19 May ObamaGate & CoronaGate – The American Spirit will Prevail, Part 2
To repeat from yesterday: ObamaGate and CoronaGate are about the future of freedom in America. They are not about the personality of Donald Trump. They are not about the skin color of Barack Obama. They are not about Republicans and Democrats. They are about the American spirit behind the up or down choice Ronald Reagan spoke of.
‘Up’ in support of individual freedom and responsibility under God, or ‘down’ to ‘a thousand years of darkness’ under the rule of men. It’s that stark, and the American people are starting to sense it. And they have enough power to force the right course correction if they will act on that spirit and take to the streets figuratively, and in many cases, literally.
CoronaGate
Whatever the exact circumstances of the virus origin; whatever the appropriate economic policy response to China, and whether there was willful leftist plotting or poor/negligent diagnosing on the part of Fauci/Birx—all of these lines of inquiry have become less and less important compared to the urgent need to re-open the economy and completely blow up the lockdown ‘regime’ in all its particulars.
Elon Musk delivered a big boost to the blow up movement, and deserves a big thank you from the American people. He has gone from industrial iconoclast to a bellwether of liberty—and not via the channel of politics. He is a below boomer-age billionaire—a younger, hipper version of Bill Gates—and his defiance of lockdown orders in opening his California Tesla factory, followed by his ‘take the red pill’ tweet, has awakened a gigantic swath of previously unengaged or misinformed Americans under age 50: this pandemic stuff isn’t about public health anymore; it’s about American freedom v. leftist totalitarian tyranny.
Same with Barstool Sports CEO Dave Portnoy, whose viral WFT rant about ‘medical experts’ moving the goalposts from ‘flatten the curve’ to ‘wait until we find a cure’ is a classic. Portnoy also reached millions of Americans previously mesmerized by the MSM into thinking all lockdowns are good because Trump is bad.
It’s very hard to overstate the impact of these two ‘events’. The drive-by MSM wants to skip past them as insignificant anecdotes, but they are reverberating even now. Because wittingly or unwittingly, the MSM is every day delivering an education on why freedom is rare, and tyranny is relentless, oppressive, and constantly fear-mongering. All but the most committed leftist fanatics are learning these lessons.
And now all are sensing an important corollary: freedom in constitutional America means the power and authority of elected officials depends upon the consent of the governed.
The ‘governed’ gave willing consent to a 15-day flatten the curve concept; they gave very grudging consent to a 30-day extension; but they have not consented to anything else—they have been subjected to everything else. And no matter what Big Tech does to suppress data, the word has gotten around: this virus does not have lethality rates worthy of pandemic panic of any form. That being the case, the shutdown response to the panic was never necessary, and is not necessary now.
Another word has gotten around: there are multiple ‘expert’ opinions about sheltering-in-place, masks and social distancing, and about the efficacy of various remedies other than a vaccine. So not only were the lockdowns not necessary at the inception of the ‘pandemic’, there is considerable divergence of expert medical opinion as to whether they were necessary or appropriate even if the virus had been far more lethal than it is.
When that’s the case, the default position in America must be that free people decide what they want to believe and act upon. Free people do not consent to having any elected official pick a medical opinion to impose on everybody else.
But when a tone-deaf and data-deaf and science-deaf politician defies free people, s/he is going to quickly find out there is no power to enforce what the people did not consent to. Try sending the police to arrest everyone who goes back to work, who sits down at a restaurant, who shops wherever s/he wants to shop, goes to the beach, who exercises freedom of religion and attends church. As Sundance at Conservative Treehouse points out, “there are more of us than them”.
There is a point in America where a tyrant’s orders cease to be law in anyone’s eyes. Ignored by the police; not obeyed by the people. A charade of pretend government. And the lockdown is soon over.
Let’s also sound the call of civil disobedience and resistance to what might be called ‘pandemic leftovers’ such as ‘track and trace’. The great state of Texas, of all places, has a germaphobic Governor who is embracing a $295M big pharma, big vaccine supported ‘track and trace’ program. You know, just trying to help the people stay safe by tracking everywhere they go with their smartphone. So, you know, if they happen to get sick, your friendly government can pinpoint who the infected individual crossed paths with and helpfully order those hapless serfs into house arrest to, you know, contain the spread of the deadly virus. Just keeping the people safe, you know.
Remember: this is the lockdown that was based on a ridiculously wrong model. This is the same virus that now shows actual data-based lethality rates that did not then and do not now justify lockdowns of any kind; that has medical experts questioning the value of masks and social distancing; that has produced no hospitalization or ICU usage crisis anywhere in Texas (or anywhere at all, except maybe New York City for a week). The two Navy hospital ships in NYC and Los Angeles treated a total of less than 300 patients before they withdrew for lack of use.
Yet Texas Governor Greg Abbott is plowing forward with a track and trace program that does not fit with these facts, but does represent the beginning of absolute tyranny over freedom of the individual. Texans need to politely but firmly refuse to participate in this program. Not now. Not ever.
So as with ObamaGate, it’s the American spirit (and the Texas equivalent) that’s going to move the people to overthrow CoronaGate. They will take to the streets if needed. The American people did not consent to what this lockdown mess has become; they now know the whole construct was and is bogus; and they never consented under any circumstances to give up their country’s heritage of freedom. Politicians who think they can mock and defy or put down (or manipulate) the American spirit had better wake up. Ain’t gonna happen.
Eric Georgatos blogs at America Can We Talk?