We are living in difficult times. The ongoing pandemic,\nsocial unrest, and a polarized election cycle are challenging our nation to its\ncore. Any of these events can reap enough havoc on its own, but we are dealing\nwith them simultaneously. It is a perfect storm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Times of crisis tell us a lot about character and\nmotives. Things move quickly, so people often speak and act without thinking\nthrough the consequences. The many ironies we see today are rooted in hypocrisy\nand can help us discern the way forward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Several weeks ago, a political battle was brewing about\nthe COVID recovery. President Trump and most Republicans wanted to reopen the\neconomy as rapidly as feasible. Most Democrats\u2014backed by major media outlets\u2014wanted\nto remain in shutdown mode until a vaccine was available. A prolonged shutdown\nwould have extended the economic disaster, increased individual reliance on\ngovernment, increased government control of industries, and stymied a vibrant\ncampaign (i.e., no Trump rallies). Because a vaccine is likely to emerge in\nlate 2020, keeping the country in a bad mood through the election would cement\na Biden victory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But things changed. The Floyd killing spawned social\nunrest in Minneapolis that quickly spread to other large cities, including New\nYork, the COVID epicenter. The political left no longer regarded the police as\nessential law enforcers who keep the streets empty and businesses closed.\nOvernight, they became the problem. Cities looked the other way as many of the\nprotests turned violent. Even for the peaceful protests, social distancing was\nlargely ignored, and many protestors did not wear masks. Some \u201cmedical\nprofessionals\u201d seemed to carve out a COVID exception for the demonstrations (https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2020\/06\/05\/health\/health-care-open-letter-protests-coronavirus-trnd\/index.html<\/a>). In other words, protesting to reopen the economy spreads\nthe virus, but protesting police brutality does not. Either the lives of the\nprotestors don\u2019t matter now, or they were used as political pawns when the\nDemocrats demanded that they stay at home, or both. You decide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This blatant hypocrisy is another reason why many Americans\ndespise networks like CNN and CNBC and do not trust most politicians.\nMeanwhile, groveling leaders like Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and 23andme\u2019s\nCEO Anne Wojcicki confess their racism\nand seek atonement from the demonstrators. Wojcicki insists that she is \u201cholding\nherself accountable\u201d for abhorrent behavior (https:\/\/www.23andme.com\/blackout-tuesday<\/a>). She is not. She seeks to retain her empire by\nbegging forgiveness before <\/em>activists attack her company for, as she put\nit, being part of the problem. How can we trust her or the executives at other\ncompanies who claim to have understood nothing about racism before May 25 but\nsee the light now? Again, this is not ironic. It\u2019s hypocrisy. Follow the money\ntrail. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Where do we go from here? I\nlike to keep my posts short, so perhaps I\u2019ll return to the topic later. I\u2019ll\nclose with the famous words of President\nObama\u2019s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel: \u201cYou never want a serious crisis to go to\nwaste.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We are living in difficult times. The ongoing pandemic, social unrest, and a polarized election cycle are challenging our nation to its core. Any of these events can reap enough havoc on its own, but we are dealing with them simultaneously. It is a perfect storm. Times of crisis tell us a lot about character […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1333"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1334,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333\/revisions\/1334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}