The first 10 amendments to the Constitution make up the Bill of Rights. James Madison wrote the amendments, which list specific prohibitions on governmental power, in response to calls from several states for greater constitutional protection for individual liberties.
— Bill of Rights Institute

That was then.

How can anybody sane be anything less than scared and outraged and mortified that 22 million people have been thrown out of work over something that may end up killing fewer than 50,000 people? It is unprecedented. And yet there are people who want to maintain the circumstances we are in. And it boggles the mind.
— Rush Limbaugh, 4/16/20

Because of Coronavirus, politicians now use the rationale that they’ve locked down the economy to “save lives” and as of today the virus has claimed 26,708 lives in the United States.

In a nation as populated as ours, sadly people die every day. If governors were truly motivated by “public safety”, one would think the states should’ve been locked down many times before for a variety of reasons.

According to Medical News Today, here are the Top 10 “medical” causes of death in the United States in 2017….

1. HEART DISEASE — Deaths in 2017: 647,457, Percentage of total deaths: 23.5%
2. CANCER — Deaths in 2017: 599,108, Percentage of total deaths: 21.3%
3. UNINTENTIONAL INJURIES — Deaths in 2017: 169,936, Percentage of total deaths: 6%
4. CHRONIC LOWER RESPIRATORY DISEASE — Deaths in 2017: 160,201, Percentage of total deaths: 5.7%
5. STROKE, CEREBROVASCULAR DISEASES — Deaths in 2017: 146,383, Percentage of total deaths: 5.2%
6. ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE — Deaths in 2017: 121,404, Percentage of total deaths: 4.3%
7. DIABETES — Deaths in 2017: 83,564, Percentage of total deaths: 3%
8. INFLUENZA, PNEUMONIA — Deaths in 2017: 55,672, Percentage of total deaths: 2%
9. KIDNEY DISEASE — Deaths in 2017: 50,633, Percentage of total deaths: 1.8%
10. SUICIDE — Deaths in 2017: 47,173

Also, 19,500 were homicide victims in 2017.

People take risks everyday and going out and about during a “pandemic” is no different. Over 40,000 people leave homes and jobs every day and never arrive at their destination because they are killed in a car accident. At no time did governors, mayors and/or city councils even consider a lockdown when close to 56,000 die from the annual flu contagion.

Protesters around the country have started gathering, some in groups that defy social-distancing recommendations, to register their disapproval for the ongoing economic shutdown tied to the coronavirus.
— New York Intelligencer, 4/15/20

The case could be made this is not about public safety but power-tripping partisans taking advantage of what may have been a very bad flu and using it to decimate an outstanding economy prior to a presidential election to help their very weak candidate. Had President Obama been presiding over a historic economy prior to an election, great care would be taken not to in any way damage it, but as we’re talking about all-time record wealth and prosperity unleashed by President Donald J. Trump, if livelihoods of the American people are damaged and their rights diminished into what many politicians and media pundits are advocating as the “new normal”, oh well.