Election 2020- the Confluence of Stressors and its Emerging Truth
In the not-so-coincidental confluence of dissimilar stressors, the greater truth of the 2020 Presidential Election emerges… and the truth which emerges shows more and more clarity, with every passing day.
To wit:
Coronavirus- The culpability of the communist Chinese government in the worldwide spread of the coronavirus has long been suspected since that government took measures to silence the growing calls from doctors- connected with the government-owned and operated lab in Wuhan- that a dangerous virus had been set loose and was rapidly spreading. Almost immediately, that government shut down flights- within that nation- to and from the Wuhan, but continued to allow international flights, regardless. That government almost immediately shut down Wuhan, the largest city in the Hubei Province, while simultaneously insisting that the virus was not communicable between humans, and then lied about its very origin- blaming it instead on “wet markets” not exactly known for their sanitary nature. These lies were then echoed by the World Health Organization, which gave cover to the Chinese government while insisting that President Trump’s decision to shut down incoming flights from China was “over-reactionary,” “xenophobic,” and bordered on “racism.” Democrats, including their eventual nominee for president, Joe Biden, echoed these same sentiments, but even Biden was reluctantly forced to admit later, that the President acted wisely in his decision to stop inbound flights from China, and later Europe, but not before they had already planted the seed of mis-information that it was all Trump’s fault in the way he responded to the emerging pandemic. Throughout Trump’s actions, both during the initial and subsequent developments of this pandemic, Democrats continued to second-guess the President, yet offered no real alternatives to what the President was doing to ameliorate the effects of the pandemic. President Trump, along with his Coronavirus Task Force, unleashed all of the engines of the nation’s government and corporate entities, to quickly ramp up production of sorely-needed ventilators and the development of therapeutics aimed at combating the effects of the virus- particularly among the old and infirm. Trump launched Operation Warpspeed to dramatically accelerate the development of a vaccine to prevent coronavirus infection, by removing all of the usual regulatory and certification burdens which can slow the process of a new such launch to three years, or more. In doing so, no less than five different pharmaceutical companies are now in the third and final stages of testing, and the President has already unleashed the logistical expertise of the U.S. Army’s Transportation Corps to be at the ready to distribute the vaccine, just as soon as final approvals occur- all within the next several weeks, according to reports. So, within the space of nine months, the public and private sectors have come together to both treat coronavirus patients and protect the public from further infection with effective inoculation- a feat which knows absolutely no equal in the annals of pandemic history.
In responding to the coronavirus, President Trump did all of this, yet what do we hear from Democrats, now that a victory over coronavirus in in sight? “Oh, Trump was slow to recognize the dangers of the virus…” “oh, Trump is dangerously rushing the development and launch of the vaccine, just in time for the election, and doesn’t care about its safety or effectiveness…” and “no one should ever trust any vaccine coming from Trump…” Democrats insist that much of the economy remains shuttered, insist that schools remain closed, and insist that masks and social-distancing protocols remain in place for the foreseeable future- some even insisting that Trump be impeached, yet again, this time for his response to the coronavirus. When asked, albeit seldomly, just how they would have handled the response differently from how Trump handled it, they quickly change the subject by either suggesting a non-existent rift between Trump and the scientists and doctors on his task force, or by condemning the President for conducting campaign rallies before large audiences without requiring that they wear masks. Given the great difference in enthusiasm between the two campaigns, it’s no wonder Democrats carp about these rallies because, deep down, they know fully well that Biden could never draw such attendance nor much enthusiasm for his own candidacy.
Unrest in the Streets- While no one could have foreseen the sudden onslaught of the virus, unrest from leftist radicals- in the streets of cities where they are given such leeway by Democrat mayors and in states with Democrat governors- began to emerge in the second term of the Obama administration. First, there was Ferguson, Missouri, followed by Baltimore, Maryland- both cities in which an African-American suspect died at the hands of local law enforcement. The riots those incidents unleashed resulted in far more deaths, and millions of dollars in destruction and looting- a harbinger of what was to follow George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis six years later. Ever since Floyd’s death, many other cities have erupted in violence- some as the result of similar incidents where police officers were forced to take lethal means to subdue suspects and effect arrests. Since this latest eruption of violence, which began in June, Democrat governors have refused to seek the deployment of their state’s National Guard units to put down the riots- a deployment repeatedly offered and encouraged by President Trump- while Democrat mayors have put the kibosh on local and state law enforcement to bring their streets under control.
