Dumb Policies Erode Public Support for Lockdown
Overzealous rules are a good way to make those fringe protesters look as if they have a case.
Non-essential protests.
Photographer: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images
My city’s government has closed the entrance to the parking lot of a park near my home in an effort to prevent people from congregating. The main result, as far as I can judge, is that a lot of people are irritating the neighborhood outside the entrance by parking their cars there illegally. The closure does not appear to have done anything to stop the spread of the coronavirus, even if crowding in parks were a vector for transmission — which a recent study suggests it isn’t.
Most Americans have been supportive of state and local governments’ lockdown policies as a general matter. A Morning Consult poll has 75% of people prioritizing the fight against the virus over the economy. According to the Pew Research Center, 66% of the public is more worried that restrictions will be lifted too quickly than that they will last too long. I’m with that majority, not with the minority that is protesting in favor of an immediate reopening — sometimes, in a show of less-than-fine-tuned political sense, while flying Confederate flags.