Opinion
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May 20, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Until recently, being a doomsayer was a conservative privilege. Conservatives are the ones who uphold a Christian moral code and thus feel entitled to denounce its very real neglect. They have always been accused of seeing divine punishment on the horizon. Liberals generally ridiculed their warnings.

However, the coronavirus crisis has changed the script. Along with facial masks, liberals have now donned the role of doomsayers. They are decrying with indignation every detail of the handling of the crisis. They are waxing increasingly apocalyptical, seeing calamity under every ventilator.

A Vision of America Targeted

Unfortunately, the object of this new gloom and doom is not the very real danger of the COVID-19 crisis. Everyone should be concerned about it. Everyone should lament the tragic deaths.

That is not to say that liberals have no feelings about those who have died. However, the focus of their gloom is what they feel is a wrong vision of America and, therefore, the cause of our doom. They insinuate that this vision is much more deadly than the virus we all combat. They are convinced that conservative policies are misdirected.

It does no good to argue about the facts involved in the debate. They do not want to hear about exaggerated projections, misleading numbers, or the Chinese lab origin of the virus.

For the new doomsayers, the issue is not the crisis, but America. It should be pitied, not admired. America is not great. It is wrong and has lost its way.

A Darker Reality

Three elements make up this gloom-and-doom mentality.

The first is that the media present a picture of America that is much darker than reality. Every White House press conference is now a gloom-fest. The press corps’s questions imply a desire to find the darkest data. There is an unwillingness to admit the slightest victories. There is forgetfulness of heroic actions (like the solved ventilator crisis) that saved countless lives.

Besides, these media naysayers assume the worst possible outcome. Thus, anyone who forgets to follow a protocol is condemned as a potential killer. The most casual contact is automatically imagined to be lethal.

All these liberal media attitudes have created a climate of alarm, fear, and mistrust that prevents effective action and creates gloom everywhere.

PETITION: No to mandatory contact tracing and government surveillance for the coronavirus! Sign the petition here.

A Private War amid a Public Crisis

The second source of liberal gloom is the climate created by those who are using the crisis to extend the polarizing debate caused by the 2016 election. They concentrate on the person of the president and carry on a private war against him with provocations, vitriol, and political intrigue. Such caustic and abrasive attitudes exhaust the nation at a time of high tension. 

This is no time to carry out private wars. The issues should be set aside. The times call for sacrificing pet projects and personal prestige, not excoriating and impeding the direction of the war effort against the virus. However, this confused state of a war within a war cannot fail to drag down the nation when unity is needed.

A Vision that Is Not American

Finally, liberal doomsayers reject one vision of America just so that they may impose another. Their vision finds expression in the methods being used in most Western countries to fight the coronavirus. They claim that it must be accepted unconditionally, or untold thousands will die.

Parts of this vision are now being implemented in America. It is based on faulty models like the now discredited Imperial College London study. More liberal governors are particularly active in putting this vision in place. Liberal commentators and analysts (like former secretary of state Henry Kissinger) further claim that there will be no return to normal, alluding to an unrevealed future that will be run by more enlightened spirits.

This new vision is perplexing and frightening to countless Americans across the country because it is not an American vision of life.

The methods of this new vision for America are brutal and unfamiliar. They follow the Chinese communist lockdown model of coronavirus suppression that disregards individual rights and even the integrity of scientific data.

Suddenly, a global template for lockdown is imposed on us. It is not our own. The liberal naysayers condemn anyone who questions this template or proposes solutions more in line with our American tradition.

An American Vision

Our tradition calls for solving problems with American ingenuity. America has always held that all Americans are essential. Instead of finding a way to preserve health and wealth, our “non-essential” industries are locked down, denying millions the opportunity of mobilizing and participating in the total fight against the virus.

We like to face challenges by stepping up to the plate. However, the liberal template imposes massive one-size-fits-all plans that empty all the nation’s hospitals, for example, to treat COVID-19 patients who never come. This costly miscalculation leads to the deaths of those needing other treatments and the laying off of health workers who have nothing to do. It is nonsensical. It is not the American way of doing things. It violates every healthy business practice and rule of accountability.

We have always called upon God to help us in our trials, yet our churches are closed and sacraments denied. God is excluded and quarantined in this crisis when He should be at its center. 

Meanwhile, the nation suffers. The liberal doomsayers blame a backward and deplorable America for every problem that surfaces. They claim almost in triumph that the America we know has failed. Indeed, America has refused to embrace the brutal global standards that prevail. Cold secular models do not inspire us.

However, America has not failed. We see the heroic actions of health workers who give all to help others. We see countless acts of kindness and self-sacrifice by many seeking to ease the burdens of the crisis. We see others bombarding Heaven with their prayers for those who are suffering.  

We will always fail when forced to implement a totalizing Chinese communist model that does not respect God, freedom, and fundamental individual rights. If we are to survive this crisis, we must be faithful to ourselves and, above all, beseech God to help America. 

John Horvat II is a scholar, researcher, educator, international speaker, and author of the book Return to Order, as well as the author of hundreds of published articles. He lives in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania, where he is the vice president of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property.