Let’s face it– quarantine sucks. The pandemic has cancelled most events since March, meaning people have a lot of time to spend at home, either working or schooling. However, it seems that we as a nation have gotten tired of quarantine life one way or another, and with multiple waves of protesting the new normal of the pandemic, it’s obvious that Americans aren’t used to staying still. Although the coronavirus has called for national unity, the pent up energy brought about by staying at home has lead to unrest and chaos, and as we leave our homes to join in demonstrations, either against quarantine or against police brutality, it’s clear that Americans are tired of the quarantine life [NYT].

However, when a certain type of protest or group outing occurs, especially within politics, critics of the protest have one new piece of ammo to use– the pandemic. For example, the NPR was highly critical of Trump planning to resume inperson campaigning, citing a second wave of coronavirus, despite largely forgoing the same criticism of police brutality protests at the same time, drawing much criticism [NPR]. However, many public health officials say that BLM protestors get a free pass from worrying about the coronavirus, stating that the costs of systemic racism outweighs the costs of the virus [Politico].

Throughout the history of the pandemic, attitudes have shifted about whether or not the right to speech plus outweighs the stay-at-home orders issued by the government. From the April and May protests against government tyranny and the June protests against the same thing to President Trump’s reopening of campaign rallies, how the media portrays these events aged light into their political biases and partisanships. It’s clear that petty politics will write the history of the pandemic, whether one stays at home or not, and although this is an unprecedented time, precedented politics is, quite literally, the law of the land.