Governor Cooper Should Be Removed From Office as a Result of His Trashing the Rule of Law | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Last week (5-7-20) Jeff Aydelette did a superb job of shining the light on what the Cooper Lockdown has meant for real people. Not the ones who stand on a platform in front of a bank of cameras and talk about "flattening the curve" and other nonsense but rather people who have had their living and livelihood devastated by ill-advised politicians who are trashing our constitutions and imposing nonsensical regulations that are not based on sound science, much less common sense.

    We have studied the numbers, including the maps, of those states that used extreme measures to beat the virus and those who more or less left it up to We The People to do what we have always done...manage our own health. There is little significant difference between the two approaches. In the process of using a sledgehammer to swat a fly, they have wrecked more economic destruction on this state and nation than has ever been done in American history. Millions of Americans and North Carolinians have lost their jobs and now it is being reported that 40% of those jobs will never return.

    We don't think we need to argue that Cooper's "One size fits all" approach is nonsense. Beaufort County has suffered from his Lockdown just as everyone else has, but it had no pandemic. Since all this started, there have been only 22 cases in the county. All of those, to date, have recovered. No deaths.

    The County Compass article illustrates the harm that has been done to citizens of this state. Read what Publisher Aydelette has to said on behalf of those abused by Cooper's Lockdown:

• NORTH CAROLINA — Small business operations across the state are being knocked for a loop. We have reached the point where every extra day of government-ordered disruptions will destroy more and more of North Carolina's economic backbone.
• Enough is enough.
• May God Bless Brantley Norman, Jr. of Oriental: Last week on April 30, Mr. Norman attempted to re-open his popular restaurant, which was established in 1978. After a well-attended breakfast and lunch in which almost all customers practiced the 'new normal' of social distancing, authorities showed up to shut down the valiant effort.
• During a brief interview just minutes after law enforcement left, the congenial restaurant owner hit the nail squarely on its head when he said: "I did this today because people need freedom of choice. In the history of this great country, sick people have always stayed home from work, and it is healthy people who go to work. It has always been that way up until now."
• May God Bless Vickie Moore & Lib Litchfield: Both of these feisty ladies own and operate hair salons — a category of small business that has been absolutely devastated. Vickie has vowed that Hair Station in Bayboro will survive. Lib, too, has pledged to continue with her shop, A Cut A Head in downtown Aurora. Each week in this newspaper, Vickie and Lib have continued to advertise. "Miss Lib will be here for you when allowed to return," blares Litchfield's ad. "Stay Safe! We look forward to serving you soon!" proclaims Moore's ad.
• Setting a standard for all of their counterparts in this most beleaguered segment of our economy, Moore and Litchfield are to be commended! Thank you, ladies!
• May God Bless the Pamlico County Commissioners: Six of the seven members on this elected board approved a proclamation Monday night that calls upon the Governor for immediate action. "Whereas, the current stay-at-home order and closure of businesses through May 8 and quite possibly beyond, will create a significant hardship on Pamlico County residents," says the single page document. Accolades to County Commissioner Ed Riggs Jr. for his hard-hitting support: "I believe our government is overreaching," said Riggs. "Right now, I am more concerned about our rights than I am about the virus." Commissioner Missy Baskervill also registered her dismay: "I have a hard time understanding . . . it is just too much," she said.
• Wednesday, in a Washington Post commentary, the five Republican governors who kept their states open during the pandemic said the following:
• "The diversity of the 50 states is what makes our nation's economy great, and each state's response to the novel coronavirus is as diverse as the pandemic's impact on each of us," wrote Governors Mark Gordon (R-WY), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Asa Hutchinson (R-AR), Kim Reynolds (R-IA), and Mike Parson (R-MO). "Restarting our economy is not a race to be won, but a cooperative effort. Our approach has created a model for success that can be applied throughout the country."

    So, there you have it. Our Governor, without the least bit of concurrence from the Legislature, has acted as King George III did before the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776. He has acted very much as did Governor W. W. Holding in 1870. Holding, among other things, declared martial law in two counties and suspended the Writ of Habeas Corpus, essentially imposing government control on the people without benefit of a trial. It should be noted that the "threat" Holding faced (violence from the KKK) was to many as serious as the Corona Virus. Holding became the only governor in North Carolina history to be impeached and convicted/removed from office.

    We do not labor under any illusion that Governor Cooper will be impeached and removed from office before January but the point we do wish to make is that while the virus is a serious matter, it is, in our opinion, much more serious that we have had a Governor who has trashed the Rule of Law and replaced it by Fiat Law.

    He has issued travel restrictions, closed public schools, dictated what are "essential businesses" and "non-essential businesses," issued edicts about how close we can be to another person in public regardless of how many people are around, and has failed to intervene when these requirements have been enforced by strong arm tactics. Moreover, he has caused numerous small business to have to close and face the possibility of never being able to re-open, causing unemployment to reach record heights, and caused a major disruption of the delivery of health services. And most importantly, he has imposed clearly unconstitutional restrictions on churches and religious gatherings. And all of this has been done in an arbitrary and capricious manner without a showing of compelling reasons that can be reasonably expected to work with the least intrusions on constitutional freedoms and liberties protected by both the state and Federal constitutions.

    In doing these grievous violations of the Rule of Law without benefit of legislative concurrence he has set a precedent that is so dangerous that it cannot be tolerated by the People.

    This hyped pandemic will send. It is already below the seasonal flu levels in most places. But the precedents of constitutional violations are totally unacceptable. We trust that the voters will deal with removing Governor Cooper from office in the November election and that the same voters will elect a state House and Senate fully capable of enacting legislation that will prevent such abuses of our rights ever again. We trust those reforms will include: recall, initiative and referendum.