Live Free or Die
By Sean Hannity
Conclusion
When I began writing this book the coronavirus had not yet reached pandemic proportions but the American left’s rapid acceleration toward socialism had long since begun. While President Trump’s America-first, capitalist agenda was making great stride in beating back this socialist menace, the national emergency fed the left’s enthusiasm for an expansion of federal powers. They eagerly exploited the crisis to try to cram their massive leftist agenda down our throats, including a smorgasbord of transformative Green New Deal items that had zero connection to the virus. Nancy Pelosi even said the coronavirus should open the door to adopting a universal basic income. Their response to the crisis should have focused on saving lives and minimizing the economic damage, but it only whet their appetites for more federal control over our money and our lives.
As the virus was approaching peak levels in America, with hundreds of thousands being infected and tens of thousands dying, President Trump urged governors to take charge of their own states, assuring them that the federal government would provide adequate production and stockpiling of equipment for distribution to the states as needed. Some criticized Trump for being too authoritative while others were demanding he be more so. Though Trump threatened to put the federal hammer on certain recalcitrant companies to up their production of certain supplies, the threats themselves were usually effective without further action, and throughout he assured Americans he strongly preferred to defer to the governors to manage their own states.
So even during a declared federal emergency, President Trump’s conservative instincts guided him to resist exercising excessive power—and this applied not just to management of the medical supply chain but also to decisions to shut down and reopen economies, which he largely left to the discretion of the states. While the success of Trump’s approach validates our federalist constitutional structure, Democrats will argue that only the federal government could keep the nation financially afloat during this period, and that this proves the glories of central planning.
The left will look back on this dark period as evidence of the wonders of federal power without lamenting the loss of individual liberty that always ensues. Conservatives, by contrast, will regard it as a time that conclusively shows that the American private section—small and large businesses, individual entrepreneurs, manufacturers and industries, and white-and-blue collar workers throughout the land—is the lifeblood of the American economy; not the public sector, which creates no wealth of its own. Conservatives will reflect with pride on the American spirit and the essential role of the private sector in ramping up production to meet government needs. They will celebrate Americans’ eagerness to reopen the economy and resume their lives as proof of their dedication to liberty and their precious constitutional rights. Though President Trump has been given little credit for this, the virus exposed American’s precarious dependence on foreign nations for necessary essentials and vindicated Trump’s long-held determination to restore American’s self-sufficiency as a manufacturing powerhouse.
You get the point. The left is relentless in pushing their extreme agenda. They were horrifyingly committed to statism before the virus; they are even more so today. You can count on it, which makes this year’s presidential and congressional elections exponentially more important than they already were. The left has now fully unmasked itself. The American electorate will face a clear choice in No ember between those who love America and want to protect it, and those who resent it and want it to become another failed socialist state. The Democrats’ media machine may try to downplay the party’s extremism, but there’s no longer any denying it, as I’ve shown throughout these pages.
Prior to the virus, we watched Democrats and the media deny the spectacular success of the American economy under President Trump. Their message during the post-virus recovery is predictable: they’ll say the economy was a disaster waiting to happen and the virus just hastened the inevitable. Or they’ll admit that there were signs of growth but that they benefited only the rich—despite all the evidence to the contrary. But we can’t let them get away with it.
No matter how much devastation the virus caused, it in no way erases Trump’s phenomenal economic record. Without it, we wouldn’t have been able to absorb those losses. This makes resuming his agenda even more important going forward. Just as he led the fight against the virus, he has been leading the fight to unleash our economy once again.
President Trump knows America can recapture its economic vitality—and he leaped into action to prove it. Having fulfilled his campaign promises on economic growth and demonstrated decisive crisis leadership, hasn’t he earned out trust? Having resurrected the American economy when ill-informed economic policies had driven it into the dirt, how much more so will he lead us to recovery?
Not only must President Trump’s economic agenda be reinvigorated, but his contagious spirit or hope and optimism is every bit as essential. His patriotism, his love for the American people, his faith in the American worker, and his unwavering belief in the free market are indispensable to America’s recovery.
The left, of course, will portray Joe Biden as a steady hand, ready to deliver this nation from chaos, in stark contrast to the volatile and combative Trump. Biden, they’ll say, is a moderate perfectly situated to heal our deep divisions. But as we’ve seen, Joe Biden is no moderate. He is a chameleon—willing to be whomever he needs to be and say whatever he needs to say to win votes. While wooing his party’s base, he is an untrustworthy panderer—moving further to the left with each passing moment, even if he conveniently veers back to the center as the election nears. If elected he’ll either push, or be a pawn of others who will push, a leftish agenda.
Media propaganda aside, Biden is not a seasoned force of stability and leadership. He is a walking gaffe machine who should be nowhere near the Oval Office. He is light-years away from the person Democrats portray. In reality, he doesn’t even know what office he’s running for. On February 25, 2020, he mistakenly proclaimed himself a “Democratic candidate for the United States Senate.” Apparently believing that some family member of his was also a candidate, he said if you don’t like him you should “vote for the other Biden.”
Nor is President Trump the unstable monster his obsessed haters depict. He rose to the unique challenge the outbreak presented, out-performing even his strongest supporters’ best expectations. No president in modern history could have better led the nation through this crisis, coordinating the public and private sectors and balancing health and economic concerns to produce the best possible results amid an unprecedented catastrophe not of his making.
It’s unsettling to consider what would have happened if Biden had been in power during the crisis. He would have been wholly ill-equipped to lead America even under normal circumstances, and would certainly be ill-suited to lead during possible future outbreaks. Biden at his best would be a disaster for these times, but his obviously declining mental condition—and I say this without malice but with deep concern—makes the prospect of his presidency foreboding and alarming. We have no idea who will really be pulling the strings if he’s elected. It is inconceivable that the Democratic leadership is unaware of Biden’s incapacity to handle the demands of the most powerful position on the planet, but they found themselves without any other viable option when Bernie survived as his last remaining rival. If the Democrats finally throw Biden overboard because of his incompetence or allegations of sexual assault, we can be sure that his replacement—to pass muster with the leftist Democrats and their base—will be equally disastrous for the nation.
My fellow patriots, I trust that you understand as well as I do the gravity of the times we are living in. As such, I implore you to get engaged and work harder than you ever have to reelect President Trump and deliver Republican majorities in both houses of Congress. The fate of this nation and of my children and yours depends on this election. Let not your hearts be troubled. Have faith and work hard. We can and will make this happen. God bless you and God bless America.