THE PRESIDENT IS NOT YOUR DADDY.

Today's clarity, from the editors of Issues and Insights.  "The only legitimate response to a pandemic of any president from any party would be to use the power of the office to move government out of the way as quickly and as much as possible so the private sector can adapt, innovate, and overcome."

That's the ideal, but reality intervenes.

What have Americans wanted from their president regarding the coronavirus? Have they been demanding a commander in chief who will require the entire country to wear masks, and stay inside, to give up their lives in return for an unknown but hoped-for outcome?

Some have wanted a tyrant who will make all obey the protocols they believe are the proper steps for stopping the pandemic. Others have wished for a daddy, who will spoon medicine into their mouths and tell them everything will be fine. But neither of these is consistent with American freedom nor its style of government.

The problem is, the apparent winner of the just-concluded presidential election is a coot who would like the sort of confinement to quarters noted in the first paragraph, at least for the first four months of 2021, while the "American style of government" has become one in which the cult of the presidency is a real thing, and people hailing the replacement of the orange man with the coot aren't mocked the way they should be.