Don't Be Afraid, Our Future, A Dangerous World

by Gary Bauer:  Don't Be Afraid 
When President Trump left Walter Reed Medical Center yesterday evening to return to the White House, the media were grumpy about his apparent recovery.  Trump later released a video urging Americans to be careful, but added, "Don't let [coronavirus] dominate you.  Don't be afraid of it."   
 
Then the left lost its collective mind.  Journalists and commentators described the president's message as "heartless," "callous," "cruel," "destructive," "disrespectful," "outrageous" and "insulting." 
 
CNN's Wolf Blitzer declared, "Everyone should be afraid of COVID."  And Jim Acosta spoke for the vast majority of his colleagues when he said, "This is the virus returning to the White House." 
 
Well, the best test of whether the president's message was the wrong thing to say is to simply say the opposite.  The left is suggesting that the president should have said, "Be careful and be afraid.  Let the virus dominate your life."
 
Does anyone think that is the correct way for the leader of the free world to conduct himself?  Does anyone think that is an appropriate message?  Of course not. 
 
Can you imagine how today's media would react to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's famous declaration, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself"? 
 
The left's reaction is very telling.  They want you to be afraid. 
 
My old friend and colleague Bill Bennett asked people yesterday to reflect back on what became the signature moment of inspiration after 9/11.  It was when Todd Beamer rallied his fellow Americans on Flight 93 to fight back against the jihadists in control of the plane.  Beamer led the charge down the aisle, saying, "Let's Roll!" 
 
Bennett said today that the left wants us to roll up in the fetal position with our hands over our heads, wishing for the virus to just go away.
 
"Let's Roll!" was possible because of a vote that took place on that plane.  There were some who wanted to take a Biden-like approach to the crisis they were facing. They voted to stay in their seats because they didn't want to risk being stabbed like at least one passenger and flight attendant had been.  They were hoping for the best. 
 
But the guy who prevailed was the passenger on the plane with the spirit of Donald Trump who knew that free men and women must stand up in the face of danger, not shrink from it.  Todd Beamer wasn't afraid.  This virus won't defeat us, and we shouldn't act like it already has.
 
Our Future 
This debate is actually a marker for a larger debate about the role of America.  It is another explanation for why the left hates the president so much. 
 
For the past 30 years, the political left and its cultural allies have been content, if not eager, to manage America's decline.  Many of them believed that America was never great, and virtually all of them were unwilling to make the hard decisions that could make us great in the future.
 
Trump came along and rejected their entire worldview.  He unapologetically defended America, declaring that we have been great from our very beginning and that our best days are still ahead. 
 
His campaign themes were "Make America Great Again" and "America First."  These are more than mere slogans.  They were value statements shared by tens of millions of Americans.  And Trump's election upset all the left's plans of hoping we would continue to sleepwalk into their future.
 
Fast forward to today.  The president wanted to reopen the schools.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was safe to do so.  The left and its teacher union allies said, "We can't do that.  Children will die."  In the schools that listened to the president and the CDC, I am not aware of any recorded deaths. 
 
Small businesses all over America wanted to reopen. If they didn't, their owners would be financially destroyed, employees would lose their jobs and families would be crushed.  The left has fought against reopening in every state and they have stopped it in states they control.
 
The president said we need to get America back to work again.  States that are reopening have fewer deaths than progressive states like New York and cities like New York City, which is still essentially locked down.
 
The left didn't want baseball, basketball or football to come back. They tried to stop college sports from returning.  The president used the bully pulpit and got the Big Ten to reverse course.  Again, the president's position, not the left's, reflected the science, which tells us that young people are not at significant risk from this disease. 
 
There are tremendous differences between Trump and Biden on taxes, law and order, the sanctity of life and America's role in the world. 
 
But perhaps the most important difference of all is that Joe Biden represents fear, paralysis and weakness.  No country can thrive on those traits.
  
Donald Trump represents strength, optimism and courage.  A country like America must have leaders with those traits.  As one columnist so aptly put it, this an election between fear and freedom.
 
 A Dangerous World 
We have a nuclear-armed North Korea.  Iran is on its way toward developing nuclear weapons.  Chinese communists have infiltrated our college campuses and even law enforcement.  And their spying and espionage got progressively worse during the Obama/Biden years.  (Here, here and here.)  Under President Trump and Vice President Pence we are rooting them out. 
 
Joe Biden has not indicated in anything he is saying or doing that he has what it takes to steer this ship through these dangerous waters.
 
Biden and the left want your church closed.  They want your schools closed.  They want your business closed.  They want every aspect of your life shut down over a virus whose mortality rate is headed toward what we typically see in a bad flu season.
 
The World Health Organization now estimates that 10% of the global population has been infected with COVID-19.  That would be 750 million people.  There are just over 1 million confirmed COVID deaths worldwide, which would equate to a death rate of 0.13%. 
 
That is comparable to the 2018 flu season and significantly less than the death rates of flu pandemics that hit during the 1950s and 1960s.
 
 He Said What?! 
Joe Biden's mouth is getting him in trouble again. 
 
During an event in Florida last month, Biden tried to express his appreciation for those who kept working during the pandemic.  He said, "The reason I was able to stay sequestered in my home is because some black woman was able to stack the grocery shelf."  Why does Biden always imagine black Americans doing menial labor?
 
It reminded people of Biden's "you ain't black" remark or his comment about poor kids being just as talented as white kids.  He seems to have an unfortunate habit of referring to minorities with stereotypes.
 
Speaking in Florida yesterday, Biden said, "Wouldn't it be an irony -- the irony of all ironies -- if on Election Eve, it turned out that Haitians deliver the coup de grace in this election?" 
 
There's a lot of irony in Biden's statement, not the least of which is the fact that Haiti has experienced a lot of coups over the years. 
 
Biden also made his remark while the president was still at Walter Reed.  For those not familiar with French, "coup de grace" means a "death blow" or the final shot to kill a wounded animal.
 
And while speaking to a group of children Biden also said this:  "I want to see these beautiful young ladies, I want to see them dancing when they're four years older, too."  No comment.
 
This Just In… 
President Trump has directed White House negotiators to immediately suspend talks with congressional Democrats over an economic stimulus package because Democrats are not negotiating in good faith. The president said the negotiations will continue after he is reelected.
 
In the meantime, he urged Senate Republicans to devote 100% of their time to ensuring the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
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Gary Bauer (@GaryLBauer)  is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families 

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