health panic is, and how golf is one of the safest things there is to do, and how golf compares to all of the other things that are still being allowed right now.

I’m starting to hear versions of this more and more often, and in more and more contexts. I bet you have, too. I do not doubt the seriousness of the health risk, but am increasingly skeptical of the societal cure. People are getting awfully restless, and if COVID-19 is as virulent and as deadly as initial models suggested, that restlessness could be dangerous. 

Why, then, is the government fanning the flames of that restlessness?

***

There are nations in the world, past and present, which have made submission, surveillance, and snitching their national policies. Indeed, historically speaking, that’s been the norm. And there are times when a vigilant public, aggressive government action, and even a temporary deprivation of our liberties, seems to serve the greater good. But the legitimacy of what continues to be an officially declared emergency that still has no real end in sight is now riding on a razor’s edge. 

I said three weeks ago that massive intrusions into our liberty for some common cause will be accepted by a free people for only so long. Such intrusions must be narrowly tailored to actually address the problem at hand, must be justified both legally and efficaciously with crystal clarity, must not be enforced arbitrarily or capriciously — and victory must be defined well enough that we can all see the light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how long the tunnel is.

Take the military draft, which up until now is probably the single most intrusive example (at least since the Emancipation Proclamation) of our government’s power to dominate otherwise free citizens. Virtually every male of a certain age in this country is eligible to be called up, made to quit his job, trained in military arts, and ordered into deadly combat. 

Where the cause is righteous, and the price of failure to defend our nation to crystal clear, Americans and other free people have been willing to accept this enormous imposition on their freedom, and indeed, upon their very lives. By the end of World War II, 10 million Americans had been inducted into military service, with another 40 million registered for the draft whether they liked it or not. 

The alternative was to surrender to nations and governments who greatly restricted their people’s freedoms, prevented them from traveling freely and without government documentation and permission, and who encouraged neighbors to rat each other out to their government to keep order. Americans used to be willing to risk and give their lives to prevent such a fate from befalling their homeland. By the end of the war, 405,399 thousand had been killed while another 670,846 had been injured. The deaths alone represented 0.39 percent of our total population – the equivalent of 1.29 million people today. And of course, plenty of people on the home front suffered restrictions, from government censored mail to ration cards to limits on what kind of work you could do – the Great Depression economy did not truly recover until after WWII, when private companies were creating consumer goods of real lasting value.

Those deaths and deprivations were part of the price we paid to maintain our freedom – not just to worship as we pleased or speak against the government, but also to be economically free, meaning to own property, start a business, and otherwise chase the American Dream. We were fighting for our freedom, yes, but also for a way of life worth living and protecting.

But as importantly, it was known that the deprivations would end, and if not exactly when, at least how they would end. And a generation later, when the draft was used less wisely, with the cost-benefit of sacrifice less clear, that exercise of power undermined our government authority in ways which echo to this very day.

***

On Monday, Gov. Sisolak scolded his citizens (again), and threatened to “tighten the faucet” of our liberties if we weren’t behaving according to the ephemeral standards of his emergency edicts. The moralizing busybodies of Nevada (always a pox on a free society) got involved, and apparently were sending the governor pictures of (gasp!) golfers standing too close together. Two days later, Sisolak cited these snitchy photos as proof that “It didn’t work,” “It” meaning treating adults like adults. 

The governor has lost sight of the purpose of his experiment with extraordinary power. People are already congregating regularly in small clumps – we call them “families” and “household members.” I shall confess that I went golfing a few weeks ago, and did not always maintain six feet of distance from my golf partners, who also happened to be the wife and children I also share a house (and germs) with. 

On the other hand, the governor has no problem continuing to allow construction crews on such absolutely non-essential projects as a football stadium (which never should have been approved for construction with public funds in the first place) to go to work every day, cluster together, touch the same tools and building materials, and otherwise do the things we are told will spread this virus around and make our collective quarantine last that much longer. Why? Because “it’s what’s going to help us get through this economy,” and “I don’t want another 100,000 or more filing for unemployment, if I can avoid it.”

Don’t get me wrong – I’m glad people are working when they can, and I don’t want those folks collecting unemployment either. But you can make that same argument for literally every single job in the state, from casino workers to retailers to barbers. And if the most socially distant of all possible outdoor games is so dangerous to the public health that golf must be banned and criminal prosecution threatened – if the virus is that deadly and that virulent – then it stands to reason that we probably ought not force or even allow laborers to risk their lives for a football stadium to be ready in time for a season likely to be delayed at this point anyway.

And if you scoff at the triviality of golf, then what about religious services or family gatherings?  What Gov. Sisolak is telling us is that his pet stadium project is worth the health risk, but getting together with your own family on Easter Sunday is not. 

That sound you just heard is the air rushing in to fill the vacuum created by the abrupt disappearance of the governor’s “emergency” credibility. 

