The China Virus count and the supposed end of the American Empire

E. Ablorh-Odjidja

August 13, 2020

A Rolling Stone's article, “The Unraveling of America,” written by Wade Davis, an anthropologist, may sound intellectual to some but in reality, it is very political.

It uses the China virus pandemic to draw a conclusion: the imminent demise of the American Empire.

As history has shown, empires do come and go.  There once was a Roman empire as there was a British.  But to wish America’s demise, based on such a flimsy speculation of a virus impact, as Wade does, is at best a wishful thinking.

Wade opens with an apt description on the China virus.

“Never in our lives have we experienced such a global phenomenon. For the first time in the history of the world, all of humanity, informed by the unprecedented reach of digital technology, has come together, focused on the same existential threat….”

And as impact on human affairs, “Pandemics and plagues have a way of shifting the course of history, and not always in a manner immediately evident to the survivors. ...”  The observation is very true, but it doesn’t follow that this virus may, by itself, cause the fall of the American Empire. 

But Wade then follows with a dire analysis.

“The COVID pandemic will be remembered as such a moment in history, a seminal event whose significance will unfold only in the wake of the crisis.

“It will mark this era much as the 1914 assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, the stock market crash of 1929, and the 1933 ascent of Adolf Hitler became fundamental benchmarks of the last century, all harbingers of greater and more consequential outcomes.”

Harbinger of things to come?

The Archduke, in essence, was a bit player in the remnant of the old Holy Roman Empire.  A sneeze could have deflected the bullet of Gavrilo Princip, the assassin. 

But WWI could still have happened because of factors already in play in Europe, many of which could be cited as harbingers.

And despite the atrocities of Hitler and WWII, these did not stop Germany from becoming the leader of Europe today.  Good or bad harbinger?

But in the very wake of Wade’s dire analysis comes his real objective; the purpose, the conclusion and excuse for the entire piece.

“In a dark season of pestilence, COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism.

“At the height of the crisis, with more than 2,000 dying each day, Americans found themselves members of a failed state, ruled by a dysfunctional and incompetent government largely responsible for death rates that added a tragic coda to America’s claim to supremacy in the world.”

Firstly, the illusion of “American Exceptionalism?  It doesn’t take much to unravel this anti- American perception.

American Exceptionalism is the condition that European rejects, African slaves and other nationals came to create in North America.

They raised a new nation to super power status within a short span of 150 year. No other nation on earth has grown this fast.  None.

The kindest remark to make on Wade's "declining" observation is that it is predicated on wishful thinking.  

The harshest is that the observation is hardly intellectual.  It is a rehash of Democrat party's talking points, already known, long before he wrote his piece.

From a defeat in 2016, Democrats have turned their angst into a drive for ongoing soft coup against Trump, starting with the “Russia Collusion,” and other subsequent resistance practices, all signs of enormous hunger for power. 

Wade’s article is a page torn from the book of this resistance. The “dysfunctional and incompetent” handling of the China virus are parts of the open strategy for Democrats seeking to defeat Trump in 2020.  

Wonder now what the charge would have been if the China virus had started in America. 

But know that the joy created by the virus, that it can damage Trump chances, has never been tempered by the fact that the virus originated from China and escaped to parts of the world through her negligence.

Perhaps, we should also be glad to learn from Wade that this virus will soon end the American Empire.

What Trump did exactly wrong in the handling of the pandemic is never enumerated.  Devastations on the ground are used in a circular manner to prove his supposed incompetence.

Numbers of tragic deaths caused by the virus mean nothing, except for the political benefits to be derived.

People have died; therefore, Trump caused the deaths.  But in what instance have Democrats shown better judgment for all this?  

George Floyd murder only led to anarchist rumble in the streets of Democrat run states. 

And as AG Barr said, in the attempt to damage Trump, they have “shredded the norms in trying to debilitate the office of the presidency”.

Trump was deliberately denied a peaceful transition. 

