Ted Nugent has derided the elected officials asking people to limit the size of Thanksgiving celebrations in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

"There are dirty, rotten, soulless bastards in positions of power that are trying to tell us how we can celebrate Thanksgiving with our families," he said on the most recent episode of his Ted Nugent Spirit Campfire show (embedded below). "We need to escape that ugliness — not turn our back on it, because we need to raise hell and let our mayors and our governors and our senators and congressmen know: you can't tell me how many people I have at Thanksgiving. ... You're not in charge of my Thanksgiving. We are in charge of our Thanksgiving. You've got to express that to those people."

The past two months have seen a spike in reported cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. Since Nov. 4, there have been more than 100,000 new diagnoses each day. Yesterday (Nov. 20), 198,537 cases were announced, shattering the previous day's record of 187,428. In response to the rise, many municipalities across the country have tightened restrictions that were loosened over the summer, and public health experts are worried that gatherings of people over the holiday season will cause it to spread even further. But Nugent believes the individual, rather than the government, should determine how best to celebrate.

"If everybody out there in America wants to be the ultimate 'We the People' and experiment the ultimate self-government, express yourself firmly," he added. "You don't scream; you don't swear at 'em. I'm tempted to, but I don't. But I make sure they answer my questions. And if they don't, I tell 'em I'll call 'em back later. 'It's 2:00 on Monday. You can't answer this question now. How about if I call you on Wednesday at 2:00? Because I'm not gonna let you off the hook. You're gonna answer these questions or I'm gonna spread the word that you're a power abuser and we're gonna fire you.'"

"When I say stuff like that, people think I'm radical," Nugent said. "That is standard operating procedure in an experiment in self-government. So I hope this vitality and this adamancy and this demand of independence — not just declaration of independence; demanding of independence — I hope it's contagious on the Spirit Campfire, and I hope people are running this up their individual family flagpoles like their mean it."

As of press time, there have been more than 12 million reported cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. this year, resulting in 254,320 deaths.

Watch Ted Nugent's Spirit Campfire

