Is Compliance the New Patriotism?

This desire to rat out neighbors, friends, and local businesses, who may or may not be violating the order to close or stay inside the home, is a cancer feeding the totalitarian impulses of certain politicians.

Sacramento County has been under a stay-at-home order since March 19. Most businesses are closed – restaurants, coffee houses, office buildings, machine shops, body shops, and “non-essential” retailers.

Gov. Gavin Newsom March 15 issued a statewide order on bars, sports bars, pubs, and even wineries to close. Restaurants were ordered they could stay open but only if they do take-out food. By March 19, the governor ordered 40 million Californians to shelter at home. That was when the remaining “non-essential” businesses were forced to close.

However, many regional golf courses have remained open. And that really irks some residents.

Think about it – golfers don’t need to be close in order to play a round.

The four city of Sacramento courses remain open: William Land, Haggin Oaks, Bing Maloney and Bartley Cavanaugh. The three county courses are also open: Ancil Hoffman, Mather and Cherry Island, the Sacramento Bee reported. There are no club rentals, course restaurants are closed, ball washers are covered up, and golf carts are restricted to one golfer only.

The local courses are full of happy golfers.

And that really irks some Sacramento residents.

“Mary Lewis, 63, walks the Land Park trails often, usually alone. She said she has been alarmed at the sight of golfers at the William Land course,” the Bee reported. “I don’t understand any of this,” she said, pointing to the nearby course. “I thought social distancing meant not to be in packs close together. I know people want to get fresh air, but either do it alone or don’t do it at all.”

At the William Land Park golf course, people are walking across fairways, onto the greens, and all over the golf course, directly in the path of golfers. It’s a private protest. They are taking their dogs to the adjacent park and allowing them off leash to run wherever – and onto the golf course while golfers are playing.

All over social media, angry brown shirts types are posting photos they have taken of open businesses, shaming them into closing. And now, into bankruptcy.

Lives are being destroyed as business owners have no income, can’t make payroll or pay vendors, can’t pay rent or the upcoming property tax bills.

There are now 100 jobs lost for every coronavirus death in the U.S. Millions of Americans have filed for unemployment.

Victor Davis Hanson reports: Three people per 1 million in California have died from Coronavirus, in a state of 40 million. “We should remember that California loses about 270,000 lives to all causes every year — meaning, on any given day, around 740 Californians die.” California’s coronavirus numbers are 1/10th of New York’s deaths due to coronavirus.

A recent article in Reuters reported:

“Law-abiding Germans are zealously helping police crack down on people flouting new social distancing rules aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus by reporting on strangers, neighbors and friends.”

“In a country where denunciation was commonplace under the Communists in East Germany and Hitler’s Nazis, police forces across the country are getting tip-offs on anything from ‘corona parties’ to people driving to weekend cottages.”

This poison is in America as well. And it’s thriving in California.

“While many citizens are acting responsibly, some experts say jealously, frustration or bearing a grudge can play a role,” Reuters said. “Rafael Behr, professor of criminology and sociology at the Hamburg Police Academy cited the phenomenon of locals in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern denouncing Berliners driving to weekend homes by looking at their number plates.”

“This willingness to report others is poisoning civilized behavior somewhat,” Behr told Reuters. “Some people lack the civil courage to confront others but tip off the police anonymously,” said Behr, adding people who had lived under the cloud of East Germany’s loathed Stasi secret police might be remembering how things worked three decades ago.”

“One of the most repressive police organizations in the world, the Stasi crushed dissent by infiltrating almost every aspect of life in East Germany and relied on around 200,000 informants who spied on friends, colleagues and relatives.”

This desire to rat out neighbors, friends, and local businesses, who may or may not be violating the order to close or stay inside the home, is a cancer feeding the totalitarian impulses of certain politicians.

California Gov. Newsom said during a press conference Wednesday that Coronavirus is an “opportunity for reimagining a more progressive era.”

“You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before,” Rahm Emanuel famously said during his stint as Chief of Staff in the Obama administration, but it was first said a little differently by Saul Alinsky, in Rules for Radicals. Alinsky’s rules are being applied right now during this crisis:

RULE 12 states: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy.

RULE 5 states: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions.

Is compliance the new patriotism in America?