Don't Forget How Florida Defeated Faucism and Vindicated Federalism
Josh Hammer
Anthony Fauci, the public health bureaucrat who became the face of America's botched COVID-19 response, testified this week on Capitol Hill. Except Fauci actually didn't testify: In an astonishing act of hubris and disdain for the countless Americans who bore the brunt of tyrannical COVID-era "Faucism," the mad doctor invoked the Fifth Amendment well over 100 times.
It's an unprecedented defiance of congressional will for a man who has already received a sweeping presidential pardon. Congress would do well to vote to hold Fauci in contempt.
Wednesday's intense senatorial standoff followed Sen. Rand Paul's (R-KY) earlier release of damning excerpts of Fauci's diary. Those excerpts revealed a man obsessed with his burgeoning self-image. Fauci also harbored grave private doubts about many key COVID-era disputes, such as the virus's hotly contested origins, on which the longtime National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director otherwise projected a sense of confidence to a wary public.
In short, this past week painted a vivid James Bond villain-like picture of the power-hungry "elf" who personified COVID hell for so many.
In lecturing Americans to shut up and simply "trust the science," Fauci committed the fallacy of scientism: He conflated science, or "science," with the public good that statesmen are tasked with securing. Moreover, Fauci's one-man reign of COVID-19-era biomedical terror served as a capstone on the century-long administrative state project of empowering would-be elites in Washington, D.C., over the judgments of the people.
Thankfully, not every American was equally subjected to Fauci's overweening, politically expedient, and often-changing dictates. We have our Founders to thank for that: Federalism mitigated the burdens of Faucism for the many Americans fortunate enough to live in states whose political leadership defied prevailing COVID-era biomedical despotism.
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https://townhall.com/columnists/joshhammer/2026/07/31/dont-forget-how-florida-defeated-faucism-and-vindicated-federalism-n2680424
