I called Dr. Anthony Fauci “the nation’s most dangerous sociopath” in March 2020. I’ve been known to get a few things wrong from time to time, but I was Chris Kyle-accurate when discussing the man who would become one of the great villains of modern America. Fauci was a test, and it is important to remember who rose to the occasion as dystopian authoritarianism swept the nation and who failed spectacularly.
Fauci’s diary was released by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) in preparation for the disgraced doctor’s appearance before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday. It reveals an egomaniacal, entitled, fame-obsessed monster of a man who lied shamelessly and indiscriminately to the people. Fauci was obsessed with fame and the praise he received from celebrities and Democrats. He wined and dined with liberal journalists and knew as early as January 2020 that his crafted “wet market” theory that he and the medical establishment pushed for years was complete nonsense.
Very few elected officials stood up for their constituents in the face of the most destructive government overreach in generations. Govs. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Brian Kemp (R-GA) reversed course on COVID-19 lockdowns almost immediately, drawing the ire of Fauci and the Trump White House. “We will never do any lockdowns again. … Lockdowns do not work. They cause immense collateral damage, destroy livelihoods, and strip away basic American freedoms,” DeSantis said.
Other governors took the pandemic as their opportunity to cosplay Josef Stalin. Villainous executives such as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) locked down her state’s economy for months, banned the use of boats (unless you were married to the governor, of course), and even banned the sale of seeds for gardening. Whitmer cruised to reelection in 2022.
President Donald Trump empowered Fauci and gave him the weapons necessary to destroy the global economy, but eventually realized he had been duped by the so-called “experts.”
“You and Fauci have destroyed the country and the economy. I should never have listened to you. You have completely destroyed us,” Trump told Dr. Deborah Birx.
Fact check: True, Mr. President, but as President Truman of “I nuked Japan twice” fame understood, the buck stops at the Resolute Desk.
Of course, Vice President JD Vance was a private citizen in 2020, but he came out in favor of mask mandates in April of that year, before branding himself as having opposed the federal response to the virus when he launched his political career in 2022. Curtis Yarvin and other “postliberal” thinkers who helped launch Vance’s ascension were lockdown enthusiasts during the pandemic.
“In a sane world, anyone with a public record of minimizing the coronavirus would be cancelled — unfit for any further employment, let alone in this crisis. Old friends would edit their phonebooks and duck them in public, worried about being linked to a coronavirus minimizer,” Yarvin wrote.
Many in conservative and libertarian media, including here at Washington Examiner, opposed Faucism at every turn. However, many failed to understand the gravity of what the republic was facing.
Daniel Tenreiro made the case in National Review for mass mask compliance on the basis that it may dissuade authoritarians from behaving like authoritarians. Cato Institute’s Ryan Bourne argued that mandates and quarantines were defensible on the basis of protecting people from involuntary risk. Jason Brennan, a libertarian philosopher at Georgetown, wrote a piece, “A libertarian case for mandatory vaccination,” which was cited heavily by authoritarians and their media cheerleaders.
On the flip side, economic historian Phil Magness and the team at American Institute for Economic Research organized the Great Barrington Declaration, authored by epidemiologists Sunetra Gupta of Oxford, Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford, and Martin Kulldorff of Harvard. The paper argued against draconian lockdowns in favor of focused protection.
FAUCI’S LEGACY: SHATTERED PUBLIC TRUST
“The alarmist models of the spring didn’t just usher in unprecedented government overreach; their urgent nature steamrolled any opportunity for an evidence-based scientific debate over their efficacy,” said Magness. National Institute of Health Director Francis Collins wrote to Fauci the day after the declaration, calling for the “quick and devastating public takedown” of the signatories.
Most right-wing pundits and leaders had turned on Fauci and lockdown policies by the time Biden took office, but a few of us stood up to the Goliaths of 2020 from the beginning. The next time the wolves are at the gate, look to those few who stood tall when it mattered most.
Brady Leonard (@bradyleonard) is a writer, musician, and host of The No Gimmicks Podcast.