Published author and former CIA officer Shelly Mateer is a sharp analyst of events. Her written work is impressive and her government background is interesting and varied.
She lives in Southern California. The state as a whole is dealing with perhaps the most dire prognosis for coronavirus infection in the country. As such, Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom, who is closely working with the president on the response to the virus, has effectively closed down the state for travel, much of business, and social gatherings. Newsom has taken drastic measures and California government, run by the Left, has grown in power. Mateer can see it happening around her and she has her objections.
She understands the need for proper precautions, “But closing down the whole state for twenty deaths seems extreme.” Mateer is not alone in this view and several states, most notably Texas, have shied away from the most drastic of measures in fighting the virus.
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Her views on her fellow Californians are interesting: “Many people here think if you get the virus you’re going to die…a lot are buying into scare tactics… You can’t shut down regular life.” And on the constitutional implications she wonders, “How many rights are they going to take and for how long?”
Across the nation there is a burgeoning idea that perhaps the government has gone too far, as Mateer suggests. If the death toll remains low, will the government have hobbled the economy and suspended basic rights for a virus that kills less people than the common flu?
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In the state itself Mateer notes, “California has been trying to interfere in peoples’ lives before this. Will it go on until there are few rights left?” Especially in a state where “there is a small middle class,” and seems to be composed mainly of the very rich and very poor, she asks how the draconian economic remedies of the state and federal governments will help the situation.
Like any good writer, Mateer will observe the situation as it happens. That won’t be hard for her, as living in California puts her right in the thick of it.
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