This Wuhan communist disease has ripped the face masks off a gang of Democrat governors and mayors who exhibit disturbing symptoms of the Little Dictator Virus.  Their voters are becoming increasingly alarmed at the symptoms: issuing irrational and unreasonable edicts and making them harsher at a whim, arbitrarily choosing some businesses to thrive and others to wither and die, parading around wearing diamond tiaras and the ermine robes of royalty in the privacy of their chambers.

Just kidding about the last one, but it sure seems that way to the peasants who are indeed revolting.  In their determined oppression of their own citizens under the claim of saving them from body bags, the Democrat officials are giving their subjects a dramatic demo of who they really are.  Like the aliens in the Men in Black films, they have shed their normal-looking human skin to reveal the fanged, scary authoritarian within.

Government-imposed totalitarianism is not going over well in the land of the free.  Citizens are rising up across the nation against officials restricting their lives and destroying their livelihoods in ways unheard of here before now.  Sparked by the Operation Gridlock that recently brought ten thousand protesters to the Michigan capitol, citizens in dozens of states are creating their own gridlocks.

On the sunny Sunday of April 19 in Denver, Colorado, thousands staged a drive-by car protest, honking horns and flying flags for hours on streets around the Capitol.  A thousand more families and friends gathered happily on the Capitol lawn to cheer them on with homemade posters pleading with the Democrat governor to let them get back to work.  A fun picnic, but without the deviled eggs.  Facebook censors shut down the main group, Operation Gridlock Denver, the morning of the protest, but since many groups were publicizing the event, it wasn't hard for people to find information.  Mark Zuckerberg has acknowledged that Facebook has decided that these rallies are "harmful disinformation," so they will protect us by eliminating it.  Oh, thank you, mini-god Mark.  Nevertheless, the Denver Gridlock was a spectacular success.  Next day, Denver's mayor demonstrated just how successful it was by banning Frisbee- and football-tossing! 

Shopping centers are empty of cars.  Everywhere, a once-thriving state looks like a low-budget  end-of-the-world disaster film.  Realtors risk a $1,000 fine and a year in jail if they show clients a home.  Is this shutdown justified because Colorado is in the midst of a terrible virus death wave?  Well, no.  According to the Colorado Department PHE, the state hit its high of hospital admissions at 130 on 04/02/20, declining to 26 on 04/15/20.  As of 04/25/20, the state had 672 virus deaths in a population of nearly 6 million.  We aren't allowed to go to work, socialize, or shop for anything but groceries — oh, except that the liquor stores and marijuana shops are open, collecting lucrative taxes for the state.  And of course, Planned Parenthood is open as an essential business.

In Kentucky angry protesters shouted down Democrat governor Andy Beshear's virus update, yelling, "Open up Kentucky"; "Facts over fear"; and, most tellingly, "We want to work!"  Work and earning a paycheck are essential not only to our financial lives, but also to our self-respect as productive Americans.  But Governor Beshear scolded these citizens who want only to provide for their families: "Folks, that would kill people.  That would absolutely kill people."

Is Kentucky in the midst of a terrible virus death wave?  Well, no.  As of 04/25/20, the state had 205 deaths with 3,905 confirmed cases in a population of 4.46 million.  Yet the governor's March 15 statewide "healthy at home" order closed down all "non-essential" businesses, which includes about everything except grocery stores and, of course, Planned Parenthood.

In many states, the small number of infections and deaths doesn't justify the extreme shutdown orders.  Yet governors and the media brand citizens protesting government-forced idleness murderers.  So selfish to want an active, productive life and maybe even chalk up a few dreams fulfilled!  Much better to stay home and let Almighty Government take care of you with never-ending barely life-sustaining checks while you laze and graze around the house, bust out of your fat jeans, and surrender to all PJs all the time.  This is the Democrats' plan for America.   

Put Democrats in charge, and they start adopting communist regime tactics, including reporting rebels.  New York's Mayor de Blasio announced a modern way to punish upstarts who violate social distancing.  Take a picture of the offender with your phone and text it to the authorities, whereupon, he warned, "action will ensue" — such as a $500 fine.  The Los Angeles mayor followed suit, promising that "snitches will be rewarded." 

In the Birthplace of Liberty, four Philadelphia police officers wrestled a man off a bus for the crime of not wearing a mask, with a half-dozen police looking on.  The officers were not practicing social distancing.  Nor were the police arresting the surfer in California on an empty beach.  Other states threatened drive-in worshipers at Easter and even ticketed and fined them.

Americans want to know where they go to get their constitutional rights back.  Don't ask New Jersey's Democrat governor, Phil Murphy, who laughingly admitted to Fox News's Tucker Carlson that the founding document listing our God-given freedoms is "above my pay grade."  He told Carlson, "I wasn't thinking about the Bill of Rights when I did this" — meaning when he locked down his state.  Outrageous.

And then there's the most infamous Democrat despot governor of all, Michigan 's Gretchen Whitmer, who decreed that people could buy food and medicine from certain stores but not paint or seeds to plant in their spring gardens.  Enforcement demanded actually roping off the forbidden parts of stores.  The choice of "essentials" here is interesting.  Even though her citizens are being good little sheeple, staying inside, this Democrat Maleficent wants to prevent them from doing something constructive, like painting, or happiness-making, like gardening.  Whitmer's order also bars people from fun on their motorboats even though it permits paddling kayaks and canoes.  But of course — an obvious slap at gas-powered toys upholds the Democrats' greenie agenda.

Americans will not tolerate their lives frozen by government when the disease statistics don't justify the severity of the shutdown. We chafe against edicts that we can see are irrational, unreasonable, and often simply preposterous, just as the colonists chafed against the laws of George III.  These rallies across the country give voice to the American spirit — energetic, industrious, hopeful, and freedom-loving — reawakening from its coma.

We are not stupid, and we are not reckless.  We see that in California, a state of 40 million people, there are only 1,651 deaths.  Yet California has probably been dealing with the virus, unseen and unknown, since November, with thousands of likely infected Chinese flying into LAX during those months.  But what Gavin Newsom calls "home isolation" has been in effect only since March 20.  At that time, the Democrat governor predicted from "models" that over half the state's population — about 25.5 million — would be infected in the next eight weeks.  He was spectacularly wrong. 

The Democrat governors, even if they may be relaxing their lockdown orders in the next few weeks, have already revealed their despotic tendencies.  It will be hard for them to release their chokehold on the harsh power they have claimed in this emergency.  Americans know that now.

Joy Overbeck has written for American Thinker, Townhall, The Daily Caller, The Washington Times and others.  More columns: https://www.facebook.com/Joyoverbeckcolumnist.  Twitter: @joyoverbeck1.

This article has been updated.