The Coronavirus is impervious to prejudice. The coronavirus is indiscriminate and unforgiving; and cannot distinguish between rich or poor, between black and white, between Democrats or Republicans. The Corona virus treats Christians, Jews, and Muslims with the same determination and zeal. . It can infect anyone and everyone, causing death indiscriminately with a vengeance. The Corona Virus poses an immediate and direct threat on modern society as we know it.
The apocalyptic challenges facing newly elected President Biden would seem to necessitate adopting traditional political wisdom. At times like this, one would expect that the newly elected Democratic administration would place truth and expertise in politics, in science, in medicine at the forefront of its efforts to provide hope and solutions for the American people and for the extended global community.
Instead we are witnessing Democratic rule by the rabble and the lowest common denominator. We are in the midst of the beginning of a perfect storm of ignorance. Democracy makes it possible that someone who is led rather than leads lands at the top and it seems that this is shaping up to be our current political reality.
Experts can make mistakes; they are prone to error no less than common men or women, and cannot be given or trusted with sole authority and power. Their advice should be always heeded with careful consideration alongside the voicing of opposing opinions. Yet it seems that wherever we put our foot down, we encounter a reality of a blanket dismissal of the policy decisions of the previous Republican administration’s experts, and the demonization of former President Trump.
Rather than question the effectiveness of expert based policy decisions concerning the Corona virus, many of whom voiced their professional opinions live during President Trumps many press conferences, we are subjected to divisive accusations such as Vice President Harris who falsely claims that they had to “start from scratch” concerning the vaccine distribution program. Much of the criticism being voiced today has no basis in reality or facts, but seem to be more like the result of a media hype production using focus groups and rating scales.
In the same manner that we need to unite to work together towards a vaccine based cure to eradicate the Coronavirus, we also need to be united in finding answers to what caused the pandemic. Pandering to the lowest common denominator will only strengthen those opposing national unity and increase civil refusal to be vaccinated.
This past month, the first month of the Biden Presidency, much could have been done to restart a public dialogue focusing on what’s important to the American people and how we can unite to defeat the Coronavirus in the coming year with the vaccine program. Instead this critical and formative first month was wasted by the Democratic Party leadership (a perfect example of President Biden being led rather than lead), in trying to inflict as much damage as possible to the Republican Party and former President Trumps political legacy so as to diminish the likelihood of a Republican Party success in the 2022 midterm elections.
How else can one explain the intentional political distraction caused by the post-election Democratic impeachment hearings that were reminiscent of previous Democratic induced legal proceedings; the first Trump impeachment hearings, or the Kavanagh hearings; both noted for high TV ratings yet having no real value other than to attack Republicans and anyone who dares to support their side of the isle.
The Democratic Party’s self-induced preoccupation with the lowest common denominator has permeated all sectors of life, even the teaching of basic mathematics, despite the spread of Coronavirus everywhere. Just this past month, the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) encouraged teachers to register for training that encourages "ethno mathematics" claiming that White supremacy manifests itself in the focus on finding the right answer. In an ODE newsletter, a “Pathway to Math Equity Micro-Course," designed for middle school teachers to make use of a toolkit for "dismantling racism in mathematics." The event website identifies the event as a partnership between California's San Mateo County Office of Education, and others.
The toolkit includes a list of ways "white supremacy culture" allegedly "infiltrates math classrooms." Those include "the focus is on getting the 'right' answer," students being "required to 'show their work,'" and other alleged manifestations. "The concept of mathematics being purely objective is unequivocally false, and teaching it is even much less so," the document for the "Equitable Math" toolkit reads. "Upholding the idea that there are always right and wrong answers perpetuate objectivity as well as fear of open conflict." Thereby 1 + 1 no longer equals 2, and the lowest common denominator will be nothing more than a metaphor.
This past year's Democratic Party preoccupation and support of what it calls social justice and anti-racism and its manifestation in street violence, looting, burning, and violent occupation of public buildings by Antifa and Black Lives Matter is just another example of the Democratic Party wasting time, effort, and attention away from the real threat on American society, the Coronavirus.
Ironically, the Democratic Party’s tendency to cater to the lowest common denominator by legitimatizing street violence against innocent bystanders, police forces, Court Buildings and State legislatures, received a knock-out punch from no less than French President Emmanuel Macron who has had to respond to a resurgence of Radical Islamic street violence. In a long-awaited speech on the subject, Mr. Macron said that the influence of Islamism (on street violence) must be eradicated from public institutions even as he acknowledged French government failures in allowing it to spread. Macron also added, that when "I see several newspapers which I believe are from countries that share our values – journalists who write in a country that is the heir to the Enlightenment and the French Revolution – when I see them legitimizing this violence, and saying that the heart of the problem is that France is racist and Islamophobic, then I say the founding principles have been lost.”
The enormity of the Coronavirus crisis demands an all-inclusive type of dialogue between President Biden and the American public. At a time like this, President Biden should make every attempt first of all to convey a sense of hope and not exploit the public’s weakness or diminishing resiliency. A responsible Democratic leadership should first convince itself and then convince the American public from both sides of the aisle, that there is, in the words of Viktor E. Frankl, meaning to the suffering that we are all experiencing this past year and that the suffering is a part of the sacrifices we must make in our commitment to our collective well-being, that we are all in this together.
Only by remaining united in the war against the Coronavirus, can we overcome the challenge.The Democratic Party must earn the trust of all Americans. The general public must be treated as equal partners to the Democratic Parties efforts to combat the Coronavirus. The continuing disenfranchising of conservative supporters of the previous Republican administration will only weaken America’s collective ability to overcome the Coronavirus Pandemic.