Freedom

We've seen that American politics can survive pandemics and other crises. That's good. But what about political campaigns?

A number of state and local governments have delayed primary elections out of concerns for voter safety during the current epidemic. While such precautionary measures may seem alien, the nation ha conducted its political business (including voting) in times or war, economic collapse, and yes, epidemic.

Concerns about whether some in governments would the coronavirus epidemic to curtail certain rights have been around since the first emergency declarations were issued. As Reason's J.D.

Social distancing is supposed to be a relatively easy tool for hindering the spread of the coronavirus. For some people, however, social distancing has brought their social frustrations (and worse) to the surface.

Governments react poorly to crises, and the coronavirus epidemic is proving that in spades.

Among the more difficult debates underway is whether we should keep the nation's economic life on hold to protect lives...or get back to work now, the costs in lives be damned. As Ramesh Ponnuru writes, the extremes on both sides of this debate are wrong:

Politicians of all stripes and partisan affiliations are raging against what they see as a wave of price gouging for a number of high-demand household items. While cracking down on suddenly high prices may sound nice, it's really doing fundmental harm to the laws of supply and demand - and ultimately, to consumers. As Reason Magazine's J.D. Tuccille writes:

There's a line of argument developing in the nation that if only we had been more nationalist in our outlook -- more restrictive of foreign trade, for example -- and less globalist, then we wouldn't be in the coronavirus mess right now.

Monday was Presidents Day, a federal holiday that most people don't really think twice about. That is a genuine shame, because before there was "Presidents Day," America celebrated the February 22nd birth of the most consequential president in our history: George Washington.