Last year, Andy Craig, a prominent activist within the Libertarian Party, wrote a brief article for the Cato Institute that asked what, to an American, is the Fourth of July? His conclusion was a common one. The Fourth of July is a time for both celebration and humble self-reflection. It’s a time to recognize the originality of the United States, the modern world’s first nation founded ostensibly as an ideological project instead of on ethnicity or religion, while also reflecting how seldom we actually live up to our nation’s advertising copy. 

For example, when we say, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,” do we include Black men, many of whom were slaves when those words were written? Do we include the indigenous Native Americans who were living here before European colonists arrived? Do we include all men, even if they aren’t American citizens? What about women? What about transmen and transwomen? What about those who don’t identify as men or women at all? 

Put more succinctly, in America, are all humans created equal? If not, what are we willing to do about it? 

What it means to be a Nevadan, on the other hand, usually produces less navel gazing. That’s curious since, for at least 80 percent of us, being a Nevadan is a choice. Most of us weren’t born here. Many Nevadans didn’t even go to school here. Something drew us here. Something keeps us here. If we’ve moved once, surely we can move again — given that Nevada is currently experiencing the highest recorded statewide unemployment rate in national history and residential evictions are coming back, many of us soon might not have much of a choice.

So why haven’t we? 

A common story we tell ourselves is that Nevada is the fulfillment of the American project. Sure, America calls itself the land of the free, but are most Americans free to buy alcohol on Sundays? To drink in a bar until sunrise? To gamble? To pay for sex with money? To marry or divorce upon a moment’s notice? To party in the desert for a week with tens of thousands of your closest friends? To start building a lithium manufacturing plant in less than a month?

There’s some truth to that story.

Take immigration, for example. It’s one thing to allow people to peacefully move, live and work somewhere. It’s something else entirely to let migrants run the place. That, after all, is why presidents are constitutionally required to be natural born citizens of the United States. Right?

Please. Nevada laughs — laughs — at such nativist xenophobia.

None of Nevada’s first 12 governors were born here. Three of those twelve — Frank Bell, John Edward Jones, and Reinhold Sadler — weren’t even born in this country. In fact, it took over 50 years for Nevada to elect a Nevada-born governor. Lest you think this was some peculiar quirk of mining-era Nevada, consider this: Nevada has only elected one Nevada-born governor since the turn of the century. Jim Gibbons was both the first and the last Nevada-born governor since Paul Laxalt’s term ended 40 years prior to Gibbons’ election. 

The historical record is clear — Nevadans don’t care if you’re born in Milwaukee, Redding, or Prussia. We’ll elect you to the Governor’s Mansion as long as you were born at least 200 miles away from Las Vegas.

No, seriously, if you were born in Nevada south of Carson City, forget about it. Nevada has elected a governor from Gold Hill, two from Virginia City, one from Elko, one from just outside of Jiggs, one from Lovelock, one from Reno, and one from Sparks, but has never elected a Nevada-born governor born south of our state capital. The closest any governor has come to being born in Nevada’s most populous metropolitan area was Robert List, who was born in Visalia, California — roughly 230 miles away. 

Enough about that. Let’s go through the Bill of Rights. 

Start with freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. Think of another state where Burning Man would be possible. Or Electric Daisy Carnival. I’ll wait. The truth of Nevada’s tolerance to such things is, as our forefathers might say, self-evident. 

What about the right to bear arms? Well, if you have at least $2000 and are at least 11-years-old, you can take a four day course and learn how to shoot an M-16 with parental supervision in Pahrump. 

All right, what if you’re #3AGANG and don’t want to quarter troops? *mumbles incoherently* 

Okay, maybe you want to avoid unreasonable searches and seizures? *mumbles even more incoherently* 

Perhaps you need to protect your right to avoid self-incrimination? *pokes fingers in ears and starts screaming* 

Are there any subsequent amendments in the Constitution? Don’t ask me — ask this complimentary drink! On the house! Have two! Have 10! Bottom’s up!

Though we like to style ourselves as a live-and-let-live sort of place, the truth is we’re every bit as uneven about living up to that standard as the United States is itself. We took our time legalizing marijuana (and still haven’t legalized consuming it outside of our homes) and even now still feign concern for more restrictive neighboring states when our one-trick border towns, like Wendover and Jackpot, try in desperation to add a second trick to their portfolio, never mind our longstanding lack of scruples about interstate alcohol sales.

Meanwhile, a state ban on same-sex marriages was passed by referendum in 2002 and is still on the books, though Obergefell v. Hodges made it as binding as the racial covenants that were still attached to some of Nevada’s property deeds until a bit over a year ago. Our last Nevada-born governor even tried to veto same-sex domestic partnerships (which are also still on the books and available to all consenting adult couples, same-sex or otherwise); the Legislature ultimately overrode him. 

Not that same-sex marriage is or was a vice, to be clear. Sadly, nobody knew how to convince more than a third of Nevada’s voters otherwise 18 years ago. 

Even if we were a bit more consistent about our principles and scruples, or our seeming lack of them, one thing we’ll never be free of is reality. The reality is, this Independence Day, we’re living through a pandemic that is ripping through our casino and hospitality industries like a neutron bomb and has cancelled our Independence Day celebrations. We’re not helping ourselves, to be clear, but even if we were somehow behaving ourselves for once, it wouldn’t change the reality that we live in a country that, for whatever reason, has collectively and institutionally decided it’ll be easier to just ride this thing out than to actually keep people out of the ICU.

We can reject this reality and substitute our own. Doing so, however, is going to take work.

For starters, we can compare and contrast how the economic dislocation caused by COVID-19 has affected different parts of the state. Tourism abandoned Reno and Sparks over a decade ago. That’s proven to be a blessing — while Clark County still suffers a nearly 30 percent unemployment rate, Washoe County’s is only (for a cruel definition of the word) a bit over half of that, though that still means it’s experiencing the second-highest unemployment rate in the state. 

The path forward is obvious and inevitable. Either Clark County diversifies or Clark County depopulates. A third of Clark County’s workforce can’t and won’t collect unemployment indefinitely. People will move to where jobs are and will move away from where jobs aren’t. Just as importantly, there’s simply no way for the 30 percent of the state’s population that lives outside of Clark County to support 70 percent of the state’s population every time there’s a major economic downturn. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice having casino money subsidizing the state’s coffers during the good times so the rest of us can pay lower taxes, but we need to start treating gaming taxes more like dessert and less like potatoes. 

In the meantime, Nevada does not have to be the most infectious state in the country, which we were last week. Forget masks for a minute — you don’t get the nation’s highest effective reproduction number (or the nation’s highest unemployment rate for that matter) by only doing one thing wrong. Tourists get to escape reality here because they get to go home. We don’t. This is our home. We’re the ones that have to wake up and face whatever tomorrow brings. 

It’s well past time we start acting like it.

David Colborne has been active in the Libertarian Party for two decades. During that time, he has blogged intermittently on his personal blog, as well as the Libertarian Party of Nevada blog, and ran for office twice as a Libertarian candidate. He serves on the Executive Committee for both his state and county Libertarian Party chapters. He is the father of two sons and an IT professional. You can follow him on Twitter @DavidColborne or email him at [email protected].