A few days ago the Wall Street Journal ran an op-ed of mine, on the new Christmas restrictions that the Italian government passed for coping with Covid19. Here’s a link (gated).
I am not a fan of the restrictions. Italians are no longer free to move through the country; they may travel only within their respective regions or between regions rated as having a similar risk status. Regions are classified according a “color code”, depending from their infection rate and an assessment for their healthcare capabilities and response. On the webpage of Istituto Bruno Leoni, you can see the “barometer of liberty”: how constitutional rights are curtailed in different areas, and how the situation has changed over time. No region is free of restrictions and we have a national curfew. Movie theaters, theaters, and gyms are closed everywhere; most schools and all universities have adopted a regime of remote teaching.
The government is forecasting that in a matter of days, since the contagion situation is improving, all regions will be “yellow” (the lower level or risk) but they’ll be all treated as red (the higher level of risk). Between December 20th and January 6th nobody will be able to leave their own regional territory. On top of that, on December 25th and 26th and on January 1st, regardless of the level of risk in their region, Italians will be confined to their respective municipalities.
I was impressed by the comments by WSJ readers, and found rather amusing the one that pointed out it was clear I wasn’t a good Catholic, since I did not figure out that Midnight Mess should end 3,5 hours ahead of the usual time and not 2 (indeed, I did not account for people going back to their places). More generally speaking, however, from comments and Twitter I got the impression that the people sympathizing with my irritation were more right-leaning.
For once, I do not think that this has to do with the WSJ readership. In the last few months, people critical of lockdowns and many other Covid19 restrictions tended to be mostly from the right. The left has been generally supporting restrictions. Perhaps some left-wingers (the cosmopolitan or “well-read” left?) are more confident in expert judgment than conservatives are, re perhaps because the discussion has been framed as a conflict between “health and the economy” and do-gooders of all persuasions couldn’t possibly side with the economy.
Before Covid19, I was beginning to believe those who were foretelling a political realignment (for example, the always insightful Steve Davies) were right. The old coalition between conservative leaning and libertarian leaning people was about to collapse, after Trumpism and Brexit. Many distinguished between “anywheres” and “somewheres-” people with roots and people with cosmopolitan attitudes, country and city. Identity politics was also making things more complicated, but seemed a force to reckon with – and, for the few libertarians, to compromise with.
Has the pandemic changed that? Will Covid19 be a defining moment, politically speaking? If so, what about political realignment? Will lockdowns and restrictions become the defining issues, dividing us politically according to our degree of enthusiasm for them? It seems to me that people on the conservative side were both more skeptical of experts and more hostile to restrictions to their own personal liberty. Is this an attitude libertarians share? Will it affect the way in which any of us sees herself politically? Or we will all be so eager to forget about Covid19 that we will go back to the same old political agreements and disagreements we had before.
READER COMMENTS
Thomas Hutcheson
Dec 16 2020 at 6:59am
I have been annoyed that critics on the right have not recognized that in principle some restrictions can be justified and have failed to suggest what the alternatives should be. [A special place in intellectual hell goes for those who argue against (even unnecessarily costly) restrictions affecting places of worship on “religious liberty” grounds. I really have having my religion used for political ends.]
It is equally annoying that MSM support for restrictions has not asked if they are cost effective and in particular if massive testing would not have allowed much less costly restrictions. Of course this is just me complaining that Progressives are not neo-liberals. 🙂
Intellectually, I find the “right’s” arbitrary support for immigration and trade restrictions with opposition to regulation of externalities like net CO2 emissions and social interactions in a pandemic even less coherent than the “left’s” just do something-ism.
drobviousso
Dec 17 2020 at 12:03pm
“A special place in intellectual hell goes for those who argue against (even unnecessarily costly) restrictions affecting places of worship on “religious liberty” grounds. I really have having my religion used for political ends.”
Well then, I guess I should be on the look out for some asbestos pants and pitchfork-proof armor. I think that NY, CA, NV etc. etc. specifically targeting religious gatherings for harsher lockdowns than their secular contemporaries is a violation of religious liberty and if I lived in those states I would not comply. Fortunately, I live in a state that treats religious gatherings exactly like any other social gathering and has promulgated rules worthy of being followed, so I do follow them.
In California, it is currently illegal for a person to sit alone in a closet and read their bible for 99.9% of the state. In NY, it was going to be illegal for many Orthodox Jews to gather in groups more than 10, and oh btw their faith has a rule that they can’t have a service unless they have 10 men so sorry, no services for you if you are a woman, never mind that the executive specifically said he was targeting the Orthodox community for harsher treatment than their non-Jew neighbors.
If you think being angry about that kind of thing damns me, so be it. After reading Gorshuch’s concurring opinion about the NYC ban, at least I’ll know I’ll have company.
drobviousso
Dec 16 2020 at 11:18am
I don’t think its “the left” that is supporting this. I think it is the chattering classes. A fair few of my friends who are on the left think that some lockdowns make sense, but in practice often are not designed very well at all. The Jacobin Magazine (“Jacobin is a leading voice of the American left, offering socialist perspectives on politics, economics, and culture”) Has a front-page headline “The Pain of Pandemic-Induced Unemployment in America Is Brutal and Unceasing.” I haven’t asked my Dem voting, progressive pastor what he thinks of the Liberty Rock situation, but I bet he would not be in favor of California attempting to ban *all* religious practice in 99.9% of the state.
As Arnold Kling has pointed out, most of the people ok with the lockdowns seem to be people who can work from a computer in their office, their home, or really anywhere.
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