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Gadfly: Terrible Toll of COVID ‘McCarthyism’
“There were two viruses that the authorities wanted to control in 2020 and 2021,” argues Spiked’s Brendan O’Neill: COVID and “the virus of dissent:” “Experts referred to lockdown scepticism and Covid misinformation as their own kind of disease.” Anthony Fauci decreed “what is true and what is false in relation to Covid” and saw it become “gospel” for “Big Tech overlords.” And that no “direct chain of command between the Biden administration and Big Tech” was needed “for Covid censorship to occur is more chilling.” It yielded the “most serious clampdown on political liberty the West has experienced in a very long time”: “We must never again allow experts to suppress whatever they decree to be anti-scientific or dangerous thought.”
Republican: ‘Jim Crow’ Lies Corrode Democracy
After the 2018 and 2020 elections, losing candidates like Stacey Abrams and Donald Trump falsely claimed Georgia’s elections “aren’t free and fair,” fumes Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger at The Wall Street Journal. Last month’s election turnout broke records, with larger-than-usual shares of black voters, and Democrats who backed President Biden’s “Jim Crow 2.0” conspiracy theory “came up short.” Still, Sen. Raphael Warnock and Biden doubled down on their false claims. The truth? “Georgia has smooth, trustworthy elections,” and Warnock, Biden “and their allies in the media — like Mr. Trump and Ms. Abrams before them — knew all along that their claims were ridiculous.” They may use such divisive rhetoric to get out their vote, but it’s “corrosive” to democracy.
Libertarian: Congress Out To Deepen Deficits
“So much for all that talk about falling deficits,” snarks Reason’s Eric Boehm, as the “government ran a $249 billion deficit during the month of November — that’s the largest total ever posted for that month.” Despite this “unsustainable” borrowing, “Congress is gearing up to spend even more.” The lame-duck session’s $1.7 trillion omnibus bill will likely “add to this year’s budget deficit and the ballooning national debt,” up to $585 billion this year alone, per The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, and the Congressional Budget Office says “the damage could exceed $5 trillion” over 10 years. And rising interest rates darken the picture, as “the federal government spent 53 percent more on borrowing costs last month than it did in November 2021.”
Conservative: Chief Twit’s Improv Management
“Musk is seemingly making up Twitter policy on the spot by tweet — and then asking his team to come up with a justification post-tweet,” observes Stephen L. Miller at SpectatorWorld. It “all came to a head” with Thursday night’s suspension “of several high-profile journalists” over Musk’s “own questionable definition of personal ‘doxxing,’ ” and the blocking of links to rival site Mastodon with “a message reminiscent of previous Twitter Trust and Safety actions during the banning” of The Post’s laptop reporting. It seems policy’s being set by “Musk’s emotions, changing by the moment according to his own personal circumstances.” Yet “using Twitter as his personal celebrity enforcement mechanism has no good outcomes for anyone.”
Economists: Yellen’s ‘Alternate Reality’
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen offers an “alternate reality” on the US economy, argue Michael Faulkender & Aaron Hedlund at The Washington Times. Far from her “bleak picture,” in January 2021 it “was eight months into rapidly falling unemployment, strong GDP growth, and low, stable inflation.” “No further economic rescue was needed,” but Democrats’ American Rescue Plan brought “more government spending, advancing a vision where people’s livelihoods are separated from the virtues of work and where domestic energy production is vilified.” The result: “Consumer prices rising 13.8% since Mr. Biden, Ms. Yellen and their team took office, a historic labor shortage, and now the most rapid rise in interest rates in decades, coinciding with minimal economic growth.” Americans “need a return to pro-growth policies that encourage work, encourage investment, and boost energy production, with the private sector once again leading the way in generating abundant prosperity for all.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
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