{"id":15040,"date":"2020-08-29T20:20:56","date_gmt":"2020-08-30T00:20:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=15040"},"modified":"2020-09-12T21:07:22","modified_gmt":"2020-09-13T01:07:22","slug":"how-joe-biden-embraces-democrats-shutdown-insanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/29\/how-joe-biden-embraces-democrats-shutdown-insanity\/","title":{"rendered":"How Joe Biden Embraces Democrats\u2019 Shutdown Insanity"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><em>Daily Caller \/ American Renewal<\/em> August 29, 2020 <a href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/daily-caller-logo-index.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-14100\" src=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/daily-caller-logo-index.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"53\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/daily-caller-logo-index.png 434w, https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/daily-caller-logo-index-150x40.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/h3>\n<h1 class=\"mb-6 xl:mb-10 leading-tight font-oswald font-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2020\/08\/29\/biden-embraces-shutdown-insanity-james-bovard\/\">How Joe Biden Embraces Democrats\u2019 Shutdown Insanity<\/a><\/h1>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mb-4 text-sm\" src=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/files\/images\/DCNF-large.jpg\" alt=\"Daily Caller News Foundation logo\" width=\"256\" height=\"25\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"flex justify-between mb-6 xl:mb-12 font-oswald tracking-2xl-wide font-medium leading-xl-loose text-xs xl:text-lg\">\n<div class=\"uppercase\"><a class=\"block text-black\" title=\"View More Articles By James Bovard\" href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/author\/jbovard\"> James Bovard <\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"ob-read-more-selector\">\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll have a national mandate to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dcexaminer\/status\/1296646417856045059\">wear a mask<\/a> \u2014 not as a burden but as a patriotic duty to protect one another,\u201d declared Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden at last week\u2019s Democratic National Convention. Biden\u2019s plan to impose a federal gag order on all Americans symbolizes the Democratic Party\u2019s embrace of failed pandemic policies that could inflict far more damage on Americans\u2019 prosperity and freedom.<\/p>\n<div id=\"\/10519169\/dailycaller_inline1\" class=\"ad\" data-google-query-id=\"CLW6q8_QwesCFRHKhgodGwQAMQ\">\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/10519169\/dailycaller_inline1_0__container__\"><iframe id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/10519169\/dailycaller_inline1_0\" title=\"3rd party ad content\" name=\"google_ads_iframe_\/10519169\/dailycaller_inline1_0\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" data-google-container-id=\"5\" data-load-complete=\"true\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Nobody has asked Biden why the same mask rules should apply to New York City subway riders and to Iowa farmers. Imposing the same muzzle on all of America\u2019s 3,000+ counties \u2013 most of which now have very few COVID cases \u2013 makes no sense. But Biden apparently believes that this \u201csecurity theater\u201d mandate would comfort Americans still waiting for a rescue from Washington.<\/p>\n<p>In an ABC News interview last Friday, Biden was asked, \u201cAre you going to force [everyone] to wear a mask?\u201d Biden replied: \u201cThis <a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Politics\/transcript-joe-biden-kamala-harris-joint-interview-abcs\/story?id=72541513\">isn\u2019t about freedom,<\/a> it\u2019s about freedom for your, your neighbors \u2026 This is \u2026 the first time I\u2019ve ever heard people say that doing something patriotic you can save other people\u2019s lives, impacts on their freedom. Come on. Give me a break.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Biden, any presumed benefit from government edicts to curb COVID infections makes freedom irrelevant. This is why Biden endorsed a national \u201cstay-at-home\u201d dictate in March, declaring \u201cWhy would we <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/politics\/story\/2020-03-27\/biden-coronavirus-national-lockdown\">not err on the side<\/a> of making sure that we are not going to have a repeat?\u201d The fact that placing most of the nation under house arrest inflicted vast collateral damage was irrelevant. Biden also called for suspending rent payments for three months: \u201cFreeze it and forgive it so you\u2019re able to stay in that place.\u201d Biden neglected to cite which provision of the Constitution empowers the federal government to suspend rent in tens of millions of rental dwellings.