The great conservative thinker William F. Buckley wrote in 1963 that he would rather “live in a society governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston telephone book than in a society governed by the 2,000 faculty members of Harvard University.” Buckley recognized the great “intellectual strength” of the university’s faculty, but feared “the intellectual arrogance which is a hallmark of the university which refuses to accept any common premise.”
I thought about that oft-quoted phrase four years after the COVID-19 panic. It was a real threat to public health, so much so that it allowed the Americans to transfer large and largely uncontrolled powers to experts. For two years it was exactly as if Buckley’s fears came true and we were governed by the kind of people who were in the faculty lounge.
It is no secret that American universities are dominated by progressives, who generally do not accept the “common premise” of limited governance. A fundamental tenet of progressivism, which has its roots in the early 20th century, is rule by experts. Disinterested parties would reform, protect and redesign society based on their superior knowledge. Although adherents of this worldview speak for the People, they do not actually trust individuals to manage their own lives.
Looking back, Covid-19 proves that the nation’s founders, not the intellectual social engineers, were right. The founders created a system of checks and balances that made it difficult for leaders to easily get what they want. “Dependence on the people is, without doubt, the chief check on government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions,” wrote James Madison. The pandemic has deprived us of these precautions, even if (mostly) temporarily.
In all honesty, the response to COVID by many everyday Americans has left much to be desired. Social media has provided a megaphone for conspiracy theories and idiotic home remedies. Instead of acting responsibly by voluntarily embracing the practices best known at the time, many Americans defied even the most common-sense rules and took action against store clerks and others. I was disgusted by the edicts of our leaders and the behavior of many of my fellow citizens.
However, the skeptics in general were right. “Coronavirus shutdowns have created a dichotomy between those who tend to trust whatever the authorities say and those who don’t seem to trust any official information at all,” I wrote in May 2020. “It’s not even slightly conspiratorial, though, question the predictions, data and assumptions of those officials who guide these policies. They have shut down society, forced us to stay at home, driven businesses into bankruptcy, caused widespread poverty and suspended many civil liberties.
Yes, many of us have told you.
Experts and politicians touted “science,” even though it was really just a way of telling us to shut up and follow orders while they muddled their way through. We have since learned that plastic masks and sneeze guards, lockdowns, school closures and the panoply of improvised protective gear were probably of marginal value. Critics who questioned official death statistics were labeled conspirators. But also a 2023 Washington Post The report found that officials appeared to count people dying “with” COVID rather than “due to” it.
And don’t get me started on how politicians reacted. Some of the early emergency edicts were justifiable, but then governors realized that they could break unrelated (or indirectly related) political priorities by invoking fear. A former Assemblyman compiled a 123-page list of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s COVID-related executive orders. Courts ultimately overturned a handful of them, but the governor certainly didn’t let a good crisis go to waste.
The nation is still reeling from the consequences of the pandemic. Inflation is skyrocketing, triggered by supply chain disruptions and spending sprees that began with the shutdowns. Large cities like San Francisco suffered a demographic hemorrhage as workers learned they no longer needed to commute to offices. The number of transit passengers has plummeted, triggering yet another funding crisis. Large segments of the public have become increasingly dependent on public subsidies. Municipal budgets are in chaos. Anti-eviction edicts have further messed up our rental markets.
Many downtowns, like Sacramento, have yet to recover from the lockdown, as shuttered businesses, each reflecting a personal tragedy for their owners, remain shuttered. And don’t get me started on the impact on education, especially for the poor. There is a lost generation of students, victims of school systems that have failed to master distance learning, resulting in dismal test scores and rising absenteeism rates. We have seen unions oppose the reopening of schools because their priorities are workers, not students. Even some experts now research the resulting psychological damage.
I’m not saying COVID didn’t require a reasonable response, but by listening exclusively to the equivalent of progressive academics and ignoring the concerns of Buckley’s proverbial top 2,000 names in the phone book, our government has failed its people.
This column was first published in The Orange County Register.