Covid-19 cases are exploding. The European Union has banned most American residents from entering the bloc. By doing so, it is basically treating the US as a failing state unable to get the pandemic under control. Some are blaming young people who are mingling with each other for the surge. But greater harm has been done by rightwing elites, who are pushing the narrative that protective measures like social distancing and masks impinge on their freedom.

Unlike with any crisis in living American memory, there has been absolutely no national leadership or comprehensive planning Trumps plan has been to have no plan, as the critic Jay Rosen put it. The resulting vacuum has been filled by the most extreme voices in the Republican party and the hard business right: they have pushed the idea that we are in an epic battle between fear and freedom. The likes of Freedom Works and the Job Creators Network have called for flatting the fear curve; this rhetoric is echoed on posters by the seemingly libertarian Michigan protesters proclaiming: My freedom does not end where your fear begins.

In many ways, the right has simply hit repeat for a political strategy that has apparently worked for it in the past: relentlessly stoke culture wars to distract everyone from growing inequalities and a rapidly deteriorating natural environment. Masks have been designated as inherently leftwing or signs of enslavement to the government; evil foreigners are being blamed for the virus. Instead of mobilizing state resources to protect both businesses and workers in the way countries like Denmark have done, the pandemic is instrumentalized to push the all-out deregulation agenda Trump and his backers have pursued from day one of his presidency.

This is a playbook Republicans have been perfecting with regard to global warming: pretend that an impersonal and for many people invisible threat doesnt really exist, and, on top of that, claim that its a plot hatched by a global geopolitical rival.

The truth is that in many ways we are less free than four months ago; we have fewer options and some liberties are being restricted. Yet we should not forget that liberties are always both backed up and limited by the state even the most ardent libertarian calls the police when their right to dispose of their property freely is threatened by thieves. And basic political rights are also always reasonably qualified: Mike Pences specious defense of Trumps failed Tulsa rally invoked the constitutional right of freedom of assembly, but forgot to mention that assemblies can be regulated with regard to timing, place and manner.

The reason liberties have been restricted in the past months is not only that states had a clear democratic mandate by a reasonably fearful majority to do so (polls showed consistent support for lockdowns). It is also that in a situation in which we, as individuals, cannot properly judge whether our conduct will cause major harms to others. It is therefore right for states to put proper regulations in place.

Our inability individually to calculate the risks we pose to others will not change any time soon

Our inability individually to calculate the risks we pose to others will not change any time soon, especially as asymptomatic Covid-19 cases are more common than assumed initially. Hence states should err on the side of imposing detailed regulations. They must sanction those businesses who fail to keep workers safe instead of declaring them essential and shielding them from proper responsibility, in the way Trump did with the meat industry. That will help allay the fears of those who are wary of returning to work.

If safety is not insured, the supposed economic freedom that the hard right is promoting is in fact unfreedom. Many blue-collar workers dont have a choice about whether to stay at home and have every reason to be fearful about returning to an unsafe environment. By contrast, the privileged as they can work from home or dont need the money can choose to keep sheltering. The latter might even benefit indirectly from others getting infected and thus moving us all closer to herd immunity, a classic form of what economists call free riding: getting the benefit without incurring the cost.

America needs to recognize that freedom isnt simply maximal individual self-assertion. Its also, following the political theorist Hannah Arendts famous account, a collective capacity to coordinate and act in concert. That might require forbearance and proper attention to the spaces we share. Many people have been adopting such an attitude putting on masks voluntarily as well as being considerate in how they move and talk. Such self-restraint combined with temporary regulations would lessen fear and increase everyones freedom in the long-term.

Jan-Werner Mller teaches politics at Princeton. His Democracy Rules is forthcoming from Farrar, Straus & Giroux in the US, and Penguin in the UK

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The American right is pushing 'freedom over fear'. It won't stop the virus - The Guardian