By: Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, Congressional Candidate for AZ-04 (June 12, 2024)
Four years ago, we watched the formerly unthinkable happen.
Government officials, agencies, and the medical establishment seized on COVID-19 panic and confusion to take control of almost every aspect of personal life, from whether you could eat in a restaurant, when you could walk the beach, what hours your business could be open if at all, what you had to wear over your face, and – eventually – whether you and your kids could take part in everyday life based on your vaccination status. Families were forced by government to keep their kids at home out of school with mandatory remote learning for years which has harmfully impacted a generation. We went from watching aghast as China’s Communist Party weld its citizens into their homes to feeling that our own government wasn’t too many steps away from doing the same. Our risk seeking free culture transformed into a pathologically risk averse culture coerced by government.
As a primary care physician for over 25 years, and prior U. S. Navy medical officer as a physician to Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court, I love the practice of medicine deeply. I have also served our public health on the Maricopa County Board of Health and previously as President of the Arizona Medical Association and also since 2008, as an Arizona delegate to the American Medical Association.
I was horrified and incensed to watch my beloved practice of medicine become weaponized against Americans – with so much of the medical establishment I have served within leading the charge.
As I’ve done many other times before in my life, I ran towards the fire. I made it clear publicly on media outlets that I disagreed and many of the decisions were un-American. I stood up to the medical establishment, tried to be a voice for the voiceless calling out the overreach of medicine and government into daily life and citizens’ freedoms. I also kept my primary care practice open during the COVID-19 pandemic – all in spite of immense pressure from the medical establishment to cave.
The lessons from COVID-19 pandemic?
Even in the freest country in the world, we are only one emergency away from our freedoms being snatched from us.
Even in the freest country in the world, our government will try to tell us by force when our business or our places of worship can operate.
Even in the freest country in the world, we can be forced to take a shot under threat of losing our job or our ability to send our child to school.
Unthinkable? Not anymore.
We need bold leaders on the front lines in Washington who are ready to fight nationally and locally for our freedoms the next time they’re on the line. We need rational principled leaders with the clarity to see through the fog of panic and protect our principles. We need leaders who have proven they will stand up to whomever is stealing our freedoms, no matter the cost.
We don’t know what that next emergency will be.
We do know, as Ronald Reagan so wisely said, that freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.
- Our First Amendment freedoms of speech and worship – protected for some, and ignored for others, as we’re seeing in university protests across the country.
- Our Second Amendment right to defend ourselves and our families – under constant attack.
- Our right to vote in free and fair elections – undermined by manipulation, lack of transparency, gaslighting, and abuse.
- Our right to know due process is being carried out and our laws are being followed – as criminal behavior is ignored in major cities and our border remains open to drugs and cartel traffickers.
As the son of refugee immigrants from a tyrannical dictatorship in Syria, I learned from an early age that freedom isn’t to be taken for granted. My parents instilled in me and my siblings that it was here, in their adopted country, that we could be more free to practice our faith and reach our goals than anywhere else in the world. My parents loved America, embraced American values, cherished freedom, took voting seriously, and raised us to do the same. That’s how Gada and I are raising our three children today.
Will our children inherit the freedom with which we’ve been entrusted? That’s what we’re fighting for. To restore and preserve America’s promise beyond our generation.
I hope to have the honor of representing you in Congress. You can trust that I’ll always run into the fire when our freedoms are at stake.