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In contrast to reopen protests, where Democratic leaders were lecturing (and arresting) protesters not only on the dangers of reopening too soon but also for marching in and of itself because exercising First Amendment rights would supposedly lead to a wave of Wuhan coronavirus outbreaks or something, we have not been hearing the same “you’re gonna kill seniors, you selfish jerk!” accusations from our intellectual betters regarding those marching over the senseless death of George Floyd.

The double standards have been so blatant that even some reporters, including Fox Los Angeles reporter Bill Melugin, have noted how “ridiculous and arbitrary” the stay at home rules and lectures have been all along. Pharmacists, too, are weighing in and pointing out the inconsistencies in the arguments that were made by Democrats (and the media) not even two weeks ago about how doing things like going to the beach or the park could lead to a dramatic increase in cases numbers.

Thankfully, New Jersey’s Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy “explained” recently why a person wanting to reopen their business in order to put food on the table and keep a roof over their head was not even in the same stratosphere in terms of a priority as someone who was protesting over racial injustice:

On Monday, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) thanked state residents for protesting the unjust police killing of George Floyd in large numbers, and commended them for participating in “the transformational moment of our time,” even though New Jersey’s coronavirus mitigation plan calls for people to gather outside in groups of no more than 25—and in fact, state authorities have fined citizens for organizing anti-lockdown protests. But for Murphy, the two forms of protest are “in different orbits.”

“I don’t want to make light of this, and I’ll probably get lit up by everyone who owns a nail salon in the state,” said Murphy. “But it’s one thing to protest what day nail salons are opening, and it’s another to come out in peaceful protest, overwhelmingly, about somebody who was murdered right before our eyes.”

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, too, has said as much on the issues of reopening and religious worship:

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), who has repeatedly inveighed against the city’s Jewish community for holding public funerals and opening their businesses despite stay-at-home orders, struck a similar note.

“When you see…an entire nation, simultaneously grappling with an extraordinary crisis seated in 400 years of American racism, I’m sorry, that is not the same question as the understandably aggrieved store owner or the devout religious person who wants to go back to services,” said de Blasio.

Get the message here, folks? As far as Democrats are concerned, your First Amendment rights directly hinge on how woke you are, not on the Constitution itself.

If it wasn’t right for people to protest a month ago, it’s not now, either. The virus is still spreading, and we’re already getting warnings about a possible second wave in the fall. A virus doesn’t just stop infecting people the moment leftists decide it’s okay to march in the streets.

As my RedState colleague Bonchie wrote so eloquently last night, though, the Wuhan coronavirus lockdowns turned out to be nothing but a big scam, abused by Democratic mayors and governors to suppress speech they didn’t like. To be sure, there has been a public health crisis with this virus, but it never should have been used to violate the rights of American citizens who were protesting the executive orders of the governors in their states.