Fear plus false figures equals Democrat coronavirus control

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Fear is such a great tool for power. Ask any tyrant. Or Democrat, for that matter.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s offices just issued a statewide mandate to face-mask all K-12 students returning to school this year, effectively setting the stage for all college campuses to do the same, effectively setting the stage for all private businesses to do the same, effectively setting the stage for another lockdown and clampdown and forced quarantining of supposedly free citizens. How so? When the face masks prove as useless at stopping the spread of the [insert name of virus here] as the first time around, the tyrants in Richmond along with their minions around the state will try to tighten the screws on citizens. Make way to clear the streets.

So, too, in other states.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, another Democrat, issued a similar mandate for his state, going so far as to underscore his public remarks with a not-so-thinly disguised threat to those who might be tempted to defy.

“When someone gets hurt, and they will, if you’re refusing to do the right thing, good luck,” Beshear said. “I think you’ll be held accountable.”

Wear the face mask or face â€" what? Jail time? Public flogging? The torture chamber?

This is where we’ve come, America. Our public servants are seriously threatening us. For that alone, Beshear should be drummed from office. But he won’t. He won’t because the politics of fear is chugging along as planned â€" and oh so successfully so. Democrats, in all their socialist-slash-communist-slash-tyrannical glories have used, and are continuing to use, the coronavirus to full power-grabbing advantage. And they’re being aided by some false reports and faulty numbers making the national media waves.

The Texas Tribune just reported a “siege” of coronavirus cases taking up the children’s wards at hospitals around the state â€" and then, oops, corrected that report which apparently had been based on inaccurate case counts.

“The original report claimed over 5,800 children had been hospitalized within a seven-day period in August,” Fox News wrote, of the inaccurate Texas Tribune report. “However, the 5,800 number actually refers to the number of children that have been hospitalized with COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.”

Eh. Potatoes, potahtoes. Start of pandemic, a week’s worth of the pandemic. What’s the truth among a little fear-mongering.

Then there was this, on President Joe Biden’s favorite obsession â€" well, second favorite, next to licking ice cream cones, of course â€" Florida: “The CDC reported that there had been 28,317 new COVID-19 cases in Florida on Sunday. But that number changed to 19,584 by Tuesday,” Deseret News wrote.

Apparently, the CDC overinflated Florida’s numbers. The feds corrected â€" but the media damage was already done.

“The state hit yet another record number of new daily cases, reporting 28,317 on Sunday,” the South Florida Sun-Sentinel blasted â€" only to be Twitter-corrected by the Florida Department of Health with this: “Wrong again. The number of cases @CDCgov released for Florida today is incorrect. They combined MULTIPLE days into one. We anticipate CDC will correct the record.”

Well, who’s going to correct the bureaucrats at the CDC? And by correct, of course, it’s meant: fire.

Fear in the hands of incompetents is bad enough. But fear in the hands of tyrants is dangerous to America’s freedoms.

Once upon a time, critical thinking used to be a prized trait. Not any more. Not in the last year-and-a-half of the coronavirus. Fear has become the ruling order of the day. Fear â€" the emotion that by nature causes irrational, impulsive and oft-erroneous thinking and behavior â€" has taken root of America and ridden roughshod over constitutional and God-given rights.

The only hope for America now rests in the appeal to a higher power. Only confession, repentance and prayer will do.

• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.

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