(Editor’s note: Kim McGahey wrote the Conservative Common Sense column for the Summit Daily newspaper for 14 months, a relationship which was terminated at the beginning of this year. The following is the final column submitted by McGahey, which the Daily did not run.)
We have reached the height of bureaucratic overreach by unelected officials in Summit County with the recent mask mandate. This backward decision is just the next step in a long line of Draconian measures endorsed by our hapless Democrat county elected officials in an effort to control our local population.
By their own admission, the county commissioners see no real public health threat and no science to justify this action in response to the latest Omicron variant. They further acknowledge there is not one COVID-19 case in the St. Anthony’s Hospital in Frisco. They characterize the current public health threat as miniscule.
So why clamp down unnecessarily on all indoor public spaces in the county, making life miserable for business owners, tourists and fed-up locals? Because that’s how liberal progressives roll.
For example, the Democrat county sheriff has imposed vaccine mandates on all department employees or risk being fired. Is this a legitimate response to a miniscule public health threat or a convenient way to thin the ranks of political opposition within the sheriff’s office?
Another example of the liberal double standard that runs our county: a Breckenridge Town Council member is allowed and encouraged to verbally berate citizens voicing opposing political viewpoints in the public comments section of town council meetings; and then publicly disparages unvaccinated citizens at the Ullr Parade. He thinks he’s funny, but nobody is laughing at his disgraceful comments.Yet another example is when our spineless county commissioners pay homage to the political science of the Summit County Health Department which focuses on sensational “new cases” instead of the more relevant statistics of declining hospitalizations and fatalities. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) deaths are down about 7%. Plus, Colorado Governor Polis is not implementing any statewide mask or vaccine mandates. Yet we suffer under an oppressive mask mandate in Summit County.
The liberal progressives of Summit County clearly intend to replace our individual freedom with their one-party dominance. They use the common good as an excuse for common control. Germany used a similar excuse in the 1930’s to intimidate and then eliminate a portion of their population. Are we heading in the same direction when local Summit Daily letter writers demand that the unvaccinated should bear the costs of all health insurance and be prepared to suffer the consequences of being ostracized from the social in-group?
The local progressives give a hall pass to the likes of Brownshirt Biff and condone their hateful actions as long as they are charter members of the Summit County Liberals Club. But the left’s restrictive cancel culture comes down hard on any Trump supporter who would dare make similarly outrageous remarks.
Instead of more progressive liberal regulations, ordinances and controls, we should abide by the Great Barrington Declaration as endorsed by over 50,000 medical professionals worldwide to remove lockdowns, vaccine requirements and mask mandates in favor of the live and let live philosophy as practiced by the states of Florida and Texas. We need to allow personal choice, personal responsibility and personal freedom to manage this endemic and our daily lives.
Kim McGahey is a real estate broker, tea party activist and former Republican candidate. He has lived in Breckenridge since 1978. Contact him at kimmcgahey@gmail.com.
