OPINION:
The Founding Fathers warned us that a nation without a people guided by a moral compass from above would crumble in a morass of decadence, deception and other cultural declines, ultimately bringing with it the political world and the limited government system.
Witness Bill Gates.
Here’s a guy the world looked to as a sort of pandemic guru — the one, or only one of a select few, who could guide the good citizen-sheep into the safe mask-wearing, social distancing fold and save them, via COVID-19 vaccines combined with Gates-ly wisdom, from themselves.
It was an image he cultivated carefully.
“For years, Bill Gates has forged a nerdy, likable public image, largely through his philanthropy,” Business Insider wrote. “This persona made him more relatable compared with more outspoken, eccentric billionaires.”
It was an image that floated high on the massive financial contributions he gave, through his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to the World Health Organization.
“Gates Foundation Donations to WHO Nearly Match Those From U.S. Government,” U.S. News & World Report wrote in May 2020, citing the estimated $400 million each source was slated to provide in 2020-2021. And when President Trump withdrew U.S. funding from the China-fawning WHO in response to its defense of the communist country over the Wuhan virus — “How WHO Became China’s Coronavirus Accomplice,” Foreign Policy wrote in April 2020 — that left the Gates Foundation as the top contributor.
Another way to look at that?
That left Gates as the biggest influencer of WHO policy. An unelected, unaccountable-to-the-people, biggest influencer of health and medical decisions for an entire globe of people — for an entire country of free Americans.
“How to respond to COVID-19,” Bill Gates told us, in a February 2020 Gates Notes piece, just as the coronavirus came to U.S. light.
“Bill Gates, Vaccine Monster,” The New Republic wrote in April of this year about the billionaire philanthropists’ “bold bid to manage the world’s scientific response to the pandemic.”
And everywhere in between — online, in television media, at speeches before bureaucratic and business organizations that serve the world — was Gates. Everywhere was Gates and his recommendations — in “air quotes” — that soon enough filtered their way into governments as mandates.
Now, he’s losing luster.
“[N]ew reports of advances toward employees and links to Jeffrey Epstein indicate [his] darker side,” Business Insider wrote, just days after Bill and Melinda announced their looming divorce.
Thing is: Gates never should have had such luster in the first place. He already showed his darker side decades ago when his company, Microsoft, was being sued for antitrust practices, and he tipped his arrogant, domineering and smug self for all the world to see. It was captured on video. It was after this public relations disaster that his business allies determined he needed a whitewashing, and voila, philanthropy proved the path.
But money isn’t an elixir.
“Reports from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal indicate Gates, at times, create the workplace like a pickup spot, making advances toward women who worked for him,” Business Insider wrote. “Several employees told The Times he engaged in ‘clumsy’ and ‘questionable’ workplace behavior. They also said he could be ‘dismissive’ of his wife and overly ‘dominant’ in Gates Foundation meetings, even though the organization was working on several women’s-empowerment initiatives.”
Hmm. So he’s a jerk.
He’s a jerk who far too many in the world — in America! — worshipped as a god-like leader toward pandemic safety.
So what’s the tie to the Founding Fathers and the need for a moral populace?
In America, individual rights come from God, not government. Rights are natural; they’re inherent; they’re not for government to dole or distribute at whim. But the notion of God-given rights isn’t just a blessing. It’s a responsibility. It means that Americans, in order to keep the limited government structure in place, need to keep God at the helm. In other words, as a nation’s morals go, so goes its politics.
Now look at the fear generated by the pandemic, and the many, many political opportunists who’ve used, and who continue to use, that fear to achieve personal ambitions.
Where do believers turn in times of fear and crisis? To God.
Where do non-believers turn in times of fear and crisis? To government. To government and to bureaucrats and to intellectuals and to experts and to scientists and to those who’ve been elevated in the minds of the secularists as the trusted sources of information and guidance. And far too often in this growing secularized country called America, citizens see those with money, those in positions of influence and power, as the sources that naturally ought to be trusted.
Well, look at Bill Gates now.
“Bill Gates Left Microsoft Board Amid Probe Into Prior Relationship With Staffer,” The Wall Street Journal just wrote.
“Bill Gates Had Reputation for Questionable Behavior Before Divorce,” The New York Times just wrote.
Just goes to show: Humans are fallible. Humans will always disappoint. And in a country like America, where rights are ingrained at birth, this is a crucial message to get. America must choose God over government, over bureaucrats, over even billionaires. It’s the only failsafe path to security and liberty.
• 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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