Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the debate has raged over how deep we should shut down the American way of life – with all its economic, emotional and health downsides – and how soon there should be a Covid-19 re-opening and how we should return to some semblance of normalcy.
Doctors, news personalities and politicians – mostly on the left – have been issuing dire warnings. They demand that we continue to wear masks at virtually all times, remain six feet apart from virtually all human contact and wash our hands on a hypochondriatic scale.
As if the advice was not enough, the news outlets have maintained a campaign of fearmongering by reporters and television medics.
They hype every increase in cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Based on the news coverage, one might think that family and friends were dropping dead on the streets akin to the Black Plague that ravaged Europe in the 14th Century.
There can be no doubt that the pandemic is a health crisis. Whether you accept the official death toll of more than 500,000 people or not – and there are valid reasons to raise questions — it has been a profoundly serious and unusually deadly disease. It is not the normal flu.
While doctors called for extreme shutdown measures … while the media hyped their warnings and demands … and while public officials responded with closing down America (not just the economy), a large portion of the American public has been resisting all along the way.
As we approached every seasonal holiday, the professionals and politicians pleaded with the public to stay quarantined at home. Do not travel. Do not hug the children – or visit grandma. Wear masks outdoors and indoors.
So, what did the American public do?
For the most part, we ignored the warnings and fearmongering. Oh, for sure, we wore masks in the various commercial venues that required them. But not so much when we were not forced to do so.
During the major holidays, millions of Americans ignored the warnings. They got on airplanes or drove to be with distant relatives.
Right now – with vaccines being injected in the arms of millions of people and the numbers dropping, there is a lot of talk on how to gradually reopen our restaurants and schools. But where is the leadership coming from in terms of how fast we have a Covid-19 re-opening and get back to normal?
Weeeelll … it is not the doctors, the politicians, or the media.
They are still on fearmongering shutdown mode. It is we the people – who are leading the Covid-19 re-opening and getting out more, gathering more and masking less. It is the young kids who are back to spending Spring Break on the beaches of Florida. My local sports bar is jammed on Friday night – as it has been for several months.
President Biden went on air to plead with the American public to take on even more extreme self-imposed restrictions than we were willing to do at the height of the pandemic. He painted an optimistic picture that if we do what he advises, we might be able to “meet in small groups” on the Fourth of July.
The man is a fool – or thinks we are fools. The public has been meeting in small groups – or more – on every holiday for the past year. By July 4th, we will have the vast majority of the American public vaccinated. The only exceptions being young kids and those who refuse the vaccine. The American public will likely be celebrating Independence Day with a show of independence.
Biden should know that by July, we the people will not only be meeting in small groups. We will also be meeting in large groups. Depending on the political ideology of local officials, many Americans will be lining the street to watch patriotic parades. Crowds will be oohing and awing at displays of the traditional pyrotechnics.
The American people have been resisting the shutdown – and are now leading the Covid-19 re-opening of America.
They are doing it by their individual actions – and ignoring the Draconian warnings. They are doing it by mounting pressure on governors and mayors to roll back the restrictions.
Biden is taking credit for the pandemic slipping away because it is technically on his watch. But his own promise of one million vaccinations in his first 100 days was already baked in. In fact, the Trump administration projected that figure – and more – before Biden took it up as his own. Biden’s expropriation of the work of others is a part of his political history (remember all that plagiarism). It is allowed by a biased news media that engages only in one-sided fact-checking.
The doctors, the politicians and the media have never had full control over the public in terms of the pandemic. They have less today than ever. Perhaps that is because the doctors, the politicians and the media went too far in employing scare tactics – weakening their own credibility. People can believe that the pandemic is serious, and still believe it is being hyped and exaggerated by all those folks appearing on the small screens.
In the case of the pandemic, the American people are refusing to be the obedient supplicants the authoritarian left wants us to be.
There is an ancient saying, “I must find where my people are going so I can lead them.” That is Biden’s position today.
So, there ‘tis.