Even though, to a very large extent, the hue and cry of “States’ rights” have been soundly defeated by the national government, we find that when it comes to a potential national quarantine that the national government, does not apparently have the power to enforce their will and therefore to circumvent or to trump States’ rights in regards to such. This doesn’t mean that the national government would not ultimately prevail, what it does mean though is that the national government, does not presently have the capability to simply assert its will in regards to a potential nationwide quarantine; though, of course, under exigent circumstances, or martial law, in all probability a national quarantine could indeed be enforced upon the whole population in short order.
To a very large extent, the fact that fifty different States and the localities within those States, have their own rules and regulations in regards to that which has been identified by the national government as a pandemic, is the sort of thing that is very messy, at best. After all, the borders from one State to another, typically are completely open and certainly have not been set up to control traffic going to-and-fro; not to mention, that there are all those other means of transportation that can be utilized to travel from one State to another. So then, in reality, to enforce a nationwide lockdown really would depend upon the general public buying into the emergency, or else in order to bring this into good effect, this would invariably mean a whole lot of conflict, in which undoubtedly some of that conflict would be violent.
Americans have a strong tendency to want to assert their independence and freedom, without seeming to understand that every freedom so claimed as one’s own, necessitates some supporting sort of duty, in turn. Additionally, there are those contingencies that require a national response and a national consensus within a very short period of time, and when there are fifty different States coming from potentially fifty different directions, then coming to some sort of reasonable resolution within a very short period of time, isn’t necessarily going to happen.
A true national emergency, necessitates a true national response in both a timely and an effective manner. As it currently stands, when it comes to a national quarantine, the United States is clearly not prepared, and further doesn’t have the infrastructure or the wherewithal, other than through martial law, to assert a national response. The problem with martial law in a nation of individuals that believe religiously in personal freedom, is that people on both sides of such a dispute are going to get hurt and there will be deaths.
The better way for the United States to deal with a future national quarantine, is to sit down now, with the governor and legislature of each respective State, and then to come to a consensus of what defines the necessity of a national quarantine, and thereby what each State would do in turn to be responsible to that national quarantine. Those then that will not responsibly prepare for that contingency, will therefore see the same sort of inconsistency and confusion so generated through the governmental response to COVID-19. That is to say, there has to be some sort of consensus of what an appropriate national response should be, and in order for that nation to actually unite together, then each of fifty States has to be on the very same page, as their national government.