This sort of logically inconsistent and even hypocritical on-the-fly policy making is what invites pushback. He’s practically begging people to defiantly get together in homes instead of front driveways, to keep away from nosey neighbors and patrolling squad cars. We tend to stop believing something is a crisis when the people telling us it’s a crisis aren’t acting like it’s a crisis when their own interests are on the line.

***

What matters is not how many people can be tattled or shamed into compliance with ever-increasingly dubious edicts from a governor who seems progressively untethered by humility, perspective, or an understanding of the balance between liberty and safety. No – what matters is whether our health care delivery system is being overwhelmed, or whether bodies are stacking up in the streets, justifying this unprecedented curtailment of American freedom. So far, the curve indeed seems to be flattening, with cases which require hospitalization peaking far below what many models initially projected, even with mitigation taken into account.

COVID-19 ain’t beanbag, but it also hasn’t lived up to some of its more apocalyptic expectations, either. Last weekend, even taking into account that most of America is effectively on house arrest already, the U.S. Surgeon General declared that this past week was to be “our Pearl Harbor moment.” But it wasn’t. In hot spots like Seattle and New York, emergency military hospitals are (or were) seeing very limited numbers, and new cases seem to be decreasing. Nothing undermines credibility of authority than predictions of doom that never come to pass.

“That means these draconian measures are working!” you may say, and you may well be correct. But the virus is not going to magically go away in May – it’s part of our world now. How long can we stay in isolation?  Burning Man’s announced cancellation is a terrible canary in the coal mine – are we really willing to keep ourselves shut away through September, or longer? I’m not. And I won’t be alone.

The devastation these actions have taken have already been dire, and a lengthy extension of this shutdown will bring immeasurable and irreparable suffering. It is not just stock portfolios for the monocle-and-top-hat set, either. Please don’t give me any garbage about any economic price to save a life – more than 36,000 people die in car accidents every year in this country, and we recognize it as a cost of living our lives, driving ourselves and our families to work, school, or play. And economic devastation has its own health tolls – who do you think pays for government education or social services or law enforcement if no one is left to pay taxes?  Who donates to charity who doesn’t have a job? What is the mental health impact of all this isolation and screen time and lost savings and anxiety over The Plague? Humans aren’t built to live alone.

Enforcing moratoriums on evictions is great, but what happens when four months of rent is due in August, or when landlords lose the properties? How many local businesses can stay alive through the summer, meaning indefinite lost revenue? How many government employees will be furloughed or out-and-out laid off? I’m fine with a lot fewer bureaucrats we’ve proven aren’t needed, but a lot less fine with less cops, fewer social workers, and reduced mental health services. 

I have presumptively innocent clients sitting in jail – one of whom invoked his right to a speedy and public jury trial and is now not getting it – whose cases are seemingly indefinitely delayed due to court administrative orders. Justice delayed is often justice denied for defendants and victims of crime alike – for how much longer can we keep our courtrooms closed or greatly restrict access to them?

***

I have no doubt there will be some commenters on this column who will accuse me of “dangerously” trying to undermine mitigation efforts. A few will even suggest that pushback against government efforts ought not be allowed, and free speech ought to be yet one more “temporary” casualty of this pandemic. Some will say I’m “anti-science” because I question, even though aggressive and constant skepticism is the beating heart of the scientific method.

But that is exactly wrong. I want my family and friends and community safe from a terrible illness and overwhelmed hospitals. I want the government to respond wisely – and part of the way to get better outcomes from government is to push against that government when they begin to act foolishly, arbitrarily, or in a way that discredits the sacrifices earlier generations made for our freedoms. I want the credibility of my government to remain intact, so when extraordinary measures are required, people can have faith that those actions are truly warranted, justified, and temporary. 

And in the end, the cost must be justified by the benefit – a calculation which must be studied, clearly explained, and reexamined on a regular basis. This isn’t just economic, but cultural as well. I did not put on my nation’s uniform and deploy three times so I could raise my family in fear of my neighbors ratting me out to government agents for getting together with friends or family, or so police could demand to see my papers while I travel about, or so one man could wave his pen and declare mine or my neighbors’ ability to support our families indefinitely on hold.

Based on Gov. Sisolak’s actions to date, my confidence is quickly waning that these costs are justified, and wanes more every time he addresses us as if we were unruly children, issuing decrees that are often unclear or make little logical sense. 

I agree with the governor about one thing – this is not a game. Millions of real people are suffering every day in the name of preventing suffering. The longer we try to mitigate one crisis, the more countless others will metastasize. It is time for more serious, humble, and holistic approaches to this problem. We need solutions which ensure net reductions in total societal pain, while defining and planning for ultimate victory and a return to normalcy and freedom.

Orrin Johnson has been writing and commenting on Nevada and national politics since 2007. He started with an independent blog, First Principles, and was a regular columnist for the Reno Gazette-Journal from 2015-2016. By day, he is a criminal defense attorney in Reno, and will be happy to defend you if your snitchy neighbors get you arrested. Follow him on Twitter @orrinjohnson, or contact him at [email protected].