As the Coronavirus reveals the stark political divide among Americans today, it may also have given populist outsider President Donald Trump his opening in a 2020 campaign to be marked by the pandemic and the nation's response to it. By pushing to "reopen America" as soon as possible, the president is hoping to tap into the growing anger felt by a great many citizens over the unprecedented micromanaging of their lives by various local, state, and national officials. Is Trump attempting to position himself against the Democrats' seeming penchant for authoritarianism?
Orwellian Societal Structure
"Now look, thank you everyone who's done it the right way. But we still know there's some people who need to get the message. And that means sometimes making sure the enforcement is there to educate people." That was the voice of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on April 18. In a special videotaped message, the top elected leader of more than 8 million urban residents and one-time Democratic presidential candidate actively urged New Yorkers to "snap a photo and text" it to authorities if they see fellow citizens not strictly obeying social-distancing protocol.
As disturbing as De Blasio's comments were, this is about much more than the glee certain "liberals" get from exerting power over others. It taps into an entire worldview. When Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, gave the OK for the city of Jacksonville to reopen its beaches, he cited his belief that residents there could be trusted to walk in the sun and take in the healthy ocean air in an adult manner. "I think people, they’re gonna be responsible, they’re gonna be safe, but they want to get back into a routine,” DeSantis said on April 18. For this, the governor and Floridians themselves were roundly mocked and pilloried as "Florida Morons" in progressive circles and painted as dangerous rogues who were going to kill us all.
Bogus Expertism
Of course, a simple scratch of this posturing surface reveals the hypocrisy and lack of logic found among those who do not trust their fellow citizens to responsibly stroll a beach. "Dr. Christine Eady Mann," as she bills herself on her official campaign website, is a Democrat running for a House seat in Texas. Her career as a family physician is prominently offered as a credential waved like a flag in order to dissuade criticism of her political positions.
"I chose a career in medicine so that I could serve people and help them live healthier and happier lives, and I've spent the last two decades of my personal life working to enact public policies that improve the health and well-being of our communities," a message on her website reads. "I'm running for Congress so that I can take those two passions – service to others and public policy – and work from within government where I can be more effective."
In an appearance on MSNBC on April 11, Eady Mann stridently condemned any efforts to let Americans out of their state-imposed lockdowns. "Are there ways or places where we can start getting back to normal?" host Joshua Johnson asked her.
"Absolutely not," the doctor unequivocally replied. "We are nowhere close to where we need to be to open things back up. We are not testing to the degree that we need to, we do not have capacity for a spike in cases and it's just crazy to be thinking about opening up right now. We're not even close to where we should be doing that."
The very next question MSNBC posed was about the move by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, to ban abortion as non-essential surgery during a pandemic. Eady Mann did not hesitate to label the move as "crass opportunism" during a health crisis.
"This is just another attempt to stop women from using their bodily autonomy and it's abhorrent," Eady Mann declared. She evinced not even a trace of acknowledgment of a breathtakingly casual double standard that denied the "bodily autonomy" of every American who wants to exercise in a park as she extolled the right of women to have abortions at a time when medical services are said to be strained to the limit.
Eady Mann is an example of how some progressives hide behind a veneer of professionalism in order to blatantly promote a loaded agenda. She can breezily dismiss 330 million Americans' constitutional rights to go outside while at the very same time demand that women be allowed to have elective surgeries and decree that it all fits the urgent community needs of the moment. Remember, she's a doctor; therefore, her opinion carries weight and is not to be challenged.
Trump was elected in large part because he appealed to the everyday needs and rights of the average working Americans. He told them he didn't want to go to Washington to run their lives but to help free them from a Swamp of entitled D.C. bureaucrats ever encroaching on basic rights. The media fear-mongering on the Coronavirus has given Trump another chance to frame his 2020 campaign on these same grounds.
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Read more from Joe Schaeffer.
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