Tucker: Give Americans a voice in the policies that affect their lives
‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ host slams Democratic politicians for creating ‘mass hysteria’ through the pandemic.
It'd be pretty fascinating to see the Democratic Party's latest internal polling on COVID restrictions. We haven't seen it, but it must have been pretty awful, apocalyptic, because something spooked them bad.
Over the course of less than a week, the same people who have systematically turned America into a quarantine camp suddenly, out of nowhere, started calling in unison for medical freedom. Suddenly, they sounded like Bobby Kennedy Jr., pretty much all of them.
Even the whiny hypochondriacs at The Atlantic Magazine, those neurotic cat owners who've turned COVID hysteria into a religion are now calling for a total abandonment of all Coronavirus restrictions. "Open everything. … The time to when pandemic restrictions is now." Believe it or not, that was the headline on The Atlantic's website today. Amazing. So if even The Atlantic has given up on coronavirus restrictions, obviously the pandemic is over.
You should know this virus was killed, not by science, but by the midterm elections. It turns out the only real cure for COVID-19 is the political ambition of the Democratic Party. That's the panacea. And by the way, that's fine. We'll take it. Yes, every upside has a downside. It means that pasty NPR listeners are going to emerge from their apartment for the first time in two years will be loose on the streets. You're going to see them at Whole Foods again, shuffling along with their tote bags, looking bewildered and annoyed. That's bad, but it's still worth it. Anything to make the insanity go away, we're celebrating. But we're also looking forward.
And the question is, how do we guarantee that nothing like this ever happens again? How do we prevent future mass hysteria events in the United States? And the answer is very simple. You restore democracy. You give Americans a voice in the policies that affect their lives. That was the system that we had for a couple of hundred years, it was a pretty good system. We ought to go back to it.
Face masks required signs are posted outside the Indian Village Gift Shop in Continental Divide, N.M. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
If elected legislatures were allowed to vote on COVID restrictions, we'd have far fewer COVID restrictions. And that's true of everything, every bad idea. If the Congress had to follow the Constitution and authorize our wars, we'd have fewer pointless wars. We definitely would not be moving toward war with Russia right now because the public doesn't support that, at all. So virtually every bad thing that has happened over the past two years, or ever, has been imposed by fiat, far outside the bounds of our constitutional democracy. In this case, governors and health authorities got emergency powers at the beginning of the pandemic. Do you remember? With those powers, they played God for two full years. In case you've forgotten what that was like, here it is:
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LA MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI, 2020: That is why tonight I am authorizing the city to shut off Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Service in the egregious cases in which houses, businesses and other venues are hosting unpermitted large gatherings.
WASHINGTON GOV. JAY INSLEE, 2020: Religious services will be limited to 25% of indoor capacity or 200 people, whichever is less. Inquires, bands or ensembles are prohibited from performing.
NEW YORK MAYOR BILL DEBLASIO, DECEMBER: Human beings are pretty predictable. If you say your paycheck depends on it, or your ability to enjoy life and go do the things you want to do, people will make the practical decision overwhelmingly, and they'll go get vaccinated. But we aren't pushing hard enough. We got to go farther.
REPORTER 2020: Do you want people calling the police on their neighbors non-emergency lines or 9-1-1?
OREGON GOV. KATE BROWN: Look, this is no different than what happens if there's a party down the street and it's keeping everyone awake. What do neighbors do? They call law enforcement.
CHICAGO MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT, 2020: And this is how it's going to be. We will shut you down. We will cite you. And if we need to, we will arrest you and we will take you to jail. Period.
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So they went full fascist immediately, and they weren't even competent fascists. These are some of the least impressive, least skilled, least accomplished, least intelligent people in our entire country. You wouldn't hire any of them to clean your gutters, and all of a sudden they had absolute power. So it's probably not too surprising that they went into directions no one could have anticipated. No singing under COVID, no dancing, no working, definitely no exercising. We're closing the gyms, in the name of public health. In fact, we're closing the oceans. In 2020, in a moment that should never be forgotten by the sane world, authorities in the state of California arrested a paddleboarder who was exercising by himself off the Malibu pier.
NBC 2020: Across the coast in California, fines and handcuffs for bad behavior … One man arrested in Malibu for paddleboarding in the Pacific, while 22 sunset seekers in SoCal were cited for trespassing on closed beaches.
So everything about that is kind of stunning, less than two years later, even. But maybe the creepiest part of it is how nonchalantly the NBC newsman reported it like it's totally normal to drag paddleboarders away for swimming alone. Because if cops didn't vigorously police the Pacific Ocean, seagulls could spread disease. Apparently, that was the thinking or the lack of it.
So our media, almost to a person, acted like the peasants they are, and they cheered on the strongman reflexively, because that's what peasants do. They cheer as the person oppressing them rides by on this horse. MSNBC excitedly reported on how police in New Jersey, this is very clever, used drones to spy on homeowners in their own backyards.
MSNBC: Elizabeth, New Jersey is now using drones to spread the lifesaving message.
DRONE: You are not immune to this virus.
MSNBC: The drones make it easier for police to see into certain areas where access by patrol cars is more difficult. That includes tight spaces between buildings, behind schools and in backyards.
So some robot is screaming at you as you're having a barbecue in your backyard, and MSNBC describes that as the "lifesaving message." Don't depend on these people to save you from tyranny. Of course, they'll be cheering it on. That very same month that MSNBC aired that unbelievable report, we decided to speak to the governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy. Now, Phil Murphy is a not very bright finance hack who got rich. How do these people get rich, exactly? But in his case, thanks to the Wuhan Institute of Technology, suddenly Phil Murphy found himself king of the Garden State. So we asked his majesty Phil Murphy, where exactly did he get the right to suspend constitutional rights in New Jersey? And here's what he said.
