‘Libertarian’ Republicans Love Local Control, Unless It’s About COVID Safety

The Big Board, a D.C. bar and restaurant known for its innovative beer-pricing system, has an owner opposed to District of Columbia’s regulations requiring masking and proof of vaccination from indoor patrons.

After receiving complaints, warnings, suspension of their liquor license, and a Health Department inspection that found food safety violations in their kitchen (including mold buildup in a refrigerator), most business owners would have complied with the regulations to avoid getting shut down by local authorities. Instead, they started a GoFundMe and invited a handful of Republican lawmakers to eat burgers and pose for sympathetic press to signal solidarity against masks and mandates.

It’s no surprise that the Big Board got their liquor license suspended for violating COVID-19 ordinances, nor that they got inspected by the Health Department, since they publicly announced that they had no intentions of complying with the rules. Daring bureaucrats to enforce the law is not a great strategy for staying in business.

Two of the lawmakers, Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Thomas Massie, are Kentucky Republicans with dedicated followings among conservatives and libertarians. They have made principled speeches in Congress against military adventurism, deficits and debt, and overbearing federal regulations. On issues ranging from guns to abortion, they vocally advocate for the federal government to get out of the way, and for states and cities to engage in greater local control.

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But they have taken the opposite position when it comes to pandemic health regulations, so much so that Sen. Paul even went as far as to suggest D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser should be impeached for implementing them.

Libertarians believe in maximizing personal choice and individual self-determination as long as you are not harming other people. That also means minimizing government laws and regulations to only those necessary to prevent people from harming others—and holding them accountable for violations of those laws and regulations. Government force should not be used to stop adults from consuming things that are bad for their health or to make people do things that are good for their health. Whether choosing to eat raw meat, drink a bottle of Windex, or refuse a blood transfusion—adults should be able to control their own bodies.

In addition to smaller government, libertarians believe in local control. The people who are closest to a problem have better knowledge of the best solution than a congressman thousands of miles away. Our founders gave limited power to the federal government, leaving most decisions to the people or to the states. Different states and localities will take different approaches and the results of different policies can be compared. If a city like D.C. or a state like New York is going to require masks and vaccination for indoor dining, libertarians may see it as an overbearing government overreach, but other cities like Dallas or states like Florida can eliminate mask and vaccination requirements. Whichever approach is a mistake, we can evaluate from the results, and the mistake is not applied to the entire country.

Republicans have never had a problem denying the citizens of D.C. home rule (basic self-determination through local government) or blocking funds for implementing cannabis legalization and other local measures for decades. D.C. even put “No Taxation Without Representation” on its license plates as a symbolic protest against Congress controlling a city that doesn’t get a vote in Congress.

If “liberty” Republicans like Massie and Paul speak out for localism and against federal overreach on every other issue, why are they taking such a strong stand against local health codes in the midst of a pandemic that has killed over 13,000 Kentuckians and nearly 1,300 D.C. residents?

Many people with fringe beliefs are attracted to libertarians because our live and let live philosophy supports their right to live according to those fringe beliefs without government interference, and also because libertarians know what it’s like to be in an ideological minority. But some libertarians make the mistake of thinking that a minority belief is automatically valid because it stands against the mainstream or against government laws or regulations.

Reactance—reflexively doing the opposite of what authority tells you to do—is a particularly poor life strategy.

There is no particular correlation between a behavior being a good idea and authority telling you not to engage in that behavior. Sometimes the government mandates behaviors that are good choices to make for ourselves and others. Other times the government mandates behaviors that are poor choices for ourselves and others. The key is to evaluate the behaviors according to the evidence and make good choices regardless of the government mandates.

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Contrarians build their identities on being against the majority. If everyone else is watching Game of Thrones, they won’t. If everyone else is wearing a motorcycle helmet, they won’t. If everyone else is getting vaccinated against COVID-19, they won’t. They consider it a point of pride to be out of step with the mainstream, not like one of the “sheep.”

It’s a good idea to keep mold out of kitchens, have working sinks to wash hands, wear effective masks to avoid spreading a respiratory virus, and get vaccinated against communicable diseases. These good ideas don’t stop being good ideas just because the government mandates them. Our society should leave room for people to engage in civil disobedience—if their conscience dictates that they refuse to comply with government mandates and they are willing to accept the consequences of their principled civil disobedience.

And our society should leave room for politicians who want the money and support from contrarians badly enough that they will side against vaccination, against masking during a pandemic, and against local control. They will receive the support of the contrarians for standing with them against the majority of doctors, scientists, and American voters.

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