<\/p>\n<p>ABC News\u2019 David Muir asked Biden last Friday how he would respond if scientists urged him to repeat the lockdowns that most states imposed earlier this year. Biden replied, \u201cI would shut [America] down, I would listen to the scientists.\u201d Biden justified that heavy-handed policy: \u201cIn order to <a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Politics\/transcript-joe-biden-kamala-harris-joint-interview-abcs\/story?id=72541513\">keep the country running<\/a> and moving and the economy growing and people employed, you have to fix the virus, you have to deal with the virus.\u201d Biden did not reconcile prohibiting economic activity and getting \u201cthe economy growing and people employed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Biden learned nothing from the disastrous shutdowns earlier this year, when millions of Americans were effectively placed under house arrest. Those lockdowns were far more effective at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/covid-lockdowns-economy-pandemic-recession-business-shutdown-sweden-coronavirus-11598281419?mod=itp_wsj&amp;yptr=yahoo\">destroying 14 million jobs<\/a> than preventing the spread of COVID-19 to more than five million Americans. As a Wall Street Journal analysis published on Monday noted, \u201cMany governments <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/covid-lockdowns-economy-pandemic-recession-business-shutdown-sweden-coronavirus-11598281419?mod=itp_wsj&amp;yptr=yahoo\">deployed draconian tactics<\/a> never used in modern times: severe and broad restrictions on daily activity that helped send the world into its deepest peacetime slump since the Great Depression.\u201d As a result of the lockdowns and other restrictions, \u201cWe\u2019re on the cusp of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/covid-lockdowns-economy-pandemic-recession-business-shutdown-sweden-coronavirus-11598281419?mod=itp_wsj&amp;yptr=yahoo\">an economic catastrophe<\/a>,\u201d warned Harvard University economist James Stock.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cstay-at-home\u201d decrees earlier this year were justified by mortality predictions on COVID-19 from the World Health Organization that were <a href=\"https:\/\/mises.org\/power-market\/cdc-slashed-covid-19-fatality-rate-fraction-earlier-estimate-used-justify-lockdowns?utm_source=Mises+Institute+Subscriptions&amp;utm_campaign=0808858ce9-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_9_21_2018_9_59_COPY_01&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_8b52b2e1c0-0808858ce9-228023681\">50 times higher than<\/a> the rate experienced in the United States. But most of the media still presumes that the lockdown dictates were legitimate because they were based on \u201cscience and data\u201d \u2013 regardless that the epidemiological forecasts were even more inaccurate than the 2016 election predictions.<\/p>\n<p>States with Democratic governors have been more aggressive in imposing and perpetuating COVID lockdowns. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat who was rumored to be Biden\u2019s personal pick for vice president, imposed some of the most severe restrictions, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/michigan-stay-at-home-order-now-bans-visits-to-friends-relatives-governor-says\">prohibiting anyone from leaving their home<\/a> to visit family or friends. Whitmer prohibited \u201call public and private gatherings of any size\u201d and also prohibited purchasing seeds for spring planting in stores after she decreed that a \u201cnonessential\u201d activity. (Purchasing state lottery tickets was still an \u201cessential\u201d activity.) COVID-19 infections were concentrated in the Detroit metropolitan area, but Whitmer shut down the entire state \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigan.gov\/coronavirus\/0,9753,7-406-98163_98173---,00.html\">including northern counties with near-zero infections and zero fatalities<\/a>, boosting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crainsdetroit.com\/jobs\/24-michigan-labor-force-unemployed\">unemployment to 24% statewide<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, also a Democrat, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oregonlive.com\/business\/2020\/03\/oregon-governor-issues-stay-at-home-order-to-enforce-coronavirus-restrictions.html\">banned her state\u2019s four million residents from leaving their homes<\/a> except for essential work, buying food, and other narrow exemptions, and also banned all recreational travel. At that point, six Oregon counties <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2020\/us\/oregon-coronavirus-cases.html#map\">had only one confirmed COVID-19 case,<\/a> and most of the state had minimal infections. But schools, businesses, and other activities were slammed shut by government command. