Clark Bailey

A federal judge on Monday ruled that Governor Andy Beshears’s travel ban did not meet constitutional muster.  Striking down the COVID-19 pandemic measure to limit travel into other states. 

As outlined in Beshear’s two executive orders, order 2020-206 and 2020-258, individuals were only permitted to leave the state for employment, to receive or provide health care, to obtain groceries or other needed supplies, and when they were required to do so by a court order. The orders also allowed a resident to travel outside the state to assist in caring for the elderly, a minor, dependants, or vulnerable or disabled persons.

Persons who traveled out of state outside of the limited scope allowed in the executive orders were subject to a 14-day quarantine. This is all null and void now, as people are free to travel anywhere they may choose without restriction. 

The courts did hold up the governor’s ban on mass meetings, another unpopular ( to some) measure undertaken during the pandemic. This means in-person gatherings of over 10 or more persons are still a no-no. 

So with the opening up of travel restrictions in Kentucky( in our end of the state), people will have to go to Church in Virginia or Tennessee, if they want to go to in-person services. I suppose many will hit Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Dollywood as the days get warmer and longer. 

This is a welcome relief to many and a harbinger of untold doom to others. Who’s right? I don’t claim to know the right answer there. I know we have to take an illness like COVID-19 serious but, I also know we cannot be locked down forever. 

One thing I can say I have learned from all of the events that have unfurled during the pandemic is that executive orders are very unpopular to many people. Even if they are considered necessary. As a friend and I were discussing at work a week or so back, these executive orders should be very limited in scope and especially in the length of time. We both felt the legislature should be called out and if for instance, people should be forced to wear masks, then let the legislature make it a law. 

Savannah Maddox, a state representative from the 61st District, in response to many of the crises over executive orders is prefiling an amendment to KRS39A.100 that will automatically call the General Assembly back into session if an emergency order goes past two weeks. I for one, think this is an excellent idea and the legislature should unanimously pass it. Our system of checks and balances needs this. No executive should have the power to make executive orders indefinitely. No matter which side of the aisle they sit on. 

COVID-19 has been a stressful time for most of us. It has put pressure on our everyday lives, some more than others and the response has sometimes added to the pressure. I readily understand that the illness is severe and no matter what the death totals be, no one wants one death from it. I understand that requires us to make sacrifices for the good of all over personal convenience. Personal liberty, albeit very important must also take into account the common good, and by that same token measures taken for the common good should not infringe upon our basic human rights. It’s a tenuous relationship and requires thought, compromise, and more importantly as far as I’m concerned, much prayer. 

I know some of you reading probably won’t be happy with what I’ve said so far, for whatever reason that may be. All I can say to that; is hold on tight it gets bumpy here on out. 

One thing that keeps coming back to me over and over is how dependant we are on the Communist Chinese. Not only for personal protective equipment, or PPE as it commonly referred to, but for much of our manufacturing as a whole.  We’ve not only sacrificed our health and national security by outsourcing our manufacturing base to another country but also much of our economy. 

I know that as what is considered a conservative I am supposed to beholden to some orthodoxy on free trade and hold the free market economy as some 4th person in the God-head, but I’m here to tell you, I don’t. 

Like, the great Pat Buchanan ( as I have oft-quoted) I believe in the free market but I don’t worship it.  What I mean is that I wholeheartedly believe in the capitalistic principles of free trade, free markets, etc…I do not believe that men should exist to further the market but the market should be to the benefit of man.  In other words, corporate profits on cheaply made goods in China shouldn’t outweigh American workers. It shouldn’t but it often does. 

Now I know some lolbert Austrian economic fanboys are cringing right now and are screaming socialism. You couldn’t be more wrong. I think the proper way to treat communists is free helicopter rides. I loathe communism and communists. I do not believe that any measure outside of Gordon Geeko’s greed is good is communism though. 

I think this is where we start by figuring out ways to bring back our manufacturing base. I think we make the sacrifice of paying a little more to make sure we have Americans working in decent jobs. Jobs where they make a decent living, and leave their children something decent when they pass on and so on. This used to be what we thought of as the American dream. A dream that was hijacked somewhere along the way and sold out by people in both parties. 

We can recover though, and this pandemic should have made it crystal clear how imperative it is to do so.