Among the most shocking developments as the pandemic dragged on for more than two years was the degree of coercion and force used by some of the best known champions of democracy. The boundary between liberal democracy and draconian dictatorship proved to be virus thin. Tools of repression like unleashing heavily armed cops on peacefully protesting citizens, once the identifying traits of fascists, communists, and tin-pot despots, became uncomfortably familiar on the streets of Western democracies.

Interventions rooted in panic, driven by political machinations and using all the levers of state power to terrify citizens and muzzle critics in the end needlessly killed massive numbers of the most vulnerable, while putting the vast low-risk majority under house arrest. The benefits were questionable but the harms are increasingly obvious, revalidating Lord Acton’s dictum that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Lockdowns destroyed the three ‘ls’ of lives, livelihoods, and liberties.

[The Lord Acton quote is commonly known, but not applied nearly often enough. The pandemic proved that, even in the US. — Ed]