There are some people who don’t want you to have a Merry Christmas. They tell you it’s because they want you to stay “safe” from COVID-19. These people are bureaucrats and politicians whom, as the last 10 months have shown us, have no idea what they’re doing but they keep doing it anyway. They simply don’t want to let a good crisis go to waste.

Throughout the last 10 months of lockdowns, mask-wearing and social distancing, there has been more and more evidence that those conditioning us to live in fear and telling us they have the answers in fact have something else: an interest in controlling the population. Conditioning us is easier when fear is the motivating factor. Look at California — the epicenter of lockdowns, mask-wearing indoors and outside, and draconian bans on gatherings of all sorts. Now the Golden State is the “Rona State.” They’re still an epicenter, but of a new surge of the virus. Compare this to Florida and South Dakota which implemented reasonable restrictions, refused to lockdown and encouraged people to take precautions whenever possible. Those states are faring better than sunny California, not just regarding the virus, but economically as well. Even the World Health Organization declared in October that lockdowns are not the answer.

Revealing remarks by Dr. Anthony Fauci back in November received very little coverage, perhaps because they exposed the more nefarious interests of bureaucratic know-it-alls. Dr. Fauci blamed the winter spike (when viruses tend to revive) in COVID-19 cases on the “American spirit,” and how it’s time for all of us to “do as we’re told.”

The Washington Times reported at the time, “Dr. Anthony Fauci says Americans who stick with the nation’s ‘independent spirit’ should think twice during the coronavirus and, instead, opt for a ‘do what you’re told’ mentality. The infectious disease expert made the comments Thursday while speaking with experts in the nation’s capital. ‘I was talking with my U.K. colleagues who are saying the U.K. is similar to where we are now, because each of our countries have that independent spirit … I can understand that, but now is the time to do what you’re told.”

Dr. Fauci repeated that same smear to The Washington Post just a few days ago, saying the American spirit “hurt us” during the pandemic.

It’s not China’s fault all of this is happening, no, it’s you and your pesky “spirit” that’s done this despite 10 months of actually doing “what we’re told” by people who then don’t do as they tell us. We have allowed the destruction of our businesses, our lives, births and deaths experienced alone, sobriety crushed, mental health straining, and the future in question because we take the virus seriously and trusted these people.

Dr. Fauci himself has been photographed in public with multiple people without wearing a mask. Perhaps it’s the American spirit of not putting up with smug hypocrites that so irritates him. Over the last several months Americans have watched various Democratic politicians break the rules and regulations they impose on the rest of us.

It is irritating, I’m sure, that our spirit compels us to recognize and critique that so many issuing orders simply aren’t taking those orders seriously themselves. We also now know Dr. Deborah Birx was engaging in family activities during the Thanksgiving break that she told Americans were simply too dangerous.

In a column titled “If Dr. Birx Doesn’t Worry About Coronavirus, Why Should Anyone?,” John Nolte at Breitbart.com expands on an Associated Press report that Dr. Birx traveled on the day after Thanksgiving with three generations of her family.

Mr. Nolte remarks, “Just prior to Thanksgiving, Birx told Americans it would be dangerous to hold Thanksgiving with anyone other than immediate family, meaning those you already live with … [Yet] while Birx is advocating that we all get locked down to save Grandma and Grandpa, while Birx is advocating that no one be allowed to visit the elderly in nursing homes, she’s been out visiting extended family and getting visits from a 77-year-old grandmother who goes home to a 92-year-old man!”

Mr. Nolte then asks, “Is it not painfully obvious that Dr. Birx does not believe in lockdowns and isolation? Because if she did believe that lockdowns and isolation saved lives, she would not risk the lives of her own family members.”

In the aftermath of the exposure, Dr. Birx has announced her retirement, saying the criticism has been “difficult on her family.” No doubt. She did what she thought was right for herself and her family. And that’s all the rest of us want as well. One can hope all those who believe rules are only for the little people, or are willing to impose ineffective, draconian lockdowns on the people, act on her example.

The American spirit is one based in fairness, equity and individualism, but also a love of community and family that engenders personal responsibility and self-sacrifice. The American spirit the Dr. Fauci smugly complains about has saved this planet several times over. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have given their lives in the wars of the world to save freedom for and bring liberty to millions of strangers.

Despite lectures from the failed and smug, and their efforts to instill us with perpetual fear, we will instead enjoy our Christmas. We will also take precautions appropriate for our ourselves and our families, while managing the risks we face as we have always done. We will, in other words, continue to enjoy our American spirit

• Tammy Bruce, president of Independent Women’s Voice, author and Fox News contributor, is a radio talk-show host.