Not too long ago, the left was telling people to avoid large gatherings. Democrat governors were cracking down on churches and small businesses. They claimed it was selfish for people to gather because they would spread coronavirus to others. Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot went after houses of worship and sent police to Cornerstone Baptist Church even though the church was following social distancing guidelines. The Democrat Governor of Michigan Gretchen Whitmer suspended a barber’s professional and business licenses for violating her stay-at-home order.
After protests and riots began in the wake of George Floyd’s death, Democrats changed their stance on large gatherings and protests. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has now voiced support for large gatherings, as long as they advocate for a left-wing cause. He said: “When you see a nation, an entire nation simultaneously grappling with an extraordinary crisis seeded in 400 years of American racism, I’m sorry, that is not the same question as the understandably aggrieved store owner or the devout religious person who wants to go back to services.” De Blasio previously faced heavy criticism for breaking up a large Jewish funeral and singling out the Jewish community for not social distancing. Gov. Whitmer, infamous for some of the most draconian lockdown measures in the country, recently marched to protest George Floyd’s death. While she wore a mask, she stood close to other protesters and was not properly ‘social distancing’. Back in May, Whitmer criticized lockdown protesters and said they risked spreading the virus. Health experts also signed a letter supporting protests against racism. They argued that ‘white supremacy’ was just as deadly to black people as the coronavirus. It is doubtful these same people would defend a pro-life or 2nd Amendment protest during the pandemic.
Leftists may have flip-flopped on large social gatherings for one of two reasons. The first reason is that they never saw social gatherings as serious threats in the first place, and discriminated against conservatives who partook in them. The second reason is that they are afraid of being called racists, even at the cost of the virus spreading. Neither explanation looks good for them, and it looks like politicians have mainly used the coronavirus epidemic and the Black Lives Matter protests to benefit themselves politically.
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