We have all heard the rallying cries. "Trump has blood on his hands" some scream. "Stay at home – even if it saves one life," elitists proclaim from their ivory towers as the middle class bleeds out. Amid the grandstanding and media-messaging, one major problem emerges: reality.
Lockdowns don't work. Leftist leaders do not believe their propaganda, but they insist that you drink their "Kool-Aid." This article will survey the failures, misinformation, hypocrisy, and political games of the COVID era. Let's start with the failures: Of the five states which performed the worst in COVID deaths, four are under the iron fists of power-drunk Democratic governors. The state that stands out as by far the worst – New York – is comparable as a significant city hub in overall population size and travel frequency to Florida. Google statistics indicate the average age of the population is 36.7 in New York, while Floridians average substantially older and more susceptible to COVID at 42 years of age. With their striking similarities and the advantage of New York's population taken into account, it is shocking to see that Florida ranks in the middle of the pack as the 26th worst state in COVID deaths reported. If you only watch the nightly news, it would persuade you to believe that Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) is an accomplished leader leading the charge of COVID success stories. At the same time, Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is a failed, anti-science hillbilly. The truth is the exact opposite. Oddly enough, states with the most vocal and severe lockdown mandates such as NY, NJ, MI, PA, and CT have been documented as being either worse than or comparable to several states who hardly saw any lockdowns at all, such as SD and TN. The data is clear – lockdowns and radical leftist leaders are ineffective.
Next, let's take a brief look at misinformation and hypocrisy. Below, you will see a list with hyperlink citations exposing outspoken, power-hungry leaders who fit two pieces of specific criteria:
1) Imposing or openly supporting radical COVID measures. These measures include but are not limited to regulating or closing churches, releasing criminals from prison to avoid infection, fining small business owners for opening private stores, threatening jail time for breaking quarantine, and mandating curfew.
2) Each of these leaders is known to have brazenly broken their own mandates in an exercise of elitist, "rules for thee but not for me" fashion.
The list provided is not even remotely close to extensive when considering hypocritical participation in riots, protests, private events, and celebrations. For brevity and impact, only several high-level acts of hypocrisy were chosen.
The Republican Party is far from perfect, and yet after an extensive search, only one group appears to be susceptible to the most contagious disease of 2020 – hypocrisy among democratic elitists. If you have a documented case of a republican official who supported COVID mandates and then publicly broke their own rules, reach out, and the correction will be published – hypocrites of all stripes deserve to be exposed.
Lastly, let us address the unfortunate and disgusting topic of playing political games with people's lives, jobs, families, and dreams. Governor Tom Wolf (D-PA) was caught in a hot mic moment agreeing to participate in "political theater" by wearing a conveniently placed mask at a public briefing. The aforementioned democratic leaders made bold statements about fighting COVID, and yet, each of them held their citizenry to a higher standard than they were personally willing to uphold. In the 12th worst COVID state of PA, Health Secretary Rachel Levine exemplified what can only be categorized as disgustingly corrupt or woefully incompetent leadership. Secretary Levine Pulled a parent out of a group facility just before sending infected elderly patients to similar facilities. As many Western PA residents know, the vast majority of deaths in the region come from condensed elderly populations – the type Secretary Levine was sure to avoid when it came to family members.
From an event in Doylestown Pennsylvania, September 29, 2020, Governor Tom Wolf and PA State Rep Wendy Ullman chat about removing their masks to speak.
In a feeble defense, Secretary Levine tried to play the semantic game by differentiating between personal care homes for the elderly and nursing homes, as though COVID prioritizes one over the other based on nominal differences.
Worst of all, several leftist leaders came out immediately after President Biden's inauguration to publicly call for the reopening of the economy. Some of these leaders called for reopening despite seeing more deaths per day than when they originally called for lockdowns. In the face of such inconsistent standards, what was the true impetus to close our economy in the first place? A simple but unbelievably corrupt answer seems to emerge – a closed economy prior to elections made President Trump look bad, and a recovering economy after a democratic victory makes President Biden look like an immediate success story. In PA, Governor Tom Wolf (D) and Secretary Rachel Levine (D) ignored experts at nationally recognized health centers such as UPMC, who advised reopening the economy while protecting the vulnerable in May of 2020. You see, reopening in May would have been too soon, even if it is what the science called for - because Donald Trump was still president. The priority was always spinning a narrative, not saving lives or jobs.
In the case of some people, like Governor Wolf, we know that "political theater" games were being played. In other cases, the best we can do is gather evidence and speculate… but the timing and inconsistent logic sure seems convenient, doesn't it? These political games are disgusting in and of themselves. Still, when we remember that these games brought about delayed medical treatments, depression, spikes in anxiety, suicide, loss of millions of private dollars, and crushed individual dreams, the political games start to look downright sinister.
THE PATH FORWARD
It is never enough to merely recognize a problem or complain – we must offer a path forward; otherwise, the opposition will prevail every time. America must try something new; a bold and swift economic reopening modeled after Florida's success story while prioritizing and subsidizing the most vulnerable – our elderly and immunocompromised neighbors. After trillions of dollars spent on empty efforts and untraceable bailouts, we should welcome the limited spending tied to a mass-reopening while providing for the comparably small group of extremely vulnerable citizens who opt-in to such a system. Lastly, we must remember the leaders who lived out their hypocritical power fantasy in 2020. Governors Gavin Newsom, Andrew Cuomo, and their cohorts must face political backlash for their failures and corruption. Many of these leaders rule in a relatively local setting. That means that YOU can make a difference. You can contact, peacefully protest, politically pressure, and vote out the authoritarians among us. Take action today.
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About the Author:
Luke Negron, is an Air Force veteran, writer, speaker, and activist. He has over a decade of private sector experience - including working to pay his way through Grove City College, where he graduated with Political Science, National Security, and Communications studies in his professional experience. He is proud to say he relates to the American middle class - having worked in restaurants, construction, and technology. In 2020 he was the Republican Nominee to the U.S House for Pennsylvania's 18th congressional district. He has worked with a long list of charitable organizations including Samaritan's Purse, The Pittsburgh Project, and Cleanup 412. As a social and political leader, his goal is simple: to reclaim politics of, by, and for the people.