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oregonlive.com\/business\/2020\/05\/oregon-coronavirus-job-losses-near-400000-benefits-backlog-is-53000.html\">Almost 400,000 Oregonians lost<\/a> their jobs after Brown\u2019s shutdown.<\/p>\n<div id=\"\/10519169\/dailycaller_inline3\" class=\"ad\" data-google-query-id=\"CJXyqc_QwesCFRHKhgodGwQAMQ\">\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/10519169\/dailycaller_inline3_0__container__\"><iframe id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/10519169\/dailycaller_inline3_0\" title=\"3rd party ad content\" name=\"google_ads_iframe_\/10519169\/dailycaller_inline3_0\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" data-google-container-id=\"7\" data-load-complete=\"true\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, yet another Democrat, justified shutting down his state\u2019s economy and confining almost everyone to their homes based on a simple formula: \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2020\/03\/20\/todays-coronavirus-update-trump-closes-borders-new-york-locks-down\/\">If everything we do saves just one life, I\u2019ll be happy<\/a>.\u201d At the time of Cuomo\u2019s decree,\u00a0five or fewer people had tested positive for coronavirus in most counties in New York State. The governor entitled himself to freeze the lives and movement of 20 million people, subverting their efforts to provide for themselves and their families purportedly to save \u201cone life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And the self-proclaimed immaculate intentions of politicians absolved them for any harm they inflicted. Cuomo <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2020\/05\/05\/this-nursing-home-disaster-is-on-you-gov-cuomo-goodwin\/\">callously compelled nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients<\/a>, a policy that contributed to more than 10,000 nursing home deaths in his state. Pennsylvania <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2020\/05\/13\/pennsylvania-health-official-moved-mother-from-nursing-home\/\">Health Czar Rachel Levine issued a similar order<\/a>, contributing to thousands of nursing home deaths, and then <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pennlive.com\/news\/2020\/05\/health-secretary-rachel-levines-removal-of-mom-from-care-home-amid-epidemic-draws-scrutiny.html\">removed her own 95-year-old mother<\/a> from a nursing home to keep her safe. According to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, Democratic governors in Michigan, California, and New <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcknights.com\/news\/lawmakers-raise-the-heat-on-states-that-forced-nursing-homes-to-admit-coronavirus-patients\/\">Jersey imposed similar policies<\/a> to compel nursing homes to admit COVID-19 patients. Nationwide, nursing home residents account for almost half of COVID-19 fatalities.<\/p>\n<p>School shutdowns are another COVID-19 policy that have inflicted far more damage than most Americans realize. A recent Wall Street Journal analysis <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/schools-coronavirus-remote-learning-lockdown-tech-11591375078\">headlined<\/a>, \u201cThe Results Are In for Remote Learning: It Didn\u2019t Work,\u201d noted, \u201cIn many places, lots of students simply didn\u2019t show up online, and administrators had no good way to find out why not \u2026 Soon many districts weren\u2019t requiring students to do any work at all, increasing the risk that millions of students would have big gaps in their learning.\u201d Barely half of Los Angeles students \u201cparticipated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/education\/america-is-about-to-start-online-learning-round-2-for-millions-of-students-it-wont-be-any-better\/2020\/08\/05\/20aaabea-d1ae-11ea-8c55-61e7fa5e82ab_story.html\">daily in online learning<\/a> during the spring\u201d school COVID-19 shutdown. An analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted that only \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-ncov\/community\/schools-childcare\/reopening-schools.html\">one in three school districts<\/a> expected teachers to provide instruction, track student engagement, or monitor academic progress for all students.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Democratic candidates are endlessly denouncing America\u2019s \u201csystemic racism\u201d this year, but they ignore how school shutdowns are devastating minorities. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-ncov\/community\/schools-childcare\/reopening-schools.html\">The CDC warned<\/a> that \u201cthe lack of in-person educational options disproportionately harms low-income and minority children.