The following was written approximately a year into the Covid crisis, all except for the book reference, which was added because it offers incredible insight into the same topic.

We once again see that the most fundamental difference and a timeless juxtaposition between the left and the right is how each side views personal responsibility.  While there is nothing positive about the current crisis, it has brought this contrast into high definition as even the subject of returning to work has become deeply partisan.
“15 Days to Flatten the Curve” has extended into months of economy-crushing lockdowns.  Those on the political right advocate returning to work with appropriate precautions, defiantly doing so in some cases.  The left has largely opposed and criticized the reopening of businesses, believing everyone should remain sheltered in place and await further instruction from their shepherds in state government.  They’ve surrendered liberty for perceived safety and a “greater good” while ridiculing anyone not in lockstep with their abdication of individual reasoning and decision making.  Even after all the contradictions, overreaches and hypocrisy from state officials, you’ll hear the left say,  “Listen to the experts!” “Why can’t you just do what you’re told?” “Don’t be so selfish!” ” What makes you so special?” 
I believe this animus stems from a fundamental disagreement and misunderstanding of what freedom means.  Those on the right highly value individual liberty and personal responsibility and see these two principles as an inseparable tandem.  Further, they believe that any discussion of a citizen’s rights is basically synonymous with freedom, best defined as something the government can’t do to you, as spelled out in the Bill of Rights. 
On the other hand, you typically don’t hear much about freedom from the left, though they do talk a great deal about rights.  However, when the left refers to a citizen’s rights, they seem to define a right as an entitlement the government owes you, such as a right to healthcare, to education, to a “living wage,” etc.  It’s important to note that with this definition, there is no mention of responsibility because none is required to receive a government handout.
Well, absent the critical element of personal responsibility, freedom becomes synonymous with a whim, just doing whatever you want, whenever you want. This is what the left mistakenly believes is the right’s definition of freedom. 
Consequently, as the right begins its refrains of protecting freedom against tyrannical governors, all the left hears is mindless bravado, people acting selfishly and foolishly, clueless and careless of how their behavior may effect others.  The reality though, in my experience, is that those that highly value their own life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, would never disrespect those same rights of another.  So they’ll wear masks, they’ll social distance, they’ll wash their hands and surfaces to protect the vulnerable, but they just want their God-given freedoms of productive work and medical autonomy.
Freedom in its purest definition means to be left alone, or as Webster puts it, “the absence of coercion or constraint in choice or action.”  In America, all men and women are created equal and free to create their own destiny.  Rise or fall, no final outcome is guaranteed.  There is uncertainty and even risk in freedom, but self-reliance has been embraced for centuries as the key to successful independence.  A virus changes nothing.
Yet, these terms are unacceptable to many leftists who don’t trust the individual to assess risk or act responsibly on his own.  They prefer intervention by omnipotent government chaperones who will dictate approved behavior to protect the individual from himself as if he were a child or domesticated animal.  This preference to relieve the individual of the burden of freedom and its associated insecurity is what Psychologist Mattias Desmet brilliantly describes as the “desire for a master” in his book The Psychology of Totalitarianism.
It is fascinating how some Americans highly resent this dehumanizing treatment, while others seem oddly comforted by it.  
Most Americans proudly guard their individualism and possess a healthy skepticism of those who threaten their ability to make decisions for themselves, particularly when those demanding obedience haven’t exactly displayed consistent or rational guidance.  Others believe people are better off being controlled and should be grateful when they are absolved from their responsibility of conducting themselves as a rational human beings.
This, as I see it, is the most distinguishable philosophical difference between the left and the right.