In a panel at the 2023 Conservative Political Action Coalition (CPAC) conference, Reps. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) and Harriet Hageman (R-Wy.) summed up exactly how the COVID-19 pandemic was made exponentially worse by the Left’s and federal government’s desire for control. That “control factor” is still in full play now. As Hageman put it, “We are dealing with tyranny.”
Moderator Katie Pavlich from our sister site Townhall noted that the censorship mentality and a willingness to violate the Constitution can have very far-reaching real-world impacts. “Talk about the consequences of these constitutional violations… there are real-world consequences that have changed American society and the world forever as a result of this kind of First Amendment censorship and surrogacy,” she said.
Cammack agreed. She pointed to a recent House Oversight investigation hearing on the origins of COVID-19 and gave a hard-hitting summary of how the whole crisis was caused more by bad decision-making than by the existence of the COVID-19 virus itself. “We had individuals in front of us from the CDC, the NIH, we had some folks who still, one, perpetuated the narrative that this disease came from a cave somewhere in China or a wet market, right? Despite all evidence pointing to the contrary.” Now even Biden’s Energy Department and FBI acknowledge that the virus probably originated in a lab and was leaked.
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Second, continued Cammack, ”You had the email proof showing that they wanted to silence and deplatform opinions that were from Harvard, Oxford, Yale, Stanford-educated doctors. We had the Great Barrington Declaration that had been put out there and then subsequently deplatformed, taken off; any mention meant that you were going to get shadowbanned or suspended or thrown in Facebook jail.” The October 2020 Declaration called for an end to lockdown measures, calling them more harmful than helpful.
The censorship and deception led to pressure on individuals to make decisions they did not want to make, Cammack explained. “All of that led to people making decisions because they felt pressured: if you want to participate in society, you must comply.” Which leads to a “higher issue” we still face, even if most COVID restrictions or campaigns are gone. “The Left’s agenda is about dependency and control,” Cammack said. “They want to make you dependent on government and government programs so that they maintain control.”
And, of course, unfortunately, the leftists don’t really care about objective science or fact. “At the end of the day, this was not about science,” Cammack said. “We know that the science has now shown that the vaccines were not as effective as they were saying, that they were making people make a choice, they were forcing them. You want to go to school? You have to do this. You want to live in everyday society? You got to wear a mask, get your booster, do all these things. And it’s because of the control factor.”
While Cammack did not say so, that same leftist desire for control is evident in the educational sphere, in the economic sphere, online, in entertainment, and so on across society and politics. The radical Left cannot stand for any narrative or policies but its own to be accepted and implemented.
Cammack noted that citizens of Democrat states are still struggling in some cases because they don’t wish to comply with government-mandated oppression. “How many members of the military were kicked out? How many nurses and doctors no longer are employed because they got kicked out of their hