State Rep. Mike Ball: ‘This is what it is like to live under a totalitarian regime’

To mitigate the spread of COVID-19, the government has used powers that have put restrictions on rights, especially on the state level. That has not gone unnoticed by State Rep. Mike Ball (R-Madison).

During an appearance on Friday’s broadcast of Huntsville radio WVNN’s “The Jeff Poor Show,” Ball said he suspected life in this phase of the coronavirus pandemic was much like what those living under totalitarian regimes face in their daily lives.

He urged listeners to observe life under these conditions, and be reminded when coronavirus passes what life without freedoms was like.

“[I] will tell you — folks, when this is over with, when they start looking at this, at how much government could expand and so quick, and how much it can intrude in people’s lives — I don’t think the people that we’ve got now would intentionally try to abuse their power or anything like that — but it has got to be scary because somebody that wanted to abuse their power and could abuse their power, this tells you how much it could affect people,” he said. “And I would say, we’re probably getting a little taste, just a little taste and I understand it is adverse circumstances that has brought this on — but I will tell you, this is what it is like to live in a totalitarian regime, just like this.”

“I understand there are exigent circumstances that have caused these measures on a temporary basis for the good of public safety,” Ball continued. “But while we’re doing, when this passes, remember we need to protect these freedoms that were guaranteed under the Bill of Rights because this is how people in totalitarian countries live all the time, except that with even greater fear.”

Ball also said when the time comes, a review of the power of government will be needed, arguing if the wrong person were in charge that authorities could be abused.

“We would be foolish not to debrief and deprogram and look at how this came about,” he added. “I’ve been very sensitive to it the last several years — some of the things I never thought I would see in state government or law enforcement … We need to look at what if someone was holding the reins of power that would abuse it because you have got to have safeguards in place to make sure that this kind of extreme power would never be abused. I’m not saying that it has been. But I am saying that it doggone could sure be.”

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly and host of Huntsville’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 2-5 p.m. on WVNN.