Last week, former President Barack Obama held a get-together with a few close friends.
With infections surging and our “expert” ruling class (foolishly) pushing mask and vaccine mandates, this meant that the Obamas and hundreds of Hollywood friendlies descended on Martha’s Vineyard via those carbon-emitting private airplanes that only damage the environment if their occupants like meat and the economy.
But not to worry. This was no super spreader. After all, as a local told a New York Times reporter, this was a “sophisticated, vaccinated” crowd.
The hundreds of maskless people at Obama’s birthday party don’t have to worry about covid because they are a “sophisticated, vaccinated,” crowd per @cnn expert. I’m so glad covid can tell if a crowd is sophisticated. pic.twitter.com/GxnMqMAEPH
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) August 9, 2021
In the same way that the virus was socially progressive enough to spare George Floyd, anti-racism rioters, Americans are safe to convene in large numbers so long as they are registered Democrats with the accompanying qualification of either an Ivy League degree or a minimum of three years of experience with red carpets.
Because the Obama party consisted of people unaffiliated with the Trump administration or the state of Florida, The Experts™ were safe to be the experts.
In spite of the fact that the event predated the largest spike in infections for Martha’s Vineyard in four months, with 74 positive tests in the week since, there was no apocalyptic rhetoric.
As Maura Valley, an agent and spokesperson for Tisbury boards of health, told the U.K.’s Daily Mail, “At this time we’re not aware of any cases connected to the Obama party. It’s a little too early and the only way we’re going to know is through comprehensive contact tracing.”
In other words, she expects Americans will forget about this shortly and, as a public health expert, tacitly admits that the ongoing doomsday political rhetoric is just that.
Now, we have been told that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is personally killing people by not forcing vaccines or masking on the residents of Florida, which nevertheless ranks middle of the pack in terms of deaths per 100,000 people, according to Statista.
Protestations about individual freedom and the right to make choices and bear the associated risks, we have been informed, are selfish, moronic and wholly un-American.
As Arnold™ said about the “schmucks” who oppose masking mandates, “Screw your freedom.” It is imperative that Americans continue to sacrifice (USA Today called this a “powerful rant”).
Above all, we must ignore the fact that there are no standards — and that had this been a gathering of former President Donald Trump’s people, journalism would have looked decidedly different.
Instead of wishing the president a swell 60th orbit and fawning over the glamorous guest list, we would have seen similar headlines to those that came out during the last several months of the election season.
From Vox: “Trump’s closing message is lying about the coronavirus at rallies that spread infection.”
From The Associated Press: “As virus surges, Trump rallies keep packing in thousands.”
From CNBC: “Trump campaign rallies led to more than 30,000 coronavirus cases, Stanford researchers say.”
No word yet from the vaunted and very expert Dr. Anthony Fauci on the Obama gathering as the public health establishment, in conjunction with the White House and the media, condemns just this sort of activity when it happens in Florida.
Americans don’t trust their institutions. This is because there are no standards followed by those in power. Whatever serves to advance the leftist agenda is permissible and whatever obstructs it is racist, science-denying or simply cruel and heartless.
But if you say the right things and avoid contradicting the wrong people, then you get to behave counterproductively. In other words, you are at liberty to exercise your freedom.
At this point, one of two things must be true: Either our public health establishment believes that its fellow sophisticates are too sophisticated to pose a public health threat, unlike the rest of Americans, or it simply does not have the integrity to withstand pressure from a Democratic Party backed by a media wing that makes life difficult for those who think the data have any relevance to public health decisions.
The fact is, given the widespread availability and effectiveness of the vaccine, nobody should actually care that Barack Obama had a party.
It only matters because if anyone to the right of Obama politically dares to do the same, we are dealing with a full-scale catastrophe, according to the experts whose job it is to decide what those are.