Government overreach and authoritarianism

After the COVID-19 pandemic, how did the Republicans come off as more authoritarian than the Democrats? Actually, I have some ideas. In short, our views of government overreach and authoritarianism swing wildly based on partisan convenience.

We viewed mask and vaccine mandates as perfectly reasonable demands from our government. Democrats quickly labeled anyone who opposed government force as authoritarian. Yes, some of us do view threats to livelihoods as a form of force. Definitionally, we had this backwards. Government force is authoritarian. Rejection is not.

How did the Democrats get away with this narrative? There were Republican governors who actually prohibited these mandates. Preventing others from implementing these policies was viewed as going too far. Of course, no rational person will agree that prohibiting the use of force is more authoritarian than requiring force.

We have seen these contradictions in several other places as well. For years, Roe v. Wade was considered law. The Supreme Court is not supposed to have the power to create law. The U.S. Constitution also makes it very clear that abortions are not a federal issue. The ruling in Roe v. Wade and the legal framework created was clearly overreach from the Supreme Court. Democrats have always defended this ruling.

More recently, the Supreme Court ruled that the Supreme Court does not have this kind of power. How did the Democrats respond? They called this ruling authoritarian overreach. The Supreme Court should not have so much power that they can rule they lack power.

Once again, we have a question to ask. Which is more authoritarian, the Supreme Court dictating law nationwide, or the Supreme Court ruling that they don't have the power to dictate law nationwide? To me, this is obvious.

What about executive actions from our president? When the DREAM Act failed, Barack Obama created DACA. Although the president has veto power, he does not have the authority to unilaterally enact legislation that was rejected.

When Donald Trump was in office, he issued an executive order saying DACA was no longer in effect. Democrats cried authoritarianism once again. Regardless of what you think about Trump or DACA, do you honestly believe that it is more authoritarian to create laws through executive action than to bring an executive action to an end?

A lot of accusations of authoritarianism have been tied to election policies. Voter ID laws are treated as authoritarian because they can unfairly tilt elections in favor of the party enacting these laws. Meanwhile, Democrats have been looking for ways to completely remove their opposition from ballots. For example, most liberal states tried to use Trump's refusal to release his taxes as an excuse to remove his name from ballots. If they didn't become distracted by the COVID-19 pandemic, who knows if they would have succeeded.

I should probably clarify something. I am definitely not a MAGA Republican. That doesn't mean that I want the Democrats to resort to cheating. Removing opposition from ballots in liberal states would do far more to suppress the opposing party than voter ID laws. Simply put, the Democrats were behind the biggest voter suppression effort that I have ever seen.

Perhaps even more bizarre than these examples is some of the arguments that I have heard about school vouchers. Giving children an option to learn away from government control is somehow meant to help authoritarian governments gain control. If you oppose authoritarianism, you are supposed to support trapping as many children as possible in an environment in which government workers are openly boasting that they are molding minds. These schools are training citizens from a young age to show obedience to authoritarian figures. By the way, good luck finding examples of authoritarian governments that have ceded the power to control and restrict education.

It seems as though Democrats support authoritarianism whenever it backs their personal views. Regardless of what you think about abortions, DACA, voter suppression, or education, the Democrats have clearly embraced an authoritarian approach to governing. Yes, Donald Trump has crossed some big lines, but the Democrats tend to go even further. If you are truly concerned with our nation becoming too authoritarian, you need to stop giving the Democrats a free pass. As of right now, they're worse than Trump.