Mask Mandates Cause Vietnam-Like Credibility Gap For Government

During the Vietnam War, Americans constantly saw U.S. government claims that all was going well in battle while casualty lists showed dramatically that it was not.

The difference between what the government said and what the public saw with its own eyes came to be called the “credibility gap” and has bedeviled the relationship between government and its citizens ever since.

The difference between public pronouncements and mandates that encourage and even require masking and the piles of evidence suggesting that COVID is receding and that masks don’t really help much is generating a new credibility gap, likely just as serious and long-lasting as that which Vietnam created.

As with the previous gap it is likely to define our relationship with our government for decades to come.

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As blue state governors increasingly throw in the towel and suspend mask mandates, the futility of the masking requirements will be further exposed.

And, as studies — like the Johns Hopkins study — show that few if any lives were saved by lockdown measures and mandates, the gap will yawn wider.

Because of the intrusiveness of the requirement that we — and our young children — have to wear something over our faces the public distrust of government will spread ever more rapidly.

It may be the defining experience of our times.

(COMMENT, BELOW)

Dick Morris, who served as adviser to former Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and former President Clinton, is the author of 16 books.