In a crisis, whether real or imagined, the elites’ priorities and suspicions take precedent and are very often laid bare. We see it in wartime, in longer-rolling natural disasters, in civil disorder, and in widespread disease.
Coronavirus is no different, and over the spring and early summer a pattern appeared amid the different virus restrictions enforced around the country. They all, it seems, roll downhill from America’s elites, and in 2020, downhill from the elite means against the aspects of our society the left is indifferent toward or actively opposes.
That isn’t to suggest the virus doesn’t exist, or that its existence is some kind of intentional or vast conspiracy. It doesn’t need to be when you’re in charge.
July 4 saw saw this borne out plainly. In Lewes, Delaware, a truck going the speed limit, decorated with Independence Day flare, was ticketed by an unmasked police officer for carrying a patriotic woman waving from the back. No “activities associated with” Independence Day would be permitted, Mayor Ted Becker declared, “out of concern for everyone’s safety.”
“It is unfortunate,” he continued, “that this rogue event occurred.”
Becker was hardly alone. Across the country, parades and fireworks displays were cancelled. People could not be trusted to gather outside for fear of the virus.
The accusation that our country’s elites hate Independence Day is not merely stringing together a series of restrictions and guessing at a connection — their hatred is expressly written in their favorite newspapers.
“American independence helped further colonialism and white supremacy,” The Washington Post claimed Saturday. National Public Radio cherry-picked quotes from Frederick Douglass’s beautiful and moving July 4, 1852 address, selecting those that painted the country (a country that had not yet sent hundreds of thousands of northern men to die to end slavery) as a terribly unjust one, while omitting his inspiring embrace of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence as the ideal vehicles for the liberation of man.
Not to be left out, wannabe football player Colin Kaepernick called it “your celebration of white supremacy.” Two days later he announced a deal with the once pro-American Walt Disney Company to promote his politics.
This is just a sampling of the corporate-backed outpouring of anti-American feeling — and coronavirus concern-trolling followed along, as it does for all American activities either not valued or actively opposed by American elites.
Private businesses and their owners are called selfish killers for struggling to open before local masters allow.
In states where churches aren’t still forced closed, many are not even allowed the building capacity of restaurants, shops, or other aspects of life deemed essential. Religious gatherings are targeted and shamed with accusations of selfishness. Mainline Protestant and Catholic leaders happily play along, stressing their “good relationship with the civil authorities.”
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi broke centuries of fragile congressional precedent by allowing congressmen to phone their votes into Washington without even making a show of appearing for their jobs and the attendant debate. Her charge was that in the age of jet travel, black cars, safe roads, climate control, and handicapped entrances, advanced age and poor health are too great a burden for politicians who once traveled by horse and carriage down dangerous roads to perform their elected duties.
The health of these representatives, though. appeared strong enough to attend protests and shuttle launches. Emboldened by the win, Pelosi and her allies led a similar campaign throughout the country, wining battles for mail-in ballots ripe for Democrat fraud when not pushing to cancel elections all together.
Going along, the Republican National Committee’s attempt to nominate President Donald Trump for re-election in Democrat-controlled Charlotte was derailed and had to be moved to Florida in the final weeks of preparation. New York’s Gov. Andrew Cuomo and some of his neighboring executives announced shortly after that they would demand fellow Americans traveling from Florida (and other Republican, southern states) refrain from civil society for two weeks after visiting or returning to those states.
But while gathering to worship God, celebrate the country, protest the shutdowns, nominate a Republican, or vote are deemed selfish attacks on our neighbors, gatherings to protest Christianity, the country, the police, the Republican president, and capitalism are viciously defended. These, we’re told, are constitutionally protected, and indeed they are — just as the preceding, banned activities are.
Violence against private citizens, business owners, and security forces is likewise justified in the name of approved liberal causes, with Andrew Cuomo’s ridiculous brother demanding he “please” be shown “where it says protesters are supposed to be polite and peaceful.” The violent and armed occupation that intimidated business owners, routed police, vandalized public and private property, attacked the freeway, and suffered multiple shootings was threatened by the mayor only after its supporters threatened her at her house. It’s a frightening experience, after all, and she finally experienced the lawlessness she nurtured and encouraged.
Finally, former Vice President Joe Biden’s obvious and worsening senility have been hidden from view, with the candidate sheltering in private, limiting press conferences to scripted events every few months, skipping a nominating convention, and limiting debates. The hope is that a once-booming economy has been actively torpedoed by blue-state governors — once again citing coronavirus — and left-wing riots in the streets will be enough to topple the president without exposing Biden’s worsening condition to public scrutiny. They might be right.
When virus panic first hit the country, closing its borders, shuttering its economy, and destroying the livelihoods of countless citizens, Pelosi’s Democrat whip, Jim Clyburn, told his colleagues it was “a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.” While largely forgotten in the constantly shifting news cycle of the following months, his honest comments must be remembered and repeated.
Every day, Americans face less justified curtails of our freedom declared at increasing volumes as if shrillness alone is justification. And every day the pattern of who is punished and who is exempted becomes clearer.
Don’t let Facebook mask fights derail the point here. While good manners and civic duty demand we show respect for those who are vulnerable in public, a growing sense of unease and an American love of freedom demand calling the above attempts to curtail our freedom exactly what they are — and their elite proponents exactly who they are. Devotion to country and a jealous love of liberty demands we resist.