Yet, the Democrats seek to blame Trump for all of this unrest, while completely dismissing the feckless inaction of their own gubernatorial and mayoral administrations which have allowed this violence to continue. Police officers and civilians alike have been assaulted and even murdered in the weeks which have followed Floyd’s death. Many thousands of businesses have been looted and damaged beyond repair, while many of these same businesses which provide jobs to minorities have been forced to permanently close. How any of these actions help to end “white privilege,” or combat “endemic racism,” or even “bring justice” at the behest of the relatively few incidents where unarmed black men are actually killed by white police officers- typically not more ten or eleven each year- when tens of thousands of black Americans are killed by other black Americans each and every year, are far beyond any rational discussion. While blame for the unrest, which was originally unleashed and even encouraged by the Obama administration, was never laid at the foot of Barack Obama administration, all we hear is that the riots taking place in 2020 are the direct result of Donald Trump and the deep divisions that he purportedly sows, in his tweets and rhetoric. Never at a loss for words- words which abide criminals in the crimes they commit, words which absolve violent felons from the life-changing results of their own assaults and even murders- Democrats seek to explain the inexplicable and transfer responsibility and culpability for violence away from those who commit this violence.
In other words, never under-estimate the power of Democrats and their co-collaborators in the media to exonerate their own, while at the same time, bring condemnation on Trump as well as their own Republican counterparts. It happens again and again and again.
International Relations- While the arrival of coronavirus and the death toll that has emerged from it (over 200,000 in the United States and just under a million deaths worldwide, as of this writing) have clouded other developments on the international front, we nevertheless see a drastic change in the status quo ante.
ISIS and their infamous caliphate, which the Obama administration said “that we would have to live with for the foreseeable future” has since been destroyed with all of their “territory” reclaimed by Syria and Lebanon. Thanks, in large measure, to President Trump removing Obama’s suicidal rules of engagement, which had hampered the effectiveness of our forces to lay waste to this radical Islamist regime, we haven’t heard any more of beheadings, and other brutal acts of violence, once perpetrated by these radicals against Christians, Jews and non-adherent Muslims, alike.
The ludicrous and ill-conceived Iran deal, which Obama and his second Secretary of State John Kerry put together to appease that nation and its criminal regime, has been effectively cancelled by the Trump administration- drying up the financial resources Iran then used to foment terrorism throughout the world. Arab states throughout the Middle East are taking note of these developments and are slowly but surely isolating the Iranian regime and recognizing the disruptive influence which Iranian mullahs have, and are, subjecting the world.
In September, President Trump successfully negotiated the first peace treaty between Israel and Arab nations in more than twenty-six years. In the so-named Abrahamic Accords, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have formally recognized the State of Israel, joining Egypt (1979) and Lebanon (1994) in the formal diplomatic and trade relations with the Jewish state. As many as nine other Arab states are soon to follow suit- further isolating the Islamist regime in Iran. Trump has won worldwide recognition for this treaty and, along with the peace treaty he previously negotiated between Kosovo and Serbia, has twice been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize- this time in recognition for all that he has accomplished to bring peace where once there was war.
Trump accomplished this latest treaty to the absolute dismay of globalists in the Obama and in former administrations, most notably John Kerry, who insisted that the only way such a treaty could happen was by first settling the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians- long promised, but perpetually short in realization… for this lifetime, anyway. So, Trump bypassed that conundrum completely, and then deployed his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, to enter into back-door negotiations between the U.A.E. and Israel. Once achieved, Bahrain quickly signed on, and thus history was made on the south lawn of the White House.
Yet, all we hear from Democrats and other globalists, as well as their co-conspirators in the media, is condemnation for an elusive peace treaty which they say excludes Palestinians- yet no one, most certainly not the Trump administration nor the Israelis, have prevented the Palestinians from signing onto the Abrahamic Accords, but then again, Trump has accomplished what all of the so-called experts in Washington and New York could not have accomplished, by thinking outside the box, and that is what bothers the living hell out of them.
“How dare he go where they were unwilling to go!”
