Believe it or not, though I disagree with those on the left quite often, I always try to give them the benefit of the doubt and not assume the worst motives for their actions. For example, I believe them when they say they think abortion is a compassionate way to help women, though I may disagree with the logic behind that statement.
But what’s going on now with the Coronavirus Pandemic is making me think there are some real bad actors on the Democratic side of the aisle, ones who are willing to do real damage to our country and individuals in order to pursue their political goals.
In fact, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Democratic politicians have been directly responsible for making the pandemic worse than it needed to be, and for damaging the economy more than necessary. Another way to put it is this: Democratic politicians have wantonly sacrificed the lives and livelihoods of the very people they so loudly claim to help in order to score political points against Trump.
When the novel coronavirus epidemic first showed signs of infiltrating our shores, and Trump began implementing policies aimed at containing it — like the China travel ban — Democrats roundly dismissed the move as ineffectual and xenophobic. Nancy Pelosi doubled down and encouraged people on Feb. 26th to gather in San Francisco’s Chinatown while Bill DeBlasio encouraged people to live their normal lives in the first weeks of March.
Look, we all got this wrong. No one knew what would happen, but the Democrats’ reflexive rejection of anything Trump does or advocates meant that they ended up encouraging behavior that put people at risk just to spite Trump.
Then, when the pandemic began gaining momentum in March, the narrative changed from Trump is racist and paranoid for banning travel from China to Trump isn’t doing enough. And yet the record shows that Trump followed the advice of Dr. Fauci and others pretty steadily throughout the early weeks, even if some of his pressroom briefing statements were incoherent.
Trump has all along insisted that we should try to get the economy going as soon as possible. This is basic common sense if you know anything about economics. We can’t keep shoveling government money to people and expect our economy to survive. But Trump’s actions were dismissed as “protecting Wall Street” and “big business” at the expense of the little guy.
Instead, Democrats mainly insisted on maintaining the lockdowns and criticizing states, like our fair home, who dared to try and re-open gradually. I genuinely believe that their insistence on prolonging the the strict isolation measures is partially motivated by the fact that it goes against what Trump has advocated. “Whatever Trump says, do the opposite” seems to be their prime motivating idea.
And so now we have 33 million unemployed and many states where people are not able to return to work, and many Democratic governors and mayors extending their shutdown orders well into the summer. This anti-Trumpian reflex is thus really hurting our country’s ability to recover from the economic trauma and will have long-lasting negative effects.
At this point, it’s not unreasonable to assume that some Democrats want to tank the economy because it was the one thing going for Trump coming into the presidential election. Keeping their citizens on lockdown will ensure economic catastrophe, which will greatly diminish Trump’s ability to win the election, even against an incompetent, hypocritical buffoon like Biden.
But that’s ok, because by ruining peoples’ lives and destroying a huge swath of the private sector, Democrats — the party of government — will be able to step into the gap and make those people dependent on their programs, just like they did during the Depression.
And, as with the Depression, those programs will not actually allow our country to recover, but will keep us in permanent economic stagnation and encourage widespread government dependence, thus ensuring Democratic electoral victories. That, and the irrational desire to spite Trump, are what seem to motivate many of the key Democrats of our time.
And they are willing to sacrifice my job, my friends’ jobs (we just had layoffs at my company), and the economic and physical well-being of millions to fulfill their ambitions and quench their hatred for Trump.
I don’t know how much more despicable you can get than that.
Trey Hoffman
Peachtree City, Ga.
Trey, you can’t get more despicable than murdering over 92,000 Americans in the last 9 weeks, but that is what our dear President has done And Trump is proud of that fact.
gplan – Hyperbolic responses to simpletons like Mr. Hoffman only intensify their sense of eternal victimhood. The president did almost nothing to mitigate the SARS-CoV -2 early and has been so equivocal in his responses since that few place any trust in his observations, but murder is a bit of an overstatement. It is no exaggeration that his ignorance of biological science and unwillingness to be instructed has endangered many.
The actions of the NYC Mayor early on doomed his area. Not Trumps fault there. Y’all continue to blame him for everything. See how that works.
Trey, I don’t know how much more despicable you can get than murdering over 90,000 Americans in the last 9 weeks. That exactly what our dear President has done.
“Whatever Trump says, do the opposite”
Rush Limbaugh said this nearly verbatim about Obama on his radio show, I heard it with my own ears.
I can’t recall any conservatives being upset by it.
I would note that it’s a bit worse than Mr. Hoffman points out – it’s not just harming the economy. We know from plenty of past experience that economic crises kill people – increased suicides, homicides and fatal drug overdoses just for starters. And in addition to the deaths there is a long list of misery – increased domestic violence, child abuse, drug and alcohol abuse, depression, people on their deathbed without a loved one to hold their hand and comfort them, this list could go on for a very long time.
And, of course, in addition to doing this to hurt/spite President Trump many on the Left just enjoy telling other people what to do, and the Lockdown is a warmup for their Global Warming campaign.
Thank you Stranger Than Fiction. You aptly described Trey Hoffman’s commentary.
What a disingenuous missive from the ever-hyper partisan Trey Hoffman.
His condemnations hold truth, but he knowingly omits the context to place them in any semblance of a proper perspective. His presentation is analogous to describing the excesses of the counter-protesters in Charlottesville in 2017 without mentioning the “fine people” from the alt-right who inflamed the confrontation.
Actually, the Democrats turn out to be rank amateurs in these partisan wars. Until Newt Gingrich reorganized the Republican Party to be intolerant, legislators from both sides of the aisle frequently compromised for the good of the country (regardless of the party of the President). Now even slight movements toward comity with political adversaries for the good of the nation will get you “primaried” by a more ideological zealot.
There are countless incidences of partisan politics by Republicans that demonstrate scant concern for the fate of the American people. Indeed, the discredited birther crusade harassed President Obama throughout his tenure. Perhaps the most egregious was Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell’s, clear statement in 2010 of the overarching goal in his leadership post: “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” It doesn’t get much clearer than that.
Feel free to fault Democrats for their opportunism in using this pandemic to injure President Trump at any expense. Just escape your victimhood long enough to offer an honest context for your complaints.
Thank you, Trey, for putting our thoughts into words!
The Dems did weaponize this virus as a political tool to go after the President. Thats why the Dem governors are refusing to open their states: the longer they can tank the economy, and stop those huge rallies for Trump….the governors think they can hurt Trumps re-election. Before all of this, Trumps economy was roaring, China was getting hit hard….and the Dems were faltering. Now the Dems want all voting to be absentee, which is open to all sorts of fraud on their part. Throw out your absentee ballots…and go vote in person. Even here in Fayette County, the Dems would like nothing better than to have everyone vote absentee…
Despicable is the correct word. Your conclusions are also correct although somewhat late. The failure in communal living in Plymouth Colony was probably the first clue that giveaway programs wouldn’t work. Certainly the Roosevelt years proved it again even though WWII gave him a graceful exit from failure and even a third term. Johnson’s Great Society was still about government giveaways for votes, but even that managed to decimate the black family unit and a proud culture.
But now, the Dems effort isn’t just to keep a voting bloc in line and on the plantation. Now is outright disrespect for the rule of law and the electoral process and of course the virus gives them a life or death weapon to bludgeon normal people with. The hatred of all things Republican flared up in the press a little with Reagan, a little more when Bush sort of beat Gore and festered under Obama with the “Deep State” infiltration followed by the press (and others) losing their minds over Trump. The press disbanded at that point and became the media and any pretense of fairness or objectivity was gone – probably forever.
My evaluation process for a President is easy – What Would _____________ Do? and fill in the defeated candidate from either party. Today I use Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton for my own amusement, but you can choose whoever you want – McCain, Gore, Biden. Since the next President will be mid-70’s, VP choices should be entered into consideration -Mike Pence?, Kamela Harris? Sarah Palin?? Stacey Abrams???? I can’t imagine anyone mentioned including Pence and Jeb being able to pull off the travel ban or getting American businesses to retool for ventilators and masks. Just try to imagine the meetings and press briefings run by one of these people. Painful, isn’t it.