By Peter HeckI’ll admit that even as one who is perpetually turned off by President Trump’s petulance and divisiveness that I don’t get the unhinged response to his recent “don’t be afraid of coronavirus” video to the American people.
Standing on steps outside the White House with the Washington monument behind him in the distance, Trump encouraged Americans facing the specter of this disease:
“Don’t let it dominate you. Don’t be afraid of it. We’re gonna beat it. We’ve got the best medical equipment, we’ve got the best medicines, all developed recently. And we’re gonna beat it.”
All else being equal, who in their right mind could find fault with such a message? If you’ve a survivor of the disease, currently battling it, or someone who hasn’t had it, you can find reassurance and confidence in those words.
Call me crazy, but isn’t that what so many of us have been desperate to see from President Trump? Haven’t we been agonizing over his propensity to divide rather than unite and rally Americans? Isn’t this the very kind of hopeful encouragement we all need right now more than ever?
Apparently not. The same Democrat Media Complex that has become enraged regularly about his discordant behavior reacted with even more contempt at his celebratory side (language warning):
I’m genuinely curious what, if anything, the president could have said that would have pleased the information gatekeepers in our national media? Actually, I’m not really that curious because I know the answer. And you do too: nothing. Because the anger isn’t really at the statement, it’s at the man.
If you doubt that, consider the way the media admiringly celebrated the courageous and persevering fortitude of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in the face of the pandemic.
But Joy Pullman at The Federalist suggests that maybe the media’s visceral reaction to the president’s upbeat, hopeful message wasn’t all due to their irrational hatred of Trump. Perhaps it is also due to their antipathy for hope itself in these trying days of 2020.
“The subtext (of Trump’s statement) is that if people simply follow their reason, and pay close attention to the objective facts about COVID-19, perhaps they would make different choices than when scared out of their minds about it. So we can’t have people prudent about COVID, or rational about COVID, or thoughtful, or courageous about COVID. That does not produce the social outcomes that these people want. Being scared of COVID does.
Fear seems to motivate different behaviors related to COVID than does information, facts, and rationality.”
Fear drives viewership. It makes people far more pliable to intrusive government. It allows the elites who control the flow of information and the mechanics of policymaking immense leverage to get what they want and bully anyone who resists.
Fear is the lifeblood of totalitarianism. Donald Trump attempted to rally Americans against fear.
Pay attention to which side our media has chosen.
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