Can the Government-God Save Us from Swine Flu?
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Dr. Terrence Tumpey examining reconstructed 1918 Pandemic Influenza Virus (Photo Credit: James Gathany)
It didn’t take long for the Left to start blaming President George W. Bush and congressional Republicans for the swine flu. But then, we should have known it wouldn’t.
When President Bush was in the White House, we saw liberals blame him for everything from global warming to the belligerence of Iran. He could have personally developed a cure for cancer and liberals would have denounced it as a plot to save evil rich people and allow average Americans and “the children” to die.
Now that a potentially dangerous strain of influenza is making headlines, it is, of course, President Bush’s fault that we are not able to wave a magic wand and instantly make the threat disappear.
But as the National Center for Policy Analysis and Tevi Troy at the Wall Street Journal point out, the last few years have seen improved tools for fighting such an epidemic, and if anything, liberals have the Bush Administration leadership to thank.
The Department of Health has already deployed 12.5 million courses of antivirals, partnered with Mexico so they can send samples to our Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for testing, and has created a framework to accelerate new vaccines.
But if liberals want to play the blame game, there’s enough to go around. After all, it was Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer who said
“All those little porky things that the House put in, the money for the [National] Mall or the sexually transmitted diseases or the flu pandemic, they’re all out,”
And indeed, if you’re going to craft an economic stimulus bill, it should at least be focused on jump-starting the private economy–after all, ours is not a socialist nation where the government runs everything…yet.
Unfortunately even the threat of a swine flu epidemic isn’t enough to get Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to take border control seriously. If breaking our laws, violating our national sovereignty, funneling in drugs and the potential terrorist threat aren’t enough to motivate politicians to guard our national borders, why should an epidemic?
Another disturbing fallacy which is once again rearing its head as a result of this looming problem is the religious faith that government can solve all our problems.
To be sure, government can act intelligently and responsibly to minimize the harm of natural threats…and most of understand that government desperately needs to begin showing some intelligence and responsibility.
1918 flu epidemic: the Oakland Municipal Auditorium (Credit: Edward A. "Doc" Rogers)
But government is not the do-all, be-all and end-all that socialists and other liberals think it is. Government is not the almighty provider and protector they imagine it to be, and no amount of tithes and offerings–coerced from the American taxpayer–can assuage or enable their government-god to perform miracles.
Even if the money liberals are whining about had been spent on flu-related programs, what are the odds it make any more difference than what we already have in place? If you have faith in the government-god, you may think, “A lot.” If you realize that the government-god is a flimsy false god made of rotted wood, then you know, “Not much.”
In the end, we should stop the childish blame-games in the face of a dangerous pandemic…and quit pretending that throwing massive amounts of taxpayer dollars at science–both real science and politically correct “science”–will cause miracles to drop out as if from a soda machine.
There is only one God who can deliver miracles–and it isn’t the government-god. He’s the one America needs to go back to looking to.
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