Demonstrating a lack of principles, in an interview last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said that he regrets not speaking out “much louder” at the beginning of the pandemic.
I never thought in February, early March, that (coronavirus) would lead to locking down the country. I just didn’t. I didn’t think that was on the radar.
Whether it was on the radar or not, DeSantis went along and locked down Florida. Like in every other state that imposed a lock down, countless Floridians suffered severe financial damage. That DeSantis now regrets going along with the herd is too little, too late.
The lock down should have been opposed as a matter of principle. Principles allow us to project the long-term consequences of an action. However, if one lacks principles, then one can only experiment to find “what works.” One does “whatever it takes” without regard to the long-term consequences. And that has been the predominant point of view since the beginning of the pandemic.
It was not difficult to project the economic consequences of a lock down. One doesn’t need an MBA to know that forcing businesses to close and employees to stay home is going to be economically destructive.
More importantly, the only proper purpose of government is the protection of individual rights—the freedom to act on one’s own judgment, so long as one respects the freedom of others to do the same. The violation of individual rights is always destructive, no matter the intent. This is true in “normal times,” and it is true in a pandemic. (For an excellent explanation of how government should respond to a pandemic, read Onkar Ghate’s paper, “A Pro-freedom Approach to Infectious Disease.”)
If one lacks principles, then violating individual rights is sometimes “necessary” to achieve some alleged noble ends. But noble ends cannot be achieved through ignoble means.
A principle with exceptions is not a principle. It is nothing more than a loose guideline that can be and will be cast aside whenever it is expedient. That is what has happened during the pandemic. Governors who have professed support for individual liberty (such as DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott) threw liberty under the bus and went along with the lock down.
I applaud DeSantis for admitting his error. But it was an error that a principled man would have avoided. Hindsight is 20-20. Principles provide foresight.