Problem: Protesting during a pandemic

For my final thought experiment, I tackled the issue of protesting during a pandemic. This proved to be an
incredibly complex issue, so I broke it up into parts, analyzed what could be seen as a typical conservative
response to each, and then combined them all to form my conclusion.

The pandemic:
Conservatism is a philosophy that prioritizes individual freedom and autonomy and a strong belief in
limited government. By nature, conservatism preaches that the government should not be enforcing
mandatory restrictions during the pandemic, much less the federal government. There is also the issue
about state power versus federal power. Conservatives, if they adhered to their political philosophy,
would believe that the federal government has no right regulating something that differs so greatly from
state to state. They would also say that it is unconstitutional to force people to close their businesses and
stay at home.

Protesting: According to the philosophy, the government has no place regulating ​peaceful ​protests and
demonstrations. That is an individual right guaranteed by the constitution. However, protests are fighting
to change something. Conservatives are traditionalists, and are reluctant to enforce change. As Russell
Kirk said in ​The Conservative Mind​, “slow change is the means of [society’s] conservation.” The rapid,
radical change that many protests are advocating for does not fit in with this pattern. Therefore,
conservatives should inherently support and oppose protests, depending on the cause. These protests for
racial equality are advocating for an end to racial discrimination and profiling, as well as an end to police
brutality that leads all too often to the killing of unarmed black men, women, and children. I guess
conservatives see that as a rapid and drastic request, because they are not supporting the protests. Or
perhaps they are simply focusing all of their attention on the few violent protest across the country,
therefore feeling that they have no obligation to support the movement.

Conclusion: The conservative philosophy supports protests and limited government involvement. It
preaches individual freedom and small government, so it makes sense that conservatives would think that
the government has no right to regulate and restrict peaceful protests, a constitutional right, even during a
global pandemic. That is not the conservative purpose of government. The movement leading the protests,
however, is not a conservative movement. This issue shows the internal conservative conflict–tradition
versus individual freedom and autonomy. I think, in the end, that individual freedom should win out, but
that depends on person and their own beliefs.