What's the source of the "you're not the boss of me" view of "freedom" in America today?

Wouldn't it be preferable for America and Americans to learn the major lessons of history without having to endure death and disaster repeatedly? Might the expected second wave of the covid19 pandemic not wait until the fall of 2020?

Professor Tom Nichols may have some insight.



Nichols mentions at about 4:30 into the video that the view of freedom expressed by anti-stay-at-home activists these days echoes what you get from young children rather than what one would reasonably expect from adults. "You're not the boss of me!"

Bottom-line: not only is Trump a very sick individual with too damn much power, but efforts began decades earlier to redefine and re-educate Americans on what freedom means. Incrementally since the 1950s, freedom has taken on a decidedly narcissistic meaning. Sacrificed clandestinely on the altar of greed to the gods of Capital, civic responsibility has gradually faded from American life.

These days, most working-class Americans who -- 50 years ago would have been easily able to support a growing family on one 40-hour per week job, must have two earners who each put in north of 50 hours/week just to squeak by. Hence, they have no time or energy to get involved to support local candidates who represent their own interests.

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Yesterday, I started reading Nancy MacLean's Democracy in Chains (subtitled: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America) and it immediately stirred my soul. Professor Nancy MacLean's video below is shorter than Nichols' (above). The Kindle version of her book is available, as I write this post, for $1.99.

MacLean unearthed a movement started decades before the 1971 Powell Manifesto. It was shortly after Powell's declaration of the power of the owners of capital, that economic statistics kept by the federal government first tangibly demonstrated how laws shifted power and money to plutocrats away from working class Americans.

Where movement activists win over majorities, they make headway; when they fail to, they in time falter. This cause is different. Pushed by relatively small numbers of radical-right billionaires and millionaires who have become profoundly hostile to America’s modern system of government, an apparatus decades in the making, funded by those same billionaires and millionaires, has been working to undermine the normal governance of our democracy. Indeed, one such manifesto calls for a “hostile takeover” of Washington, D.C.

MacLean, Nancy. Democracy in Chains (p. xxxiii). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

Now, we have local GOP political consultant (hack) Chris Baker clumsily trying to make health and safety conscious small-business owners, who he believes are primarily Democrats, into a new boogie man. Of course, Baker didn't say on what he based his guess about the partisan make up of these business owners. But what's clear is that owners of capital or small-businesses are the good guys as long as they aren't Democrats.

From the Arizona Republic,

A collection of Arizona small businesses, ranging from restaurants to retailers, have published a letter on TooSoonArizona.com stating they will not be opening their doors until "credible epidemiological experts & researchers" say it's safe.

Gov. Doug Ducey allowed salons and barbershops in the state to reopen May 8 and dining rooms to reopen May 11, as long as new state safety guidelines are followed.

Restaurants across the Valley that reopened saw mixed results Monday, with Arizona Republic reporters seeing crowds of varying sizes. [...]

Danielle Leoni, who owns the Breadfruit & Rum Bar in Phoenix with her partner, Dwayne Allen, said Allen signed the letter because they didn’t feel comfortable opening Monday. 

“We don't feel that the guidelines are clear enough, concise enough or demanding enough to keep us all safe, and there's a lack of testing and there's a lack of test results,” Leoni said.

Leoni and Allen closed their Caribbean restaurant indefinitely in March and recently formed the Arizona Small Restaurant Coalition to advocate on behalf of the restaurant industry.

“There's nothing we have ever faced that has been more grave than what we're facing today and it can't be taken lightly,” Leoni said. “Reopening is not a matter of making sure we have a balanced budget. Money doesn't matter when it's either money or your life, and that's why you don't see small businesses clamoring to open today. Most of us are hesitant, and it's because it's just there's not enough value.”

Makes one wonder what David Schweikert's buddy Chris Baker has against small-business owners who reasonably understand that guidelines Doug Ducey authorized are not clear enough, concise enough, or demanding enough to keep them, their families and their customers safe.