We're over 170 days into a 15-day lockdown for a disease we were told we would get as a matter of when, not if. One-man executive rule has been nothing short of cruel and abusive destruction. No one person, business or town can make any consistent sense of the orders. They have turned neighbors and families against each other and even the simple act of walking the dog a political exercise.

Nothing has prevented the General Assembly from meeting remotely or in person. We have never conceded this much power over the course of two World Wars, 9/11, the Civil War or even polio, which killed many children. We would never have declared a rent holiday, told everyone to stop working and sent everyone a check as a response to Pearl Harbor. We would never have said "free absentee ballots on demand" in response to the Spanish Flu, which COVID-19 is not, and about which those supporting the lockdown need to stop comparing it.

This lockdown is a Stanford Prison Experiment. If it were a clinical trial, the doctors conducting it would have been jailed. The goal posts have moved several light years from a temporary measure into a permanent way of life. Life must continue. All life ends, as it will today, for 8,000 Americans who are dying from things other than COVID-19. Even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said the vast majority dying during a COVID infection had an average of 2.6 other things killing them.

COVID-19 is here to stay. It does kill people. So do car accidents. We still go to work. We must. That's how we pay for the health care and food we need to stay alive. We need to deal with the 2.6 or so other things also killing the average person who dies from COVID. The lockdown is actively contributing to those 2.6 other things that lead to the same result. Those other 2.6 things usually include obesity, cancer, high blood pressure and other avoidable First World problems lockdowns get in the way of addressing.

Not even medical error, heart disease or stroke, which individually kill far more than COVID-19, ever could justify what we are allowing the Connecticut governor to do. This safety theater has irrevocably destroyed many lives, families and businesses. It is an active threat to the health and safety of the people of Connecticut. Those going along with it have threatened our very ability to fund hospitals, schools and critical infrastructure.

The two million projected deaths did not happen. Doctors have learned how to manage COVID-19 for those who seek medical attention immediately. There is no good faith reason to continue tearing ourselves apart over a disease that will manageably run its course and pass. The health care sector still is the vector for the spread. That is where we should focus our attention rather than ruin all society as a whole.

This lockdown has worked great evil. Its damage will be felt for many years. Families have been ripped apart. Businesses have closed forever. Lawsuits have been filed. Cancers didn't get early screening. People have been abused. A lot of food was destroyed. No one will move here or start a business if this continues indefinitely.

We have long passed the 15 ways of limited benefit the extreme measures could have had. None of the costs have been taken into account. It is going to be difficult when we end executive rule, and far more difficult the longer we wait. At some point, people are going to end it themselves, whether the governor or the General Assembly like it or not.

The members General Assembly need to end it now or resign. Anyone who won't actively oppose one-man rule should immediately resign from public office and end their political campaigns. Such people aren't merely unfit for public office – they are a very real threat to your health and safety.

Dan Reale is a current and past Libertarian Party candidate for U.S. Congress in the Second District.