In 1977, East Germany ransomed hundreds of its leading intellectuals and artists to West Germany, partly because it did not wish to endure public criticism by its own citizens during an International Rights Conference. In spite of the human sale, there was no general revulsion against the East German government in the international community. The East German regime was considered by many social scientists to have more legitimacy than the West German government, because of its more expansive social welfare system and its grandiose paternalist pretensions.

How many of its citizens does a government need to sell before it loses legitimacy? How many of its subjects does a government have to pawn “on the world market” before all its subjects are recognized as essentially slaves? There was no backlash by American political scientists against the East German regime for treating its own people like export chattel. …

The COVID-19 pandemic epitomized how easily politicians can effectively take ownership over billions of citizens. After Donald Trump’s first administration saw how the Chinese government rigorously repressed its populace after the COVID outbreak, the United States adopted some of the same policies. On March 16, 2020, Trump endorsed “15 Days to Slow the Spread”—a slogan that would live in infamy. Freezing the economy and daily life and shutting down schools would supposedly magically vanquish the virus. On April 13, 2020, Trump revealed, “The federal government has absolute power. It has the power. As to whether or not I’ll use that power, we’ll see.”

Wildly inaccurate forecasts of future infections was all that it took for politicians to turn the Constitution into COVID roadkill. Hundreds of millions of Americans were effectively placed under house arrest. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued a deluge of decrees in March and April 2020 after the state legislature gave him “authorization of absolute power,” as the New Yorker declared. The mayor of Louisville, Kentucky banned drive-in church services at the same time he permitted drive-through liquor stores to remain open. Nevada Governor Steve Sisloak decreed that casinos could operate at half capacity—allowing hundreds of gamblers at a time—but that churches could only allow fifty worshippers regardless of their size. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti banned all unnecessary “travel, including, without limitation, travel on foot, bicycle, scooter, motorcycle, automobile, or public transit.” Attorney General Bill Barr aptly called the lockdowns “the greatest intrusion on civil liberties” since the end of slavery.