Don's Tuesday Column

       THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson  Red Bluff Daily News   3/03/2020

Possible pandemic’s partisan politics

Also, proof provides potential for pandering pols praising plunging profits. The NY Times’ Paul Krugman posted an excited single-number tweet—”25,000!”—a thinly-veiled cheer for a Coronavirus-instigated stock market decline of nearly 20 percent. It’s a near-celebration of the loss of trillion(s) in the mutual funds of retirees, workers and pension portfolios; a truly cynical, hypocritical reaction to a deadly virus.

Asked on Friday at the CPAC what could the president do to “calm the markets,” Trump’s acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said plainly, “Turn off your televisions for 24 hours.”

The economic disruptions caused by the coronavirus, technically COVID-19, have real negative consequences in the lives and well-being of millions of Americans, even though the actual threat to any one person’s health remains insignificant. If 36,500 people die from the flu this year, that’s 100 people a day; more than that die in traffic accidents. None of those statistics should give Democrats an advantage in defeating President Trump this fall.

Yet, the more excitable “progressive” talkers on cable and social media have speculated that a spreading COVID-19 epidemic in America, if only an economic disruption, could somehow boost the prospects of Bernie Sanders or whoever runs against Trump. You may recall that last year, mainstream left-of-center voices were speculating on (even talking up) the potential for an election year recession contributing to President Trump’s defeat.

When even a mild-mannered, family-cherishing former educator like Mr. Harrop connects the Holocaust’s millions of dead European Jews to Trump’s wanting “to build a wall between Mexico and the United States to protect us,” some might raise an eyebrow. Overreach? Be mindful of “Goodwin’s law,” or Goodwin’s rule of Hitler analogies: It’s an adage that as discussions grow longer, Nazi or Hitler comparisons become more likely. A person resorting to said comparisons “has effectively forfeited the argument” because literally nothing is like Hitler, Nazis or (in this case) the Holocaust. May this gentle rebuke suffice; well-meaning people should use sincere, valid arguments.

There is nothing sincere, valid or well-meaning about how Democrats and news media (a redundancy) have distorted and politicized, for partisan advantage, a viral outbreak like COVID-19. From the beginning, when President Trump implemented a travel ban from affected areas like China, some decried it as a racist move. They duplicitously attach their objections to Trump’s current restrictions, to the (non-existent) Muslim travel ban three years ago.

So began many uninformed, factually twisted reactions to every move and decision made by Trump and his people. Critics may have agreed with the opposition to travel bans by the World Health Organization, WHO, but Trump’s infection-limiting call has now proven correct and slowed coronavirus’ spread in America. Australia also rejected WHO’s stance and protected its people.

“Trump’s Decisive Actions Helped Save Lives During Coronavirus Epidemic, Experts Admit” (M. Margolis). Reality-checks: “Donald Trump vs corona hysteria—His critics are desperate for him to mishandle a crisis. So far, he hasn’t” (Roger Kimball). That headline sums it up; read the article. Also, “AP FACT CHECK: Democrats distort coronavirus readiness” (L. Neergaard and C. Woodward). It should be obvious to all but the most partisan hacks.

Looking back, “Fact-Check: Obama Waited Until ‘Millions’ Infected and 1000 Dead in U.S. Before Declaring H1N1 Emergency,” by Victoria Taft, reviews the last president’s slow response to the most similar outbreak to COVID-19 to date: “In April of 2009, the H1N1 became a pandemic. But it wasn’t until six months later, October, that then-President Obama declared a public health emergency on what was already a pandemic.

“By that time, the disease had infected millions of Americans and more than 1,000 people had died in the U.S. (CNN reported the words of Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC).” Frieden also “fretted that efforts to create a vaccine had stumbled.

“But wait, there’s more. According to Virology Journal, the 2009 H1N1 came into the U.S. from Mexico. ‘The swine-origin influenza A virus that appeared in 2009…was first found in human beings in Mexico…’ Now, about that ‘racist’ wall; every time the left tries to make Trump look bad on this issue, they’re found to be frauds.” But we’re assured Trump’s wall is like the Holocaust. Pathetic.

If only the New York Post had the ubiquitous influence of the NY Times (you may not read it but about every reporter and editor on every network and cable channel does—and most take it as gospel). “Democrats’ disgraceful dissembling only increases coronavirus threat,” (Post Editorial Board, 2/28).

“In a clear sign that they’re not truly worried about the COVID-19 threat, many Democrats are using it as another club to hit President Trump — facts be damned. At Tuesday’s debate, Mike Bloomberg smugly asserted, ‘There’s nobody here to figure out what the hell we should be doing.’ Trump, he claimed, has ‘defunded Centers for Disease Control, CDC, so we don’t have the organization we need.’

“Joe Biden chimed in: ‘He cut the funding for the entire effort.’ It’s a lie that can only sow fear: The CDC budget is higher than when Trump took office. Same for the National Institutes of Health. And top career officials from both have been working with the White House for weeks to direct the US response.

“Elizabeth Warren, meanwhile, insisted the administration ‘is absolutely bumbling the response to coronavirus’ — with no details, because she can’t point to any Team Trump mistakes, unless she wants to complain about the COVID-19 travel bans. ‘The administration has no plan to deal with the coronavirus,’ Chuck Schumer thundered on the Senate floor. Not true.”

I regret that local Democrats may believe the lies being fed to them—I know not where the shame should fall. Not on Trump.