\u201d An analysis by McKinsey and Company consultants \u201cestimated that if schools were entirely online until January, on average white students would lose six months of learning, Hispanic students nine months, Black students 10 months and low-income students more than a year during the time school buildings have closed for the pandemic,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/education\/bs-md-learning-loss-covid-online-instruction-20200724-u2usc3jehzaxzfgcr6wrmyvxy4-story.html\">The Baltimore Sun<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p>Will a Biden administration \u201csolve\u201d that problem by making it a federal offense for a school system to flunk a minority student after the COVID-19 shutdowns end?<\/p>\n<p>As with the shutdown of the economy, the school shutdowns were a disaster that never needed to happen. Britain has done the largest scientific study in the world and concluded that there <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/uk-53718066\">is little risk of COVID-19<\/a> spreading in schools. But that does nothing to deter teacher union demands to keep schools closed while teachers continue pocketing full pay.<\/p>\n<p>Biden insists that \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Politics\/abcs-david-muir-presses-joe-biden-win-presidential\/story?id=72554802\">we\u2019re going to follow the science<\/a>\u201d for fighting COVID-19. But many states relied on wildly-inaccurate \u201cscientific\u201d forecasts that paved the way to economic disaster. Incompetent CDC scientists contaminated key samples for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/03\/10\/us\/coronavirus-testing-delays.html\">creating a test<\/a> in February, and Food and Drug Administration scientist-bureaucrats continue <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/2020\/08\/04\/the-fda-has-been-way-too-slow-on-at-home-covid-19-testing\/\">to block innovative private<\/a> testing. If scientists tell Biden that everyone needs the newly-approved COVID-19 vaccine, would he declare a national emergency and force every American to get injected?<\/p>\n<p>In the name of fighting COVID-19, would Biden turn Americans\u2019 lives into an endless TSA security checkpoint with unlimited commands and degradation and pointless groveling? If the COVID-19 infection rate does not fall to zero, would Biden claim that justified imposing the <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/2020\/08\/03\/australia-imposes-curfews-closes-internal-borders-to-slow-covid-19-pandemic\/\">Australian-style crackdown<\/a> \u2013 dictating an 8 p.m. curfew, banning all weddings, and prohibiting people from traveling more than three miles from their homes or from buying more than <a href=\"https:\/\/quadrant.org.au\/opinion\/qed\/2020\/08\/australia-how-have-you-let-it-come-to-this\/\">two packages of toilet paper<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p><strong>America cannot afford a president who pretends to be a viral <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/King_Canute_and_the_tide\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">King Canute<\/a>, whose edicts will instantly make a pandemic recede. The COVID-19 shutdowns will likely be viewed as one of the greatest political debacles in modern American history. But Joe Biden believes that all that is necessary to keep Americans safe is a bigger federal iron fist.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><em>James Bovard<\/em><em>\u00a0is the author of \u201c<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2oUPlNM\"><em>Attention Deficit Democracy<\/em><\/a><em>,\u201d \u201c<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2pFGqQ8\"><em>The Bush Betrayal<\/em><\/a><em>,\u201d \u201c<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/33RFsiv\"><em>Terrorism and Tyranny<\/em><\/a><em>,\u201d and other books. Bovard is on the\u00a0USA Today Board of Contributors. He is on Twitter at @jimbovard. His website is at\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com\/\"><em>www.jimbovard.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Daily Caller \/ American Renewal August 29, 2020 How Joe Biden Embraces Democrats\u2019 Shutdown Insanity James Bovard \u201cWe\u2019ll have a national mandate to wear a mask \u2014 not as a burden but as a patriotic duty to protect one another,\u201d declared Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden at last week\u2019s Democratic National Convention. Biden\u2019s plan to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[176,2513,2316,402,1959,2353,428,2430,2285,2352,2313,148],"class_list":["post-15040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-andrew-cuomo","tag-center-for-disease-control","tag-covid-19","tag-fda","tag-food-and-drug-administration","tag-gretchen-whitmer","tag-joe-biden","tag-kate-brown","tag-masks","tag-michigan","tag-pandemic","tag-schools"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How Joe Biden Embraces Democrats\u2019 Shutdown Insanity - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Presidential candidate Joe Biden threatens to impose a national lockdown in response to COVID-19. 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