Lamont And The Red Death

Very late in the day, three northeast Democrat governors – Ned Lamont of Connecticut, Phil Murphy of New Jersey and Andrew Cuomo of New York – have decided to impose by executive order quarantines on visitors from Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah and Texas.

Had Lamont earlier imposed a quarantine on “hot spot” New York City, he might have prevented somewhat the leeching of Coronavirus to Fairfield Country, Connecticut, which predictably and unsurprisingly became a Connecticut Coronavirus “hot spot.”

When Governor Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island sought to turn New Yorkers away from her state, she was bitterly criticized by the left of center media in the northeast. Connecticut was expected to admit New Yorkers and suck it up. Lamont had early during the infestation made a compact with Cuomo and Murphy, the purpose of which was not entirely clear. Certainly Connecticut’s needs were not the same as those of New York City, and no one, in the absence of a general election, had appointed Cuomo or Murphy governor of Connecticut.

In the course of time, Cuomo discovered two things he had not considered when Coronavirus leeched from Wuhan, China, the virus’ point of origin, by a circuitous route into international “hot spots” such as New York City: 1) the virus was most lethal in nursing homes, and 2) the virus was more prevalent in sequestered environments.

When, early in the infestation, President Donald Trump slapped a non-admittance quarantine on China, he was bitterly abused for having descended to below the belt “racism.” Nothing new there; opposition Democrats and a news media savaged by Trump as false and dangerous to the Republic had been attempting to subvert the new administration from the moment Trump first assumed office, and the charge of racism now has become the last refuge of ivy league schooled, ideologically brainwashed scoundrels, church arsonists and violent ANTIFA domestic terrorists infantilized by neo-Marxism.

There are serious problems with quarantines. They usually are not enforceable and, even were they to be rigorously enforced, quarantines are not successful for reasons suggested by Edgar Allen Poe in his short story, The Masque of the Red Death. Prospero, a great and prosperous lord, is convinced that his castle walls will protect the revelers inside from the plague ravaged countryside outside his fortress. But the Red Death, in the form of a monk wearing red robes already is wandering the halls of his castle.

Plagues are no respecters of castle walls –or lords of the castle.

Some suspect that gubernatorial orders verging on unconstitutional proscriptions cannot have the same force as laws written by legislatures and signed into law by governors. The extraordinary emergency powers conferred by the Connecticut General Assembly on Lamont – due to elapse in September, after six long months --should not be unconstitutionally broadened, also by executive order, without a legislative check by Connecticut’s General Assembly, a co-equal branch of government.

Our much lauded “separation of powers” is rendered inoperative when legislative and judicial departments have been effectively eliminated by the Red Death prowling the halls of our state Capitol building, as well as our partly closed court buildings. You must have operative powers to effect a “separation of powers”, and Coronavirus has sidelined both Connecticut’s General Assembly and its courts, leaving Lamont, the state’s version of Prospero, to defend Connecticut’s castle against the Red Death.

The walls of Connecticut’s castle, it would appear are not very strong, and the drawbridge appears to be down. Only severe and inescapable sanctions can prevent a Coronavirus draped Floridian from wandering through the streets of Hartford. True, the organs of government are well protected; many of them are closed to the toxic general public. But suppose the Coronavirus afflicted Floridian, ordered to quarantine himself voluntarily, should decide voluntarily to break his 14 day quarantine and get a bite to eat at one of Harford’s semi-opened eateries. What will happen to him? Will he be hauled off in chains to the dark basement of Prospero’s castle?

Aye, there’s the rub. Lamont wants to impose crippling fines on possibly Coronavirus infected out-of-staters. But to fine the Alabamian, you must first find him. And how will Lamont know if an Alabamian visiting Fairfield County – say, the CEO of a large company seeking to loot Connecticut of one of its tax plagued businesses -- has failed to self-quarantine? It’s not likely he would know. If Lamont did know, does the governor have the resources available to intercept the looter? The answer is no, he does not. His sanctions have no teeth because they cannot be enforced.

Suppose, just to suppose, that the incidents of Coronavirus in New York City were to increase to dangerous levels in the near future, before Lamont’s plenary powers elapse in three months. Would Lamont throw up a Coronavirus Berlin Wall across the border shared between Cuomo’s New York and Connecticut? Would such effective measures impair the Lamont-Murphy-Cuomo alliance? The answer is yes. Cuomo does not suffer fools gladly.

Is there anything more vulnerable in the political jungle than a toothless, declawed lion? There is not. One can almost hear the self-sequester, front-running Democrat candidate for President Joe Biden responding to the Lamont malarkey – “Come on, man!”