The mandate crowd

John Brummett can try to dress it up the best he can, but in his inarticulate way he finally let it slip that “stuff happens requiring government [sic] authority.” That apparently summarizes his and the mandate crowd’s approach to covid: They want the government to tell everyone what to do. Us proles and rubes are simply not to be trusted to look after ourselves and our children.

I hate to remind them that, like it or not (and they clearly don’t), the Legislature is the pre-eminent body that sets state public policy. You can Google “legislate,” and it says “to make or enact law.”

I believe the notion that the ban on mask mandates impairs the governor’s exercise of his inherent authority is so patently absurd that it hardly justifies comment. The governor has emergency authority because the Legislature granted it. Go read the governor’s emergency declaration. It states, “… under the authority vested in me by Ark. Code Ann. §§ 12-75-101, et seq., and Ark. Code Ann. § 20-7-110 …”

There you have it. The answer for the mandate crowd is to stop whining and go win some elections.

MICHAEL EMERSON Little Rock