Plausible Deniability

Plausible deniability. It's a really powerful political tool and it's being used copiously by far too many Democrats as we move through the COVID-19 disaster and into the 2020 presidential election season. The Dems and their trained hamsters in the media insist that their concerted effort to keep the country closed down is all about "saving lives," and of course, in typicql fashion, they question the morality of anyone who can keep two thoughts in their head at once. If you argue it's possible to save lives through smart social distancing AND also begin to open up the economy before we enter a true depression, you're a bad person. As if to emphasize the point we have today's op-ed (screed) in the New York Times, "How Republicans Became the Party of Death."

Here's yesterday's op-ed in the Left's house organ, The New York Times, entitled, "It’s Too Soon to Reopen States. The Coronavirus Is Not Under Control." The NYT chose to show hazmat-suited responders carrying a coffin. The photo was in Italy, not the United States. I guess the NYT couldn't find an image that was scary enough in this country.

Or how about well-known progressive writer, Matt Yglesias, who writes an article entitled, “Opening up the economy won’t save the economy.” Yglesias’ thesis is that people will be afraid to go to restaurants, so the economy must remain shut. I’m sure that Yglesias and his hipster friends are too busy sheltering in place to care much about folks who eat at the drive-through in McDonalds. But those folks, not the hipsters, need the economy to open, at least in limited ways, RIGHT NOW! And BTW, the economy is just a little bit more complex than a collection of vegan, sustainable, locally grown restaurants that might struggle to entice customers gripped by fear and hysteria promulgated exclusively by their own trained hamsters in the media.

To enhance their plausible deniability (more on what they're denying in a moment), the Dems and their hamsters cluck their tongues expressing "real concern" over the now 26 million people who have been thrown out of their jobs by government edict. But the Dems' adamant position on keeping the country locked down implies that those people just have to suck it up because it's all about "saving lives," right? Until the last few days, the Dems and their hamsters rarely mentioned the "lives" that assuredly will be ruined by economic collapse, not to mention the lives that will be lost because elective surgery has not been done and medical diagnostics have been delayed egregiously. The drumbeat to keep the nation shut down is as constant as it is patently irresponsible. And please ... spare me sage quotes from Dr. Fauci, whose single minded focus on the epidemic is laudable, but doesn't consider other aspects of the problem that may actually be more damaging that the virus itself.

But what about "plausible deniability"— denying what, exactly?

It's true that few are willing to make an obvious accusation knowing it will elicit anger and be vigorously denied, but through their actions, at least a few Democratic leaders and most of their trained hamsters are showing all the signs of wanting the national shutdown to continue until we enter an actual depression. Obviously, they would be outraged by that claim, but there's plenty of circumstantial evidence to justify it.

Enter Kurt Schlichter, never known for pulling his punches. His comments might be over-the top, but there's an underlying truth in what he writes:

... the Chinese coronavirus was a dream come true, a deus ex pangolin that finally, after an endless series of leaks, impeachments, investigations, and media meltdowns, might be the magic bullet that actually takes Trump down.

Am I saying that the Democrats are exploiting the pandemic for their own cheesy advantage? Well, yeah. Everything they are doing is consistent with that. Everything. No, in the abstract, many of them would probably not prefer that tens of thousands of Americans die ..., but their attitude seems to be that if life gives you tens of thousands of dead Americans, make political lemonade.

And upon reading this there will be lib blue check and Fredocon sissies huffing n’ puffing because I dared point out this manifest truth, so allow me to recommend that those who are upset go soothe themselves with a nice bowl of artisanal chocolate ice cream [link added], which I am reliably informed makes everything better. Absolutely no one believes the Democrats are not going to wring from this black swan all the droppings they can squeeze out onto President Trump.

Most of them are cunning enough to try to hide it, but some of them will bray it out loud, as [de facto] party leader AOC did when the related oil crash hit. She was positively giddy that millions more Americans were facing destitution, but even she was aware enough to eventually understand that was a bad look and delete her hi-five tweet [link added].

... The Democrats want to slow walk the reopening too. They are an urban party, and those cramped petri dish cities are going to take awhile to recover. But out in the fresh, clean open spaces of red America, there’s no need for this continued lockdown nonsense. Yet the Democrats, aided and abetted by the scuttling cockroaches that comprise the media, are demanding that every place be treated like the worst place. We’re terrible monsters for – let me get this right – wanting to go back to work and not go bankrupt.

In general, the Dems always let their trained hamsters in the media do their dirty work. In this case the hamsters demand more and more testing for counties that often have fewer than 3 or 4 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents. And when testing is no longer an issue (soon), they'll demand a vaccine before re-opening can be "safe," even though any vaccine many months away.

Watch the coverage of the early state openings (e.g., Georgia). It will likely consist of biased fear-mongering, all intended to slow down the national reopening and increase the negative economic and human consequences. And when the accusation that they want to tank the economy is made, the Dems and their media hamsters will be theatrically outraged. After all, they have plausible deniability. To paraphrase a line from William Shakespeare, "Methinks [the Dems] protest too much ..."