Three years later, he was put on the defense in an impeachment trial in January 2020. 

Instead of concerns for the approaching pandemic, Democrats went steady on impeaching Trump; featuring the “Ukrainian Quid Pro Quo” bogus charge. 

But just when sane citizens thought that the impeachment fever was broken, then came the China virus.

All this negativism brewing in American politics did not urge Wade to predict the demise of the American Empire.  He is only happy to do so after the arrival of the virus.

Trump was the first to call for a travel ban on China in January as the news on the virus was breaking. 

And he was promptly called a racist/xenophobic by Democrats and a large segment of the media.  The country was totally unprepared for the pandemic but no one cared, except Trump.  

For instance, US state governments were very little prepared for the virus.  They had very few ventilators.  

Gov. Cuomo of NY state, after crying for ventilators, that he could have bought on his own before the pandemic, suddenly had plentiful and excesses of hospital beds and medical supplies, courtesy of Trump.

Hard to think that Wade missed the lack thereof, at the state level, in his assessment.

 Even so, New York state has more virus-related deaths in numbers than any other state in the US.

No need to look at New York State alone to understand what is happening.  Reports on data collected from everywhere paint a worsening picture.

The data was necessary and according to the World Health Organization (WHO) on testing, it was “the key for controlling the virus.” 

The conclusion was, the more you tested, the likelier it was that you would find the afflicted.  

But compiling adequate data from any country in a time of a pandemic is a task in itself.  Some countries, will fulfill the requirement. Others like China are, as proven, more prone ideologically to be secretive about their casualties.  

However, the distress call went up, “The US has 4% of world population, but 25% of the world’s China virus cases.”   

On that score, it must be pointed out that the US has done more testing than ten of the “most impacted nations of the world.”

In fact, 200% more than Britain, in second place and 250% more than India, the third on that list.

In the US, there is the need for ideological approach as measure of government’s competency in containing the virus; Democrats or Republican governed?

“(T)he number of deaths from coronavirus is over three times higher in states with Democratic governors than in states with Republican governors. … .”  Wrote LawLiberty.org.

Reuters also confirmed, “ a Reuters analysis may help explain why: Death rates in Democratic areas are triple those in Republican ones.” 

Wonder why the Federal nature of American government doesn’t filter into Wade’s assessment of “dysfunctional and incompetent government.”  Why are governors in states under Democrats spared the competency test?

The disparity in virus management, in Democrats and Republicans, are obvious and pointed.

Wade says, “Pandemics and plagues have a way of shifting the course of history, and not always in a manner immediately evident to the survivors….”  Yet, he has made a historical judgment already in the case on Trump and the virus.

In the assessments, Trump’s successes in handling the economy are ignored.  Democrats want to shut down the economy and schools.  Trump wants them opened.

Wall Street has climbed back to the old gains.  There are rapid recoveries within the economy.  Job’s boom is in full swing, Manufacturing in the US is returning, as reported yesterday.  But “don’t see it,” urges Wade.

Certainly, the American Empire would come to an end someday.  But shouldn’t one worry about what replaces the American Empire?  

The most compelling argument or reason for the fall of empires in history had had to do first with the decline in morals and values; when for reasons of “political correctness” intellectuals like Wade side with the mob.

Moral decay is happening daily in America.  A super majority of electoral votes went to Trump in 2016.  Americans spoke the truth in accordance to their constitution.  But some in the quest for power want to remove him now at all cost. 

This is the decay that is setting in.  Wade must hate America. Not Trump.

Wade Davis is one of the scribes who are engineering harm to enable Trump’s removal in November 2020.  Thus, the necessity to load the generational problems facing America’s future on the head of one man.  

In fairness to humanity, like or hate Trump, why must this be allowed? 

There is little evidence of good faith in Wade’s article.  Wade Davis assertions here are a collective misuse of his intellectual title.  He has in this article turned the drive of a failed soft coup into an attempt at prophecy.

E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Publisher www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC, August 13, 2020.

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