Jason Smith on COVID-19 restrictions: It's not up to Democrat-socialists to tell us how to lead our lives

(From Eighth District Congressman Jason Smith)

Every holiday season, Americans across the country look forward to celebrating cherished holiday traditions. 

As we take time out of our busy lives to spend time with loved ones and reflect on our blessings, we are reminded that even during what has been a very difficult year as a result of COVID-19 and ineffective lockdowns, we still have much to be thankful for.

We’ve come so far since the beginning of the pandemic. Over the last several months groundbreaking therapeutics to combat the virus have been deployed saving countless lives, and thanks to American innovation and the leadership of President Trump, we have at least two new vaccines on the horizon, developed in record time. This on top of the early aggressive mitigation efforts by President Trump to close our borders to heavily infected areas, the end of this pandemic will soon be in sight.

What we cannot do now is shut our country down for a second time. Over the past few months, the U.S. has regained more than half of the jobs lost due to the pandemic, and we have experienced the fastest economic recovery in our nation’s history. In fact, we are recovering at a rate that is four times faster than the recovery after the 2008-2009 recession. Unfortunately, liberal politicians want to crush this economic rally by enacting more lockdowns. Leftist mayors and governors across the country have issued extreme lockdown orders telling people to cancel their Thanksgiving plans, even going so far as to tell people how many guests they may have in their homes.

What’s worse is that these same liberal mayors and governors do not practice what they preach. They use the force of law to prevent Americans from seeing their loved ones while hypocritically making no such sacrifices of their own. 

Earlier this month, the Democrat governor of California was photographed at an opulent dinner with a large group of people, including leaders of the California Medical Association. This event was in violation of his own restrictions on social gatherings. Earlier, the Democrat mayor of D.C. was seen partying with her staff in Delaware at a post-election event which she later designated as “essential travel”. 

This was in order to cover up the fact that she had violated her own travel restrictions. Meanwhile, the mayor of Chicago was seen gathering in the city streets with thousands of strangers…. wearing no mask. This is all while issuing restrictions telling residents to “cancel traditional Thanksgiving plans”. 

And of course, who could forget the video footage of Speaker Pelosi walking around a high-end California salon maskless while businesses across the country remained closed.

If the recent election results tell us one thing, it’s that the American people are fed up with this hypocrisy. They are not interested in eastern-European socialism or oppressive government mandates that tell them how to live their lives. The vote of 75 million Americans has charged Republicans to fight in favor of personal liberty and against socialism and tyranny.

Every year at this time, we as Americans give thanks for our many blessings and for our great nation. We remember that the pilgrims first came to this country seeking freedom. It is not for Democrat-socialist politicians to tell the American people how to live their lives, each individual decides how to worship, how to speak and how to live. Americans have always rejected socialism and embraced freedom, it’s time for the new leaders of the Democrat party to start listening.