May 15, 2020 4 min read

Increasingly, our government, at all levels, forgets the immortal words of Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg when he spoke of our government as being a “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

Our leaders forget that in our Declaration of Independence, our founders declared that, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. –That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it …”

This is an important and unalienable principle; Government derives from the consent of the governed. If we, the people, don’t like the way we are governed, we can change both the laws and the lawmakers. They are servants of the people, not dictators.

Occasionally, as in the present circumstance with COVID-19 regulation, they forget this principle. Elected officials believe they can unilaterally supersede the Constitution, the supreme law of the land and that unelected administrative functionaries can produce regulations with the power of law that equally deprive us of our rights. One may argue that in extreme circumstances, extreme measures may be necessary for very brief moments in limited circumstances, but shutting down an entire state for an extended period of time and depriving citizens of basic rights such as free speech, the right to practice religion, the right to keep and bear arms, the right of assembly, due process, equal protection and the right of appeal far exceeds any imagined definition of emergency. So does the deprivation of the right to earn a living for millions of citizens by an appointed administrative official, much less one with no demonstrated expertise or qualification.

As much as the coronavirus disease has brought suffering upon the citizens of our state, the oppressive and overreaching regulations instituted not by our elected Legislature but by our governor by decree are now inflicting equal or greater suffering with no definitive plan for conclusion. The governor has rejected or vetoed several responsible plans to end the regulatory suffering. The situation is well past any circumstance remotely considered in the State’s Emergency Declaration Act. It is more closely identifiable with some form of martial law.

It is time for citizens to act. If government is truly “of the people, by the people,” and if governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, it is time for the governed to remind the government from where their powers derive and to revoke unjust powers, which is our right.

The governor has no right to impose the closures as he has and has no right to extend them to the extent that he has. As importantly, he has no right to pick winners and losers, to tell one group of counties that meets his vague criteria that they may move ahead with opening and another that meet the same criteria that they may not.

We, the people, need to take the lead of a dozen counties such as neighboring Beaver County and simply tell the governor that we are done. We are open for business. Yes, we will follow CDC regulations, but areas that can meet reasonable guidelines will exercise their prerogatives as citizens and no longer accede to his overreaching, frequently baseless and dictatorial orders.

“Yellow” status does us little good. Waiting for “green” status will do less good. Waiting for a vaccine is a fool’s errand. That will take 18 to 24 months and by then there will be very little Pennsylvania business to open.

In response to the good citizens of his state, the governor played political thug and petty tyrant. Rather than discuss workable ways to end suffering, he offered more suffering. “Obey or I will beat you into submission” is his message.

We are not talking about being instantly foolish, just instantly reasonable.

It is time for this governor to go. Time for our legislature to do its duty. This government is no longer of the people, by the people, for the people. It no longer has the consent of the governed. As the Declaration of Independence states, “It is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it.”

Dave Ball is vice chairman of the Republican Party of Washington County and a Peters Township councilman.