Quarantine Protesters Don’t Represent All Conservatives. Here’s Why.

Movement conservatives are increasingly decrying stay-at-home orders and calling for the economy’s rapid reopening. This is, alas, yet another example of how the movement’s devotion to liberty as an overriding value is out of step with mainstream American opinion.

It is difficult to understate how deep this devotion runs throughout movement conservative thought and action. From the stirring call of William F. Buckley Jr.’s mission statement for the conservative magazine National Review to the 2016 convention speech from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), the individual’s freedom from government has been the hub of the movement wheel. Whether it opposes new government action, as it did in opposition to Obamacare, or seeks to pare back previous government acts, as when it supports entitlement reform, movement conservatism does so in the belief that expanding freedom for its own sake should be public policy’s primary goal.