In a representation democracy, the kind that our founders envisioned, there are only a few options for how things can be organized:
1) The Federally elected officials take charge.
2) The state elected officials take charge.
3) The locally elected officials take charge.
In theory, the closer the decisions being made are to the people (voters, citizens), the more democratic those decisions are intrinsically. However, even our founding fathers recognized that in times of crisis, where timing is of paramount importance, sometimes there is not sufficient time for things to “bubble up” from the bottom. That is why they carved out explicit “top down” power for things like declarations of war.
That said, at a time when millions of people were getting sick, the economy had almost ground to a complete halt, and everyone who could afford to was staying home; it took incredible discipline and faith in DEMOCRACY to patiently (or maybe not do patiently) expect our system to work. Yet, in town after town, city after city, and state after state that’s exactly what happened, all the way up to the White House.
It is SO foreign to Americans to conceive of a government declaration of Marshall Law or a sudden federal takeover of the levers of power, that WE scarcely notice when that doesn’t happen.
FACT: The more dire the situation, the more difficult it is for leaders to trust the systems they have in place, especially when those systems are complex.
In a country of roughly 330 million people, the TRUST required to allow the leaders of states and localities to make their own decisions, even as the numbers (medical, financial, and especially political) were cratering is immense and commendable. Moreover, because the systems of tracking and accounting in a machine so large cannot help but be slow, decisions to change directions require incredible timing and discipline.
Anyone who has worked within a large corporation during difficult times can identify with the feeling that at some point, the request start to sound much more like commands (and often come under threat of serious repercussions). While I am certain that some of the highest level conversations were less than cordial, it was not lost on me that New York was allowed to do New York things. At the same time, Florida, Georgia, and Texas were charting their own courses. Meanwhile across the country, California, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming were also doing as their state’s leadership decided.
The irony of this entire situation was that mandates, if they came, were overwhelmingly localized. At the same time, those in the best position to see the accumulated data, offered only “recommendations”. While Dr. Fauci and his medical luminaries “encouraged” and “strongly recommended” certain courses of action, based on the numbers. The CDC and all governing American entities are NOT in positions to make or enforce laws. That, my friends, is what democracy looks like.
As in any tragic situation, where significant loss of life occurs, there will always be consternation about the choices made and it is prudent to review things to acquire fire best practices. That said, WE cannot spend 50 - 100 years loudly extolling our belief in things like “states rights” and “grassroots” democracy, only to abandon that system in a crisis.
History will recall two things about this pandemic and for Americans those two things are really one thing.
1) More lives were loss than WE (Americans) would have wanted.
2) Some of those added lives were lost because WE honored our traditions of freedom and democracy.
Yes, a system that allowed an immediate federal government takeover of power and mandate, might have save some lives (at least from Covid-19). However, our system worked beautifully as designed. The federal government made recommendations, helped expedite vaccine development and manufacturing, and eventually helped with coordination, but did not issue a single mandate (that I recall). States issued mandates both in compliance with and against the guidelines of the feds. Most importantly, local cities and towns, were allowed to have their own say in how they handled the pandemic.
Yes, there were areas of disagreement. No, things did not go perfectly. But at the end of the day, our system is measured more by how much freedom we have along the path than by the eventual outcomes, which is precisely how our constitution and three part government was designed to work.
SO WHY IS EVERYONE SO MAD!
