By Tim Dunkin : It’s not uncommon for many of us on the Right to refer, metaphorically of course, to liberals using epidemiological terms. Liberalism is infecting our land. Socialism is a disease that harms the body politic. Some have even likened progressives to viruses. Yet, unseemly as such language might appear to some, it’s usually been considered hyperbole, exaggerated rhetoric designed to grab attention and perhaps even to arouse an emotional response.
But who knew that there would come a day when such talk could be meant literally?
Yet, that day has, unfortunately, came to America. As I write this, the Ebola scare in Dallas is growing worse. What was originally one single individual who had travelled back from Liberia who may have had the disease has morphed into a definite case of this horrific malady, as well as reports now that he may have been in contact with, and hence, possibly, infected dozens of people before he became overtly symptomatic. Many of these were in the emergency room where the man went for treatment—and whose personnel did not know to look for Ebola, and hence did nothing to isolate him. Further, he was in contact with family members who were children, who then attended classes at four different schools in the Dallas area. All told, at least 100 people have been sought for testing, and parents across Dallas have been pulling their kids out of the publik skoolz.
So how does this tie in with liberals, and especially with their champion, the current resident of the White House?
Well, since the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa began a couple of months ago, the Obama administration has been strangely insouciant about the whole matter. Whereas a president with common sense and a concern for his fellow citizens would be taking steps to quarantine possible cases in the US, imposing travel restrictions to and from affected countries, and the like, ours has done little to nothing along these lines. He has sent several thousand US troops over to Liberia to provide humanitarian support—and possibly get infected. But beyond that, not much.
And he still isn’t. Indeed, the administration has stated positively that it will NOT impose travel restrictions from affected countries in Africa, even after have a known case of infection in the United States, one which we are positive was carried in by an air traveler from Liberia. Instead, we’re going to continue trusting West African countries to screen travelers for fevers—a symptom which doesn’t manifest itself until well after the person has been infected for a week because this safety precaution has obviously worked so well already.
But what’s especially galling is that this vectoring of Ebola into the United States could have been prevented had the Obama administration not gotten rid of enhanced quarantine rules put into place during Bush’s administration, rules which allowed American customs to isolate and detain air travelers showing symptoms of dangerous diseases and which would have allowed the government to collect contact information should they need to track people down to, say, warn them that they may have been infected by a fellow passenger with Ebola.
Score another one for President Bareakout Obola
Unfortunately, this seeming lack of concern for serious public health threats is par for the course for the Obama administration. I noted a couple of months ago that the open borders policy being followed by Obama and his left-wing cronies is already resulting in diseases returning to the USA that we had once thought eliminated from our shores, or at least nearly suppressed. At the time, I was concerned more with tuberculosis, measles, and various polio-like diseases that have been on the rise, brought into our country by illegal immigrants from south of the border. Now we’re facing a mini-epidemic of Enterovirus D68, a flu-like virus which, unfortunately, has already resulted in several deaths and several other cases of paralysis, mostly in children, in the over 500 cases identified so far. The vector for the resurgence of this disease is thought to have been among the many “unaccompanied minors” who came here illegally from Latin America, many of whom are now attending classes in American schools.
What causes this apparent unconcern for the health and welfare of American citizens such as is consistently shown by liberals like Obama? After all, aren’t these the people who are supposedly so concerned about health care? Why are the left-wingers in power dropping the ball so clumsily on this one?
Three possible explanations come to mind.
First, it simply has to do with the fact that liberals and “progressives” are muddle-headed fools who are more concerned about political correctness and ideological right-thinking than they are about the lives of actual people. We don’t want some illegal alien to have his feelings hurt by not being allowed to come here illegally, i.e. without going through things like “checks for dangerous diseases,” even though he may be bringing in illnesses that we really don’t want here. Why impose flight restrictions on countries from West Africa, just because of a little thing like a hemorrhagic fever that can be spread by bodily fluids (such as in a sneeze) and which causes its victims to die horrible, painful deaths while bleeding from every orifice? That’d be racist, after all. And we don’t want to be racist, even if it means we have to bleed to death from our eyeballs.
Second, there is the well-known short-sightedness of left-wingers that drives nearly all of their policy decisions. Liberals are not known for thinking ahead (or for even thinking, for that matter). Theirs is a worldview driven by emotion and feelings. This worldview is coupled, moreover, with an insatiable desire to secure more and more power for themselves. To do that in our current political system, they need more and more voters. Since the natives of this country have often been less than willing to put left-wingers in power, the liberals have to resort to open borders policies that flood the country with millions of immigrants, most of whom come from countries where it is expected that the government should take care of you, and who consequently vote for Democrats. Okay, so maybe some of these immigrants bring things like diseases or criminal tendencies with them. You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, eh? The short-term goal of winning the next few elections definitely outweighs the long-term health and stability of the United States of America in the minds and hearts of our so-called progressives.
Third, and related to the left-wing thirst for more and more power, is the possibility that if an epidemic of some horrible disease were to break out, it would provide the perfect excuse for the Obama administration to declare martial law, formally induct all local and state police forces into federal service, and lock the country down. We’d “need” to have travel restrictions to keep people from “spreading disease.” We’d have to raid people who have more food then is their “fair share” stored up. The guns would have to go, since we don’t want anybody being able to challenge the imposition of martial law. Free speech, publications, the internet—these would all have to be rigorously censored so as to “prevent panic” and whatnot. Pretty convenient, especially when it almost seems that the administration is trying to get some kind of epidemic started, is it not?
But hey, that’d just be crazy. There’s no way Obama and his cronies would ever do something like that. Even suggesting it is just crazy conspiracy-theorizing, right?
Right?
Regardless of the reason, we have to get serious about doing something about the open borders/no quarantine situation we find ourselves in. The Obama administration is formally burning its last shred of legitimacy, and if the people of this nation have to take it upon ourselves to deal with the flood of illegal immigrants, then so be it. It’s time for Republicans in Congress to find their backbones and start doing something about illegal immigration besides “a path to citizenship.” It’s time for them to start taking their constitutional powers to “regulate commerce with foreign nations” seriously and get busy trying to impose flight restrictions—if nothing else, force Obama to have to take a position so we can all see right where he stands, with no ambiguity. Get busy before we end up like Liberia.
Tim Dunkin is a pharmaceutical chemist by day, and a freelance author by night, writing about a wide range of topics on religion and politics. He is the author of an online book about Islam entitled Ten Myths About Islam, and is the founder and editor ofConservative Underground, a bi-weekly email newsletter focusing on foundational conservative worldview and philosophy.
He is a born-again Christian, and a member of a local, New Testament Baptist church in North Carolina. He can be contacted at: [email protected]