Some elements of our society have enjoyed covid. Many liberals like shutting down other people’s businesses, expanding government powers and generally bossing the rest of us around. Mask mandates have been especially popular on the left because they are a cheap form of virtue signaling and a visible sign of liberals’ power over the rest of us. There are, I think, many on the left who really don’t want to see covid hysteria end. Ever, or at least until it can be replaced by something else.
Thus, deep-blue Oregon is contemplating a permanent mask-wearing requirement.
A top health official is considering indefinitely extending rules requiring masks and social distancing in all businesses in the state.
The proposal would keep the rules in place until they are “no longer necessary to address the effects of the pandemic in the workplace.”
Michael Wood, administrator of the state’s department of Occupational Safety and Health, said the move is necessary to address a technicality in state law that requires a “permanent” rule to keep current restrictions from expiring.
Oregon Democrats assure residents that even though the rule is permanent, it will be repealed someday. But when? Like Dr. Fauci, Oregon’s officials can’t tell us when that day will ever come:
Officials said they have every intent to repeal the rule, and that decision will be made based on a complex mix of factors, including case counts, vaccination rates, case severity and advice from the Oregon Health Authority.
“It will be a complicated assessment when we do it, and I would say it is impossibly complicated to do in advance,” Wood said.
I will hazard a prediction: if it is implemented, the permanent rule will be repealed only when Oregonians engage in mass civil disobedience, refusing to obey it. But it might not come to that. Record numbers of public comments have flowed in, opposing the proposed rule, and 60,000 have signed a petition against it.
The point goes broadly for all of America. Liberals love covid restrictions and the arbitrary power they give to governments. They won’t stop bullying the rest of us until we make them stop.
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