Seventy-four million Americans voted for President Trump. Though that number was not enough to carry him to victory, the support is encouraging, and also amazing.
Think of the mountain of lies from the liberal media that Trump voters had to climb in order to cast that ballot. They had to ignore, for starters, the steady drumbeat of stories predicting a blue wave, and polls that showed Joe Biden winning decisively in critical swing states. The latter included a preposterous survey of Wisconsin voters putting the Democrat challenger 17 points ahead. (Biden carried the state by less than 1%.)
Those surveys – what the president calls “suppression polls” – doubtless discouraged some from voting. Given that the polling errors were nearly identical to those that predicted a Hillary Clinton win in 2016, it is reasonable to suspect that some pollsters were biased, and skewed their results in order to keep Trump voters home.
Trump’s backers also had to put aside the mainstream media’s never-ending attacks on the president: the bogus charges of Russian collusion, racism and sexism, and accusations that Trump was undermining our democracy, among others.
Most important, Trump voters had to reject Biden’s campaign promise that he could bring the coronavirus under control and heal the country.
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In his rare virtual campaign events, Biden claimed he had a “plan” to combat the virus. He referenced that plan frequently on the stump, but nobody in the mainstream media bothered to investigate just what that plan was.
As it turns out, Biden’s much-touted plan comes down to this:
- Encouraging everyone to wear a mask and
- Ramping up testing.
As many have noted, evidence on wearing masks to help contain the spread of COVID-19 is mixed. In March, epidemiologist Anthony Fauci said, “wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better” but “it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think it is.” That assertion was in line with the consensus of the medical community and with the World Health Organization’s guidance at the time.
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When a recent study concluded, based on erroneous data, that only 49% of the nation had adopted regular use of masks and that raising that figure could save thousands of lives, the liberal media jumped on it, as it seemed to justify Biden’s emphasis on masking.
But a fact-based rebuttal showed that report to be false; the counter-argument published in the Wall Street Journal got zero attention from the pro-Biden press. They could not afford to disturb the narrative.
In any event, today more than 80% of Americans are wearing masks routinely; in the hardest-hit states, like California and New York, more than 90% of the population is now wearing masks, and still the case count rises. Biden is unlikely to douse the virus by imploring more Americans to don face coverings.
The other constant refrain from liberals has been that Trump failed to develop adequate testing in our country. With his customary enthusiasm for Big Government control, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has daily complained that we lack a “national testing program.”
President Trump turned over to states the organization of testing, but it is a lie to say that we have lagged on the effort. From April through to last month, the number of tests has soared, going from essentially zero to over 1.6 million tests daily.
If he wants to unite the nation, Biden could start by condemning the violent Left, and the media that covers for them.
In all, we have conducted 164 million tests, or approximately 485 per 1,000 people. That compares favorably with 477 in the U.K., 298 in Germany and 321 in Spain. The persistent story from the left-wing media that the U.S. is lagging other nations is simply false.
As he promised, President-elect Biden has assembled a group of experts to confront COVID. One of those is Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert from the University of Minnesota, who recently reiterated his call for a four- to six-week nationwide lockdown. This, despite growing data showing that state-imposed lockdowns have resulted in deferred cancer diagnoses, soaring child and domestic abuse, and other serious health consequences.
Osterholm had to walk back that proposal, saying there is no national consensus to support it.
Another advisor is Zeke Emanuel, former Obama administration health policy adviser, who famously suggested that people wear out their useful lives by age 75. He probably didn’t foresee working for a 77-year-old president.
Emanuel recently wrote a paper in which he warned against “vaccine nationalism” and argued that an immunization developed and funded in the U.S. should perhaps be distributed globally before making it available here at home. That will not be popular.
Biden has said repeatedly that he will “listen to the science,” as though Trump has been guided by fortune cookies. He will confront the same issue faced by Trump: the experts do not always agree.
In an op-ed earlier this year describing his “plan,” Biden wrote “the only complete solution is finding a vaccine to extinguish the threat it poses.” Thankfully, President Trump initiated the program – Operation Warp Speed – that will do just that in record time.
As to Biden’s other promise – to unite the country – we wish him luck. When Trump voters turned out recently in Washington, D.C., to show their support, they were attacked by violent Leftists.
In response, Sen. Rand Paul’s wife Kelley tweeted, “Watching video of people being assaulted and mobbed by BLM/Antifa in DC tonight brings back awful memories. Want an example of media bias? When @RandPaul and I spoke out about our mob assault, the @AP reported our claim was ‘without evidence’ despite 10 minutes of video.”
Political strategist Doug Stafford tweeted, doubtless speaking for millions, “I want to hear Joe Biden and Kamala Harris condemn Antifa/BLM criminals who assaulted and harassed peaceful demonstrators in DC today, including elderly and families. Of course they won’t. And ‘media’ won’t make them.”
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If he wants to unite the nation, Biden could start by condemning the violent Left, and the media that covers for them.
Spoiler alert: it isn’t going to happen.
