United States: Protests against the COVID-19 lockdown, what are the motives behind it?

Opinion analysis by Michael Maalouf, Staff Writer

May 1st, 2020

“LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your 2nd Amendment. It is under siege, LIBERATE MICHIGAN, LIBERATE MINESSOTA..” Another controversial tweet by the U.S. president to support the protests taking place against the lockdown measures that his own cabinet had introduced to tackle the COVID-19 outbreak.

After these protests got President Donald Trump’s support, many raised their concerns regarding his actions and were concerned with the situation. As a matter of fact, the governor of Washington Jay Inslee stated “To have an American president to encourage people to violate the law, I can’t remember any time in my time. In America we have such thing”.

The Trump-supported protests against the lockdown raise the following questions, what are the motives behind these actions? And why is this happening in a country which is evidently recording the highest number of COVID-19 cases as of writing?

The story starts in Michigan, the third most infected state in America, where the governor Gretchen Whitmer extended the lockdown and has added ‘harsh’ measures to impose it, including the ban on interstate traveling, planting in the backyard, going on fishing trips, and other minimal everyday activities.

Following these measures, a narrative began to appear all across America where people reported incidents of being taken into custody or fined, for activities as simple as just mowing their lawns or taking their boats for a fishing trip. This began raising a series of concerns about people’s rights and liberties across the country. As the lockdown’s effects started to truly take a toll in the national economic situation, the Facebook group of Operation gridlock planned Michigan’s first anti-lockdown protest. A protest which was supposed to consist of people protesting from within their cars, turned into a protest of 3,000 people who gathered in front of the capitol.

The protests didn’t only include concerned citizens, but also gathered the attention of gun right activists and right-wing organizations such as the Proud boys - making the protest look like a Trump rally amidst a pandemic.

Moreover, it reminded many Americans of the Tea Party movement of 2009, which organized a nationwide protest against Barrack Obama’s policies. The Michigan protest subsequently sparked protests across the country in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Virginia, Colorado, Indiana, Texas, Minnesota, California. Facebook groups with a similar name where were created across all the states to organize the protests all of which had a consistency in their titles - anti-quarantine in rhetoric. While this may be indicative of systematic planning in these protests, there isn’t one side behind them as several organizations, right wing donors, and personalities organized and funded them. When you take a closer look, you can find the Dorr family, which advocates for gun rights, DeVos family who funded the Michigan freedom imitative with 500,000$, Proud Boys a Right-wing organization, Alex Jones a conspiracy theorist, and among others.

As the lockdown continues, more protests are being planned to occur as economic conditions continue to become more difficult with many businesses struggling, low wage workers suffering, and civil liberties being violated. Even though only 22% of Americans are in support of these protests it is expected to increase in the coming weeks. Many of the protestors voiced concerns regarding the future of the country’s economy.

Due to the lockdown, some went a step further holding banners saying “stop ID2020,” a project promoted by Bill Gates, which plans to implement digital identities through microchips which many people fear may invade people’s privacy. In times of uncertainty it’s natural for fear to increase, however it’s necessary to focus on what is there and not add weight to the ongoing problem.

Some protestors aren’t solely abiding by having their demands heard, but are rather going overboard, closing hospital doors and stopping health workers from entering, telling them “If we can’t work you shouldn’t work”. An ironic move for those who are fighting for liberty, however, amongst all this controversy revolving around the protests, it’s important to realize how necessary it is to loosen lockdown measures as the economic consequences of the major shutdown might lead to more damages in the long-run than the Corona virus itself.