Don's Tuesday Column

         THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson   Red Bluff Daily News   4/28/2020

   On “knowing” things that aren’t so

One of President Ronald Reagan’s aphorisms: “It isn’t so much that liberals are ignorant. It’s just that they know so many things that aren’t so.” So much of what they believe depends on seemingly clear-cut proof, but the belief falls apart when applied to unrelated sets of facts. The belief in question is just a way of explaining something they have no way, outside of their ideological guidelines, of supporting by objective evidence.

At the time, Reagan’s motto applied to such things as why people are poor—the liberal explanation being that it was outside their control and a function of “social injustice” and unequal “distribution” of resources. No, most impoverished people have only themselves to blame; rather, they do or believe things that lead them to poverty:

1) The aversion to productive, responsible work habits, 2) failing to take education seriously as the gateway to self-improvement. 3) Add substance abuse, sexual proclivities that produce offspring outside of marriage, unwillingness to leave behind “ne’er-do-well” associates and failing, drug-and-crime ridden neighborhoods, etc. The exceptions that are genuinely poor through no fault of their own don’t negate the larger truth. Poverty rates are in the low single-digits for those of any race or nationality that shun drugs, fatherless families, dropping out of high school and unemployment.

Reagan’s motto explains the rise and popularity of communism/socialism as implemented by the Soviet Union—the U.S.S.R. (S.S. standing for “Soviet Socialist”)—and Communist China and other lesser nations that succumbed to the revolutionary fervor of Marxist/Leninist philosophy and its violent proponents. Where countries practice socialism—or communism if you accept that pure, utopian “communism” was unachievable according to Karl Marx himself—“communists” were expected to usher in socialism by membership in the Communist Party, as in China.

Central planning and political despotism—in practice, the elimination of free market capitalism outside of the control of the state, and the inability of the subject population to freely elect those in the government—follow wherever socialist fanatics succeed. Consider the lessons emerging from our current Wu-flu pandemic-driven economic and political reality. America’s exemplary free market, capitalistic economy, which was lifting all sectors and races to heretofore unachieved employment levels, has been shunted aside in a manner unheard of outside of actual wartime footings. It’s indisputable.

Yes, elected representatives have pronounced, without even a “fare-thee-well” of legislation, the shuttering of “nonessential” business and economic activity—to the exclusion of the political class itself and its favored elites. Also, no one seriously questions the underlying virologic threat stemming from a highly contagious, deadly disease.

However, the unhindered flow of information, some of which is admittedly unsubstantiated, has had a way of undermining the electorate’s collective faith in the decisions of our techno-medical “rulers,” particularly the need going forward for continued shutdown and “stay-at-home” mandates.

Ironically, confined as many are in homes now broadband-equipped to enable extensive browsing, “the rest of the story”—or at least information calling for critical reevaluation of the decisions that produced shuttered businesses, empty-and-dwindling store shelves and restrictive travel—now undermines the top-down, police-state regimen. We can access knowledge of countries, like Sweden, that have chosen to “ride out” the pandemic without America’s martial-law-in-all-but-decree. Evidence is accumulating that Sweden’s mortality rate, while spiking as experts predicted, is approaching the rates of other nations. “Herd immunity” has merit outside the leftist-aligned governing/media elites; Sweden’s economy is relatively undamaged.

If that bears out—setting aside the American media-inspired hysteria over test kits, hospitals and ICU beds under-utilized outside of New York City-type hot spots—free minds and people are right in thinking that we’ve gone too far, over-reacted with overkill, and are being illegitimately coerced into despotic subservience unjustified by reality. Postponed medical care, drug use, domestic abuse, depression- and isolation-induced mortality will eventually exceed the 60-80,000 Wu-flu deaths.

You say we will still have our elections, notably on November 3, unless (Trump-deranged conspiracy theories aside) it is deemed necessary that in-person voting be replaced with universal, mail-in ballots. Remember, we have now accepted socialism-in-all-but-ownership via centrally controlled and managed economic policies; the political and ideological segments most supportive of those policies (if only as precursors of “Green New Deal” climate crisis-driven economic controls) are also most supportive of election “reforms.”

Our own California experience—with lack of voter ID rules, expanding the supposed voter base via “motor voter” must-issue registration and “ballot harvesting” by non-family “harvesters” illegal elsewhere—is nothing short of a template for endless Democrat dominance wherever implemented. Lenin reportedly said that he cared not who voted but rather who counted the votes. That is how close we are to permanent leftist rulers.

Consider that, liberal/progressive/media castigation aside, Americans are protesting (derided as “angry and excitable people” by Donna Brazile) an ongoing business lockdown, “stay-at-home” ordered police state. We’re aware and righteously indignant at ruling elites refusing to return to constitutionally-ordered legal restrictions on—the heart of America’s freedom—governments infringing on our rights.

Congratulations to Tehama County’s joining other NorCal counties in pleading for our freedom to work, associate and travel. We “red state” voters may not sway Sacramento, but our collective strength in other states is our salvation as the restrictions are lifted; our economies, social vibrance and cautious ways of life have the potential to inspire those still under the Democrats’ thumbs.

Other things leftists believe that aren’t true: Trump called Coronavirus a “hoax,” Trump told people to consume Hydroxychloroquine, Trump said we should “inject” disinfectant. None of what they say about President Trump is true. We take him seriously, not literally—his decisions have and will seriously produce freedom and abundance for this nation.