TUCKER 2020: The Bill of Rights, as you well know, protects Americans right, enshrines their right to practice their religion as they see fit, and to congregate together to assemble peacefully. By what authority did you nullify the Bill of Rights in issuing this order? How do you have the power to do that?
MURPHY: That's above my pay grade, Tucker. So I wasn't I wasn't thinking of the Bill of Rights when we did this.
"That's above my pay grade." So King Murphy's got an IQ of about 70. How did that guy get to be governor? I mean, that's bad enough, but to give him absolute power? Let's go ahead and never do that again, under any circumstance.
Checks and balances exist for a reason. We saw this all over the country. Governors and local officials abusing their authority, very specifically, to stop Christians from attending church, to prevent people from worshiping their God, from exercising their religion. And somehow, nobody noticed. But voters noticed. Last fall, Phil Murphy almost lost his job in New Jersey, which is axiomatically democratic, it's the most democratic state you can think of on the eastern seaboard. So Murphy seemed a little confused by this. "My subjects don't like me, really? I had no idea."
So he convened a focus group. Let's hire McKinsey to find out what's going on here. Well, according to New York Times, here's what his majesty Phil Murphy found, "Across the board, voters shared frustrations over public health measures, a sense of pessimism about the future and a deep desire to return to some sense of normalcy." And by normalcy, of course, they meant getting Phil Murphy's boot off their necks. So Murphy, as we said, seemed a little stunned by this. But he reacted. Because in the end, these people are very simple organisms. Politicians are. They're not complex, they're not ideological. They respond to what they have to do. To blunt stimuli.
BIDEN AT ODDS WITH GOVERNORS FROM BOTH PARTIES OVER SCHOOL MASK MANDATES
So he recognizes the midterm elections are coming. So Phil Murphy, again, not a genius, lifted the state's mask mandates. And that's happening in a lot of different places, blue states. Governors in Connecticut, Oregon, Delaware, California, Illinois. They're all doing it. Even in New York, where the "Governor" Kathy Hochul, - that's what we call an unelected leader whom not a single voter actually voted for - she reached the same conclusion. Kathy Hochul, the "governor" (you know, by the way, in a lot of places, you can be arrested for impersonating a public official, she's not the governor, she was never elected by anybody, and no one's arrested her) apparently has the power to lift the state's indoor mask mandate. So she's doing that. But she shouldn't imagine this is over. They still have power. They don't want to give it up. So the Health Department in New York is trying to expand the state's quarantine powers, just in case they ever have to put you in a camp. Kathy Hochul has decided not to lift the mask mandate for schools because, of course, the teachers' unions have more swap than parents do.
Meanwhile, the CDC still requires U.S. citizens to get a negative COVID test in order to return to their own country. So the CDC has the power to bar you from your own country? Really, where do they get that power? Anyone at the CDC elected? I don't think so. They are a bunch of incompetent public health administrators. Nor, by the way, has the Biden administration announced plans to lift the mask mandate on airplanes. Now, why would the Biden administration be in charge of that? Shouldn't Congress make that call? They're the ones who voted for that mandate. Oh, no, but they didn't. Congress never voted on that mandate. The agencies imposed it. You should know that mandate, by the way, does not apply to private jet service. Most people who fly private don't own the plane. They rent a plane from a jet company. And those companies don't have to comply with the mask mandate because Democratic donors fly on those planes, so they're exempt. The TSA, by the way, announced in August that the airline mask mandate would remain in place at least through March 18. Congress had no role in this.
A person holds a mask while walking outside in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
Congress voted to spend trillions of dollars on COVID relief, but nobody in the Congress ever voted on a mandate for masks on airplanes. Will we have it forever? I don't know. You've been taking your shoes off since Richard Reid tried to ignite his 20 years ago. No one ever voted on that, either. None of this is democracy. Not when they make you take your shoes off. Not when they make you cover your face. Those decisions are too important for you to weigh in on. It's not democracy.
NEW YORK TO LIFT INDOOR MASK MANDATE, BUT NOT FOR KIDS IN SCHOOLS
So the pandemic is over, but people like Kathy Hochul still have emergency powers and school boards do, too. They're acting like they have complete power over your children. In Naperville, Illinois, a court just issued a restraining order against Governor Pritzker's statewide school mask mandate. The school board? Simply ignoring it. So on Monday, parents fought back.
PARENT: Why? Why are you continuing to enforce a mandate that has been ruled null and void?
PARENT: This type of evil is exactly what the law was intending to constrain. You continue to perpetrate this evil. The judge's words, not mine.
PARENT: Where's our family choice? You want your kids to wear masks? Then give them masks. You want your kids to take their masks off? Then take their masks off. It really is that simple.
PARENT: You've hurt her so much with this. Everybody talks about, everybody's got to be safe. Everybody's got to have everything. And we've left so many children behind. // She was going to be able to see other kids smiles, that kids would be able to understand her and she would stop being picked on because they could not understand her through her mask because her speech has been delayed even more than her special needs. I will never forgive myself for not fighting more. I feel that I have failed her for not fighting more.
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They're doing to the school board what the truckers are doing to Justin Trudeau, and let's hope it has the same effect. Keep in mind they're in that meeting because the school board is ignoring a lawful court order, and of course, blowing off the parents they serve. Now the answer to all of this is really simple. Strip these reckless morons of their monarchical powers and return this country to democracy. Why is that hard?
This article is adapted from Tucker Carlson's opening commentary on the February 9, 2022, edition of "Tucker Carlson Tonight."
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