Posted on 03/26/2020 5:46:07 AM PDT by Kaslin
Our first priority amid coronavirus must be neutralizing immediate threats to health and safety, but the disruption also provides a chance to engage in national reflection.
Crises have a way of revealing critical, unspoken truths. If we can recognize these truths, we can emerge from such crises significantly stronger. While America’s first priority in the wake of the Wuhan coronavirus crisis must be neutralizing immediate threats to the health and safety of our people, the disruption of our lives also provides an opportunity to engage in national reflection.
If we do so, amid the pandemic hysteria, several critical signals emerge. Acknowledging those signals today and internalizing them tomorrow can help us prevent, or be better positioned to handle, such Black Swan shocks to our system in the years ahead.
When the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic arose and began spreading, for weeks the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sought to cover it up, with deadly consequences for the world. When communist China was blamed, it not only refused to take responsibility, but slandered America for pointing the finger, to the point of calling the United States culpable as part of a disinformation campaign.
The CCP even threatened, via a state-backed publication, to cut off essential medical supplies should Americans continue speaking openly and honestly about the CCP’s role in creating the crisis. Then the CCP cynically tried to act as a savior for the crisis it created.
Every day this pandemic persists, and long after it is neutralized, we must remember the CCP bears by far the greatest responsibility of any party for this pandemic. If the CCP is not made to pay in a meaningful sense for the global catastrophe it caused, it will continue to act with impunity in its quest for hegemony, guaranteed.
This pandemic should represent the most tangible sign yet for all of America that we must decouple from communist China in every strategically significant sector. We cannot put our survival in the hands of a hostile adversary.
The Chinese coronavirus pandemic should serve as a figurative punch in the mouth to the Davoisie class. This pandemic spread as a result of human-to-human transmission beginning in a far-flung province in central China. As it metastasized, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations-based agency on which governments around the world rely, parroted the Chinese Communist Party’s chosen narratives, including that the Wuhan virus could not be passed from one human to another, and that it was “racist” to refer to the virus by its place of origin.
The chief praiser of China’s response, and propagator of its favored messages, was WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. He won that position with Chinese backing and collaborated with China as Ethiopia’s health minister.
As the pandemic spread to the United States and criticism of the CCP grew, China again threatened to leverage its dominant position in the production of essential medical supplies to cut off Americans from vital equipment. It signaled that either we tow the CCP line or people will die.
This series of events perfectly illustrates the downsides to the globalist agenda of open borders, global political institutions, and global economic integration at all costs. It perfectly illustrates the merits of an America First, nationalist agenda, including a focus on border control, national sovereignty, and eschewing of global institutions, as well as an economic independence combined with truly free, fair, and reciprocal trade. Does anyone believe America would have been hit as hard by coronavirus if China were not so deeply integrated into our architecture?
As a society, we must create some agreed-upon principles for dealing with a pandemic or analogous crisis. One of the most astounding aspects of the response to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic has been the willingness of our leaders to call for societal shutdown based on shoddy data and flawed source models. Those leaders have definitively damaged our economy, stretched the limits of constitutional governmental power, and threatened to inflame and endanger civil society by forcing people to comply with draconian lockdowns while releasing criminals into the streets and ceasing policing — all on the basis of hypotheticals.
One need not be a medical doctor to understand the “garbage in, garbage out” issues inherent to projections in which the underlying data sets are incomplete, inconsistent, suffer from selection bias and correlation-versus-causation issues, or are just plain dubious — as in the case of data from China.
It is not surprising that politicians would err to the extreme side in seeking to avoid a public health catastrophe. But can a society long function by cutting off its nose to spite its face? And what kind of precedent is being set in the process? Going forward, it is incumbent upon our leaders to articulate and codify at minimum a general set of broadly agreed-upon principles for dealing with such crises.
For Democrats, politics trumps all else, and Republicans must have a response. In case the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation process or the more than three years of anti-constitutional and unconstitutional resistance to President Donald Trump did not make it crystal clear, the Democrats’ brazen gambit to use the coronavirus crisis to impose their radical agenda on the country by holding hostage emergency relief legislation should have removed all doubt about their singular desire for power.
