Article by Scott Morefield in "Townhall":
In the ultimate manifestation of extreme ‘cancel’ culture
meets the domino effect, Americans have decided to cancel seemingly
everything, everywhere, because of the coronavirus epidemic. My gut (and
hope) says this is all cartoonishly overblown and we’ll look back on
some of these extreme measures and laugh, but the rest of the world
seems to have decided that it’s the next bubonic plague, or something,
and is taking action accordingly.
The
purported logic is to slow the virus’ spread so medical facilities
aren’t overwhelmed, and there is soundness to it. Even with a more than
slight percentage chance of older and sicker folks who contract it dying
and/or needing hospitalization, the death toll could be staggering if
the spread isn’t contained.
To be fair, I’m not blaming
left or right for this brand-new kind of ‘cancel culture.’ Both seem to
be equally dedicated to doing whatever it takes to stop this virus, but
while the right is doing it reluctantly, there is almost a sense of glee
from the left, whose motives are obviously by definition suspect. The
politicians are all saying politics shouldn’t be a factor, of course,
but isn’t politics always a factor? After all, didn’t we hear speeches
last week by Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders telling us this crisis is
larger than politics, before proceeding to bash the president? Indeed,
nothing whatsoever about this is good for an incumbent president the
left hates and hopes to remove in November. And sadly, it seems of late
that the political left are the only ones who benefit from every
economically detrimental action we take in our efforts to stop the
spread of this virus.
First they criticized Trump for banning travel to and
from China in early February when most had no idea the extent of what
was coming. It was “racist” and “xenophobic,” so they told us. Then,
once the virus arrived, they criticized him for supposedly not doing
enough. Sure, there are a few things he could and should have said
differently along the way, but let’s face it, if President Trump walked
right into a research facility tomorrow, donned a lab coat and proceeded
to find a cure for coronavirus himself on live television, the left
would still find fault. So yeah, there’s little doubt that leftists,
particularly the media and politicians, are manipulating this crisis to
maximum effect in order to hurt President Trump’s chances of getting
reelected. And why wouldn’t they? Isn’t that right out of the Saul
Alinsky playbook, to never let a crisis go to waste?
So
here’s a thought. Why can’t the right also use that particular play from
the Alinsky playbook, except for good instead of evil? Why can’t the
right use this crisis to fight for the things we believe in, things we
know will make this country a better place for everyone? Sure, of late
it seems like everything has favored the Trump-haters, but all the while
there’s been one thing that’s becoming increasingly clear to more and
more people as we fight the Chinese coronavirus pandemic - the fact that
borders matter.
To put the left’s complete idiocy in
perspective, you won’t find anyone on that side of the political
persuasion disagreeing with any sort of social distancing proposals,
right down to declaring martial law and banning all nonessential people
movement on pain of felony. They’re perfectly happy to shut down the
entire U.S. economy in the name of fighting coronavirus for as long as
necessary, with absolutely no regard for the people THAT action will
hurt. However, there IS one thing no true leftist would ever agree to
do, under any circumstances, no matter how dangerous the costs could be
for not doing so - close the U.S. / Mexico border. Evidence of their
staggering insanity on the issue was captured
last week during a Fox News town hall with socialist Vermont Sen.
Bernie Sanders when Fox News anchor Bret Baier asked, “If you had to,
would you close down the borders?”
“No,” Sanders said after a short pause during which
he likely thought ‘I know that’s not true, but the political correctness
of 2020 that I must adhere to in order to maintain my base requires
that I give this insane answer.’
“What we don’t want to
do, we have a president who has promulgated xenophobic, anti-immigrant
sentiment from before he was elected,” he continued, because “X is
racist” has become the leftist retort to everything, especially if they
know deep down that they’re making a ridiculous point. “What we need to
do is have the scientists take a hard look at what we need to do,”
Sanders claimed.
Come on, Bernie. You know the
scientists could all sign a petition tomorrow begging us to close the
border and you still wouldn’t take that position. Sanders went on to say
that self-quarantines and “not having public assemblies” were an option
before laughingly neglecting to offer any sort of rationale why closing
our border would be a bad move.
Even Mexico, which has spent the entire Trump
administration lecturing us about how nothing good can come from the
United States controlling its border, has all of a sudden changed its tune now that thousands of Americans have come down with coronavirus. So has Guatemala,
of all countries. They’re perfectly happy to send any of their citizens
packing, but are saying a quick “no, thank you” to the idea of any
Americans coming there.
In truth, notions like borders and travel bans tug at the “permanent Democratic majority”
dreamed of by leftists who depend on an endless influx of poor
foreigners to maintain and grow their power. Thus, anything that could
result in fewer future Democratic voters on our shores is automatically
judged as bad and labeled ‘racist’ to keep a well-meaning but
often-ignorant public in line.
Consider early February,
when President Trump first issued his ban on travel to and from China.
Former Vice President Joe Biden was critical at the time and has
maintained his position to this day, claiming
just last week that a “wall will not stop the coronavirus,” nor will
“banning all travel from Europe, or any other part of the world.” He
then called for a “plan to combat it,” as if Trump is sitting there
twiddling his thumbs.
Uh, there is a plan, Sleepy Joe,
but instead of providing support you’ve got to find fault. It’s hard to
beat what Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw said in response: “Walls quite
literally stop a virus. It’s kind of the whole point of a quarantine,
for instance.”
I’ll end with what Dr. Anthony Fauci told
Face the Nation yesterday: “So what we've got to do is a couple of
things, and we're doing it. One is preventing new infections from coming
in, hence the travel restriction. And the other is doing containment
and mitigation within the country.”
By logic, one would
seem to work hand in hand with the other. But when has logic ever gotten
in the way of the left’s endless quest for power? They’re perfectly
fine with tanking the economy, but closing the borders is a bridge too
far, coronavirus victims be damned.