Domestically, aside from the coronavirus and the uptick in urban unrest, Democrats are pulling out all the stops to deny Trump a second term. Where once they failed to prevent his uncanny nomination and election, and at the same time, failed to destroy his presidency with a $45 million dollar Mueller investigation followed by an impeachment attempt, they are now resorting to seize electoral victory through fraudulent voting, by means of mass distribution of unsolicited ballots via the U.S. Mail. They have even gone so far as to promise an escalation in the violence we see in our streets if Trump is re-elected- a modus operandi of voter extortion not seen in the history of these United States.
The passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsberg- regrettable, yet altogether expected given her age and commendable battle with terminal cancer- has opened up another vacancy on the nation’s highest court. Expressing absolute outrage that this president dare exercise his constitutional mandate to name Justice Bader-Ginsberg’s replacement with a constructionist (read “conservative”) justice- not to mention doing so in an election year- how dare he – they would presume to tell the American people that Trump has no right to fill her seat. After all, they say, Bader-Ginsberg’s “seat” should only be filled by a woman who shares her activist (read “liberal”) judicial philosophy, and their candidate for president insists that the woman be African-American, as well.
So, in a country governed by a Constitution, which gives a President an entire four-year term to exercise his explicit powers, and in a country which promises that all are created equal, such platitudes somehow don’t apply when it comes to President Trump, as well as the selection of a Supreme Court Justice. Trump should be proscribed from exercising his duties, while only a liberal African-American woman, nominated by a Democrat president, is qualified to replace the late Justice Bader-Ginsberg.
Democrats are even threatening to “pack” the Supreme Court, with the addition of six more justices- presumably of their own philosophical, liberal and activist bent- if Trump is allowed to select a third Supreme Court justice, just as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt once tried to do in 1937, when the Supreme Court decided then that certain elements of his New Deal were unconstitutional. Ever since Trump was elected, and in the wake of Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh being appointed, Democrats have clamored for this packing, so their latest threat to pack the Court is nothing new in the passing of Ruth Bader-Ginsberg.
That aside, the increasing likelihood of a disputed presidential election ending up at the steps of the Supreme Court, just as it did so in Bush vs Gore twenty years ago, will require a full compliment of nine justices to finally settle the election. Such a contingency cannot be settled without nine justices, and therefore, a new justice must not await this year’s election, because the continuation of our nation may well hang in the balance. President Trump knows this. Republicans in both houses of Congress also know this, as well as all of their Democrat counterparts.
So, this begs the question “Why do Democrats, their nominated candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, as well as Republican Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) insist that the selection and confirmation of a new Supreme Court Justice wait until after the election? The answer is quite simple- none of them, Collins and Murkowski included, want Trump to be re-elected and it is simple as that. They would rather see the nation suspended in the uncertainty of its future, and even further divided, while being subjected to the trauma of public litigation that would surely attend to such an extended and drawn-out, contested election- the longer the better.
At this moment, in the final week of September, it looks like Republicans in the Senate will be able to proceed with the confirmation hearings which follow Trump’s selection, albeit without the help from Senators Collins and Murkowski, now that Senators Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Cory Gardiner (R-CO) have given their assent to proceed. Trump has indicated he will announce the selection on Saturday, September 26th at 5:00 PM, EDT. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has already slated the week of October 12th for confirmation hearings, thus enabling a floor vote before Hallowe’en, and before this fall’s election takes place. Let us hope and pray that there is a fully-functional, nine-justice compliment to the Supreme Court, prior to November 3rd, because it looks like that’s where this election is headed… one way or another.
Coronavirus, urban unrest, race relations, international relations, the potential for fraudulent balloting and the Supreme Court vacancy are but six dissimilar but altogether confluent stressors from which the emerging truth of this year’s election is revealed, despite the efforts of the media to disguise this truth and camouflage the real differences between Biden and Trump.
Tuesday’s debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump will reveal even more differences between these two candidates- and show one who solves problems while the other pontificates platitudes, just as he has for forty-seven years.
Stay tuned.
-Drew Nickell, 24 September 2020
© 2020 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.
author of Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times, published 2016, All That Rendered Trump- and What Led Up to His Election, published 2020, and The Broom, published 2020, available at amazon.com.
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