Rules Are For the Little People

Every day, it seems, we see another story about governors and mayors (all of them Democrats, seemingly) who impose orders on the rest of us and then break them themselves. This New York Post cover itemizes some of these instances, but by no means all:

In California, a restaurant owner was shut down by order of Mayor Garcetti, only to find that she was in the wrong business–i.e., a small one. The rules that are driving her out of business don’t apply to the movie industry:

In Minnesota, Larvita McFarquhar’s case has become famous. Even the Daily Mail has picked up on her story. I wrote about Larvita here and here. Larvita believes that the governor’s shutdown order is both unconstitutional and unwarranted. She also points out that government is trying to prevent her from opening her business, a restaurant/bar called Havens Garden, while at the same time insisting that she pay her property taxes. The state’s latest move is to cancel Havens Garden’s food and beverage licenses. This short video about Larvita was produced by Center of the American Experiment:

The current shutdown order in Minnesota closes all restaurants and bars, along with gyms and health clubs, even though the state’s own records indicate that, of sources of infection that can be tracked, restaurants and bars account for only 1.7%, and gyms a small fraction of a percent. By any normal standard, the governor’s order is arbitrary and capricious. But years will probably go by before the courts rule definitively on the legality of arbitrary one-man rule in Minnesota, California and other states. In the meantime, small business owners like Larvita McFarquhar and the restaurant owner in Los Angeles are being devastated, while those favored by government–generally, big business–are thriving. It remains to be seen how long small business people and ordinary Americans will be willing to put up with this situation.

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