Webb: Hyperpartisanship and unreason

A friend recently wrote a book subtitled “Thinking for Yourself in an Age of Unreason.”

Examples of the unreason that exist today will be in the comments section below the online version of this article. The usual suspects will write their often-repeated insults and nonsensical statements because it makes them feel empowered. The great thing about a free society is they are allowed to do so. This has no effect no matter how angrily some type furious and ferocious thoughts designed to inflict some form of mental anguish.

Like many of you, I survived high school, college, my young adult years and a few decades since. I’ve seen the evolution into the current age of unreason. What was different then and now? There were horrific events in those years, some driven by race. The response of the public was not always led by race.

As blacks and others who were supposed to be the political and cultural property of the left became more vocal, the threat was too much for the left. They had to destroy the threat at all costs, hence the growing prevalence of unreason.

The Tea Party movement united millions of Americans on conservative fiscal and constitutional principles, not age, color, gender or sexual preference. This was a significant danger to the growing leftist movement in America. Color of skin is not the issue for the left, it is only to be used for control. This is an example of the hypocrisy of the leftists and the ignorance of those who followed them blindly.

There are other purveyors of hyper-partisanship on these pages and that is also OK. We live in a free society where individual rights are protected and thought is a freedom we should all have. No American should fear disagreement, but those who are disagreeable are often impossible to engage in a rational debate.

Unreason has gone full throttle into the coronavirus fight. Instead of uniting the country under one banner of defeating the pandemic, the left, never one to let a crisis go to waste, has turned this into pure politics. Reality has been thrown aside for hyperpartisanship. Any hope of a middle ground seems absent.

President Trump, the coronavirus task force, governors and other officials have gotten most of this fight against the coronavirus correct. Because it is an evolving situation there will be, in hindsight, wrong decisions and those that go wrong. For example, shutting down most of America in the initial spread of the coronavirus was prudent. These actions needed faster review and revision as data became more available than modeling. The cure cannot be greater than the disease and anyone who ignores the negative effects of a broken economic system is not being honest.

Facts don’t matter to those bent on an agenda. Another example, as of this article the United States has conducted more than 6.5 million tests, more than any other country on earth. The accuracy of these tests is also better than many others around the world. Somehow this will be portrayed in a negative light.

Presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden issues missives sometimes reflecting actions already taken, from his basement safe from critique by a mostly compliant media. This is not going to get better as we begin the transition from virtual campaigning to smaller events and eventually a full-blown presidential campaign. Get ready for a rocky ride.

Democrats will continue to use words like xenophobic and racist when strong words and actions are aimed at China for its lies and deceptions. Ignore reality at your peril. Those of us who have warned for decades of the overreliance on China have been tragically proven correct. Somehow, the left will continue to blame Trump while defending the Chinese Communist Party over America’s interests. Let them blame, there is work to be done.

The blame game on Communist China must also be changed into action, not just reaction, for the short term. In two weeks, the World Health Assembly, the decisionmaking body of the World Health Organization (WHO), will have its 73rd general session. America and nations that have had enough of China’s bad actions and the WHO’s failures should participate and use the opportunity to demand accountability. Leaders must present specific actions that China must take if it wants to participate on the world stage.

Disagreements are allowed, hyperpartisanship is irrational and reason is needed. Without it, we will be engaged in a constant argument lacking real progress.

Webb is host of “The David Webb Show” on SiriusXM Patriot 125, host of “Reality Check with David Webb” on Fox Nation, a Fox News contributor and a frequent television commentator. His column appears twice a month in The Hill.