OPINION:
Talk show icon Michael Savage said on a recent “Michael Savage Show” podcast that this country has moved past the phase of “Looming Civil War” and entered the red alarm stage of “It’s Here and Happening Now,” and warned that if liberty-loving Americans don’t recognize this truth and fight, the left will forever hold control and dominate. And subjugate. And rule.
Given the coronavirus clampdowns that just won’t end — despite the vaccines, despite the flattened curves, despite the low, low, low fatalities — Savage is right.
America’s hurtling toward a showdown between citizens who understand the concept of God-given individual rights and Democrats who want socialism to replace capitalism. And that’s “Democrats” in air quotes; this batch of pols sporting the donkey pin are more like Marxist than democratic — more collectivist and globalist then constitutionalist.
How else to explain away the war on science being waged by Anthony Fauci, who’s gone completely rogue — completely bonkers, actually — and issued one conflicting bit of medical guidance after another, going so far as even to claim that if one mask is good, two are better — it’s “common sense,” dontcha know, he said. Follow that common sense thread and it leads to three masks, four, five — more. That’s not science. That’s stupid.
And there’s plenty of that going around, that’s for sure.
How else to explain away the Democrats in Oregon and Michigan and Virginia who want to make some of these health emergency provisions permanent, based on, umm, science? Insert air quotes once again.
“Virginia Issues Permanent COVID-19 Standard” that includes face masking, social distancing, and more restrictions on businesses, SHRM wrote in February.
It’s an emergency, Virginians were told. It’s for citizens’ own good, Virginia bureaucrats said.
“Oregon Proposes Permanent COVID-19 Infectious Disease Standard,” EHS Daily Advisor wrote in February.
Oregon OSHA administrator Michael Wood explained it this way: “The public health emergency triggered by COVID-19 remains a significant concern in Oregon. As we know, we have not yet defeated this disease and we clearly will not have done so by the time the temporary rule expires. As a result, it is critically important that we carry forward measures that we know are effective at combating the spread of this disease and reducing risks in the workplace.”
Defeat the disease?
That’s about as non-scientific a standard as it gets.
Quick fact: The only disease that has been “defeated” — and the word is eradicated, by the way — is smallpox. That’s it. Out of the scores and scores and scores of viruses and diseases that have plagued the world since the dawn of time, smallpox is the only one doctors have declared “eradicated.” Others have been eliminated. But that’s not eradicated.
From the World Health Organization: “If a disease has been eradicated, no further control measures are required. Elimination requires continued measures to prevent re-establishment of disease transmission.” Defeated? No such thing.
Words have meaning.
The left is clever at masking truths by choosing words that seem to mean one thing, but actually mean another — as with the completely undefined, utterly meaningless call to “defeat this disease.” That’s the open door for government’s justification to keep up the crackdowns on individual liberties based on fabricated fears of an undefeated disease that lead to endless extensions of emergency declarations.
Remember: The standard of reopening and resuming normalcy for this pandemic, COVID-19, was never “eradication.” It was to flatten the curve. That train left the station months ago. But Democrats don’t want to cede their powers back to the people.
“Michigan Bureaucrats Want Permanent COVID Regulations,” The Mackinac Center for Public Policy wrote in April.
The story reported how Gov. Gretchen Whitmer just extended emergency COVID-19 regulations for businesses, including requirements for daily health screenings of employees, face masks, social distancing, and more.
How long do leftists think Americans will suffer in silence?
Savage warned in his 2013 “Stop the Coming Civil War” of the coming civil war in America. He’s proven prophetic.
“What is that Biden and Harris and the shadowy people behind them are doing? They’re transforming the nation before our eyes,” Savage said.
“It’s more than political differences,” Savage said.
“The situation is urgent. It’s in the red zone,” Savage said.
“Obviously, there’s a civil war in this country. It’s being run by the left,” Savage said.
“The civil war is here and it’s happening,” Savage said.
All true. All true points — and sadly true, too, is that many in America don’t see those points as true. Too many in America think that since the politicians are promising a return to normalcy, and that since some of the economy is reopening and some of the churches are reopening and some of the schools are reopening and some of the gyms are reopening — that the government, the government under Joe Biden, is working hard to restore civil liberties to American citizens.
Don’t be fooled.
Just because the streets of America haven’t been turned into an OK Corral of MAGA types versus AOC types — of individualists versus collectivists — doesn’t mean a civil uprising isn’t taking place. This country is being rapidly torn apart by far leftists who are waging a war on all that makes America exceptional. At some point, limited government types in America are going to say “enough.” The question is: Will saying “enough” be enough, or will stronger, more aggressive actions be needed to reel in the tyranny? That’s the unknown. That’s the Second Amendment unknown. That could very well be the horrible moment when nobody will be able to deny a civil war is indeed here, is indeed now, is indeed taking place in the country.
If only warnings could be taken seriously. If only warners weren’t so often dismissed as hyperbolic. Such drastic unknowns would never have to be known.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.
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