Simply put, for Democrats, the ends justify any and all means. The fact that Republicans were so blindsided and befuddled by this in the coronavirus context indicates the GOP still lacks an understanding of the nature of their political adversary.
Democrats will shamelessly use crises to cram their policies down our throats. Do Republicans have any answer to this? Do they understand that Democrats will seek to make any and all of their favored temporary measures that pass in coronavirus-tied legislation permanent after the crisis subsides? Have Republicans formulated a counter-response not only for that possibility, but for their own policies that cut in the opposite direction? Where is the GOP counter-agenda?
While a society-wide shutdown certainly represents the most extreme kind of financial shock, nevertheless, the devastating impact of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic accentuates the problem of our largely debt-based economy in both the public and private spheres.
At the governmental level, the fact that we are likely to completely blow out budgets that were already so bloated as to ensure interest payments on the national debt would soon swamp all spending besides entitlements shows the extent of our profligacy and misplaced confidence we can debt-finance the U.S. government forever. There appears to be zero national will to deal with runaway spending and the runaway deficits and debt it creates.
But the reality is that in the next major crisis, we will be in an even worse financial position. What will happen if multitrillion-dollar relief bills are simply not tenable at that point?
Everyone knows U.S. government spending is unsustainable. But the fact that no one is prepared to make the case to the public that we are better off making difficult financial trade-offs now to stop calamity later — while we are doing this precise thing in dealing with the pandemic — leads to the question: Are we simply comfortable as a nation guaranteeing future financial calamity? Should the cost and extent of this crisis not cause us to revisit this issue?
We find an analogous issue in the private sector. While the bailouts from the federal government fundamentally differ from those during the financial crisis — in this instance, government has effectively killed businesses — that in a humming system so few businesses could withstand such a shock indicates the problems again with our debt-based economy and short-term orientation.
There is likely little will among businesses, their shareholders, and their stakeholders to be more prudent, keeping substantial cash in reserve, and ensuring they can survive if their operations withstand a tremendous hit and capital markets are closed to them. But perhaps the Wuhan coronavirus should serve as a wakeup call that there ought to be. Prudence is as important for government and businesses as it is for households.
It is paramount that the American people get healthy and that our country gets back to the business of business. But we must not simply gloss over the truths this crisis has revealed. Recognizing them and incorporating them into future policies will ensure the long-term vitality of our country.
They knew what had to be done after 2009. Obama had seven years and they did jack shit.
“The only thing we should be importing from China is silk and fireworks. Maybe some kungfu movies.”
“But where will we get our Chinese Take-Out food from, then?” ~Dumb Blonde
*SNORT*
Yeah, well,
#5 will never see the light of day.
“Nature” will sort everything out. Eventually.
Absolutely
Yes! Disband them and use the Kennedy Center instead. They could do just as badly for way less loot.
You mean to tell me that so many ‘scientists’ making so many absolutely princely salaries couldn't look at this and at least GUESS likely consequences of unlimited and unconditional immigration to this country? He*&-no one even asked our new ‘citizens’ what their names were or where they were going to live and work.
Please!! My grandparents came here when the US wasn't letting just anyone in. They had to practically jump through their own a*&holes for admission to the US. A real effort was made to screen unhealthy and other undesirables.
To me holding the media to account is priority 1. The only way that can be done in our constitutional system is to first relax libel and slander laws, and then to flood the media with lawsuits.
Well written article worthy of viral circulation.
Allow me to add my two cents on methodology of moving forward
What was Winston Churchill’s strategy in defeating totalitarianism?
It was simple:
1) Publicly reveal true facts
2) Identify the key actors in public, fixing them with the facts
3) Ridicule them , asking the public to join in.
Your damn right we want to stigmatize the Chinese. Its not about racism at all, its about fixing totalitarianism and forcing Red China to join the civilized world, and its stage 2 of Winston Churchill’s methodology that worked against both Hitler and Stalin.And it worked for Ronald Reagan in defeating the USSR in the cold war.
