“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that [is] it's an opportunity to do things that you think you could not before.”
- Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s Chief or Staff and current mayor of Chicago.
COVID-19, or novel coronavirus is a black swan event that Democrats are latching onto in desperation to try and hurt Trump. Democrats had no chance in 2020, and were self-immolating on a daily basis and their only hope is to turn this into Trump’s Katrina.
This is how we should respond:
Americans hate when tragedies are politicized. Your overarching theme to your response should be to shame them for using a human tragedy for political gain. We should be treating Democrats who are politicizing coronavirus just as we would have treated Democrats who politicized 9/11.
Here are specific responses and rebuttals for some of the most common talking points that the left is pushing:
- The left: “Trump called coronavirus a hoax!” Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank tweeted: “Remember this moment: Trump, in South Carolina, just called the coronavirus a ‘hoax.’” Politico’s headline reads: “Trump rallies his base to treat coronavirus as a ‘hoax.’”
Response: Trump never called coronavirus a hoax. He clearly said that the Democrats attempts to politicize the issue was their new hoax.
Here is the actual Trump quote from his South Carolina rally: “Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus. Coronavirus. They’re politicizing it. We did one of the great jobs, you say, “How’s President Trump doing?” They go, “Oh, not good, not good.” They have no clue; they don’t have any clue. They can’t even count their votes in Iowa. They can’t count their votes! One of my people came up to me and said, “Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia. That didn’t work out too well. They couldn’t do it. They tried the impeachment hoax. That was on a perfect conversation. They tried anything, they tried it over and over. They’ve been doing it since you got in. It’s all turning, they lost, it’s all turning. Think of it. And this is their new hoax.”
- The left: “Trump cut funding to the CDC!” Biden and Bloomberg both made this false claim during the Nevada Democrat debate. Bloomberg is also pushing this lie in a new ad.
Response: Trump proposed budget cuts to the CDC in his 2018 budget proposal but the cuts were never made. Instead, funding was increased. They also claim that Trump fired a pandemic specialist. He wasn’t fired, he quit after Bolton was appointed.
“Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russ Vought said in a White House briefing that the headlines were untrue. He said savings were made through trimming waste and unnecessary programs rather than cutting anything connected to fighting infectious disease.
“Things like climate change research, things like occupational health research, that is not going to go away but is something that we do not need to jump-start.”
Instead, the CDC’s work on infectious diseases and preparedness saw a bump in funding by 3% to $4.317 billion for 2021, he said.
“It is not true that we have cut CDC’s infectious disease fighting” capability, he said.”
“Among the health authorities overseeing the work are Dr. Anne Schuchat, CDC’s principal deputy director and a veteran of previous outbreaks, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, NIH’s infectious disease chief who has advised six presidents.
“The CDC’s response has been excellent, as it has been in the past,” said John Auerbach, president of the nonpartisan Trust for America’s Health, which works with government at all levels to improve the nation’s response to high-risk health crises. Some Democrats have charged that Trump decimated the nation’s public health leadership, but Auerbach said CDC’s top scientific ranks have remained stable during the past three years.”
https://apnews.com/d36d6c4de29f4d04beda3db00cb46104
- The left: “Trump is incompetent! We need adults in charge!” Warren has basically made this her line of attack.
Response: Trump’s response has been far more aggressive than that of any Democrat in recent memory. Trump has been stopping air travel from infected nations (over the objections of China and Democrats), increased screenings, and quarantined those who are infected that have been repatriated to the US. By comparison, Obama waited until six months after H1N1 was declared a pandemic before he declared it an emergency, by which time millions of Americans were already infected with H1N1 and over 1,000 Americans had already died from the disease.
Interestingly, H1N1 originated in Mexico, which, along with the current novel coronavirus outbreak, makes a compelling case for a border wall and for travel bans.
General points:
New York Times science reporter Donald G. McNeil Jr. noted that the Trump administration took "aggressive measures like barring entry to non-Americans who were recently in China and advising Americans not to go to China or South Korea," and that this strategy worked, despite the fact that the World Health Organization officially opposes travel and trade restrictions, and "reiterated that even as it declared the epidemic a global emergency on Jan. 30."
This situation shows the importance of strong borders. Democrats like Warren are calling for diverting funds from Trump’s “racist” wall to a coronavirus fund. A wall is a very strong issue for us right now, even more so than 2016.
This situation highlights the problems with globalization in a way that people who don’t already agree with us can understand: our supply chains are dependent on China and this outbreak shows that we need to keep strategic industries at home. The vast majority of our drugs are produced in China, which is a big problem right now. It is important for America to have a diversified supply chain that is not dependent on China or any other nation and we want to make sure we keep production capacities for key industries at home for strategic reasons.
There are many strong anti-globalist arguments to be made here. Another strong point for us.
Strong borders and anti-globalization are two of Trump’s major campaign themes that are strengthened by this situation. The left also has a theme that could be strengthened by this outbreak, which is healthcare. They will be arguing that this shows the need for universal health care and they are already using the current high cost of coronavirus testing in the US as a talking point. We should respond by pointing out how every Democrat candidate raised their hands in favor of offering free health care to illegal immigrants, how much strain this would put on our nation at a time like this and how that would incentivize infected people in other countries to come to the US even more. I would like to hear other thoughts on how to respond to this angle, as it seems like it could be their only somewhat effective attack to come out of this, because the rest of their talking points are outright lies and because this talking point aligns with Democrat campaign themes.
We should also make the general point that Democrat cities are often in horrible condition and will be breeding grounds for disease. LA and San Fransisco is currently bringing back typhus and the bubonic plague.
“We have a complete breakdown of the basic needs of civilization in Los Angeles right now,” Pinsky told Fox New host Laura Ingraham. “We have the three prongs of airborne disease, tuberculosis is exploding, rodent-borne. We are one of the only cities in the country that doesn’t have a rodent control program, and sanitation has broken down.”
Pinsky said bubonic plague — also known as the “Black Death,” a pandemic that killed off millions in the 14th century — is “likely” already present in Los Angeles. The plague is spread by infected fleas and exposure to bodily fluids from a dead plague-infected animal, with the bacteria entering through the skin and traveling to lymph nodes.
Typhus, which broke out in the city last year, will likely return, Pinsky said. Already, a Los Angeles police officer has contracted typhoid fever, which infects fewer than 350 Americans each year. The various types of typhus are caused by a bacterial infection and spread by body lice, chiggers or fleas. In the 1600s, the disease decimated Germany.
“This is unbelievable. I can’t believe I live in a city where this is not Third World. This is medieval,” Pinsky said, according to Fox News. “Third World countries are insulted if they are accused of being like this. No city on Earth tolerates this. The entire population is at risk.”
https://www.dailywire.com/news/bubonic-plague-likely-already-present-los-angeles-joseph-curl
If I missed any of their talking points, please address it in the comments and let’s prepare a strong response.
God bless you all and stay safe and healthy.
Impressive length!