And it will work against Red China, that has waged a bio-war on the world in order to advance itself materially, a war not based on aggression in the conventional way, but a war based on paradox instead of aggression, an idea straight out of the Chinese classic book on strategy, “ The Art of War,” by Tsun Tsu.” The art of fighting without fighting, war based on paradox of “oooops!”. And yes, President Trump is a war time president, and one of the few people who know he is at war with Red China.
And we will defeat China.And we will stigmatize China.
False hope.
The elites are not going to fix the problem they created.
Ever heard of a guy named Paul Ryan?
The difference between the D’s and R’s is the speed at which we hit the wall. Not sure if the impact at 120 mph is any different from 125 mph.
The Senate just passed a $2,000,000,000,000 stimulus bill. Think about it.
The virus has brought them out of their hiding places.
We need to deal with the enemies within our country.......lying in wait to bring us down.
A dem controlled congress allowed this mess to happen along with their presstitutes! Think about it. They were so busy tying up the country with their impeachments and fake news the virus crap was ignored while festering.
A fortunate effect of the virus: Hate-filled, Me-First Democraps---from Pelosi on down....have been exposed for all to see.
***************
That is a partial solution but its not enough. We also desperately need a new party that actually stands for something. At the risk of stating the obvious the GOP is, in many respects, a soulless party that is constantly manipulated and outmaneuvered by the Democrats.
' The article states this problem well:
Simply put, for Democrats, the ends justify any and all means. The fact that Republicans were so blindsided and befuddled by this in the coronavirus context indicates the GOP still lacks an understanding of the nature of their political adversary.
We cannot move the country forward and solve our problems with a weak, clueless and unprincipled party. Its like going into battle no weapons.
One very good thing out of this (looking for silver lining) is that -
The ambitious Galactic Emperor Xi’s “One Belt One Road” project to remake 21st Century to be the Chinese Global Superpower Dynasty [and more importantly to replace USA as the global leader] is (should be) going to take a lot longer to complete.
They (ChiComm) may still be a regional heavyweight in their neck of the woods, but dominating globally? Nobody’s going to trust them, if we are smart and if we are lucky.
To borrow Sen. Kennedy’s (John, not Ted) phrase: “This country was founded by geniuses, but run by idiots”.
And not “waste” the opportunity IF, and when, we get the House back like the last couple(?) of times.
Although, i believe most of the do nothingness was intentional or purposefully, rather than just plain wasteful.
If we take back the House i hope to God we don’t get a bunch of useless RINOs and GOPEs who just stale and abdicate for the next 4 years of President Trump’s second term.
Alot depends of McConnell so....
I disagree.
A political party is a vehicle. Its effectiveness is determined by its members and leadership.
It is like saying we need to get rid of the Cleveland Browns because they never win a Super Bowl. The real problem is not the team, but the leadership and members.
The Browns and GOP are only crap because they have entrenched people running them who indoctrinate the newest members and leaders to do the same thing.
The GOP needs fresh blood from top to bottom and the only way to do that is via term limits.
“...the GOP still lacks an understanding of the nature of their political adversary.”
Well, you see, if he Republicans admitted that, they could no longer justifiably prattle on about how much they love and respect their friends across the aisle, like Senator Kennedy did lately, after accurately ripping the hypocritical cover off the thugs.
Never trust your government.
Prepare yourself, keep your head on straight, don't panic, and live your life as if the bucket full of @ssholes on TV giving you orders and telling you to cower under your bed don't exist.
I envy your optimism but its not that easy. Its not just a matter of injecting new blood as the national party is controlled by external interests who effectively own the party. If you think they are going to allow THEIR party to be taken over by anyone who doesn’t “go along with the program” you are sadly mistaken.
Trust me on this, people close to me have worked inside the GOP. While the party may appear to be on the verge of changing from time to time that’s just a temporary adaptation to passing circumstances.
The party is what it is and its never going to change. Reagan couldn’t do it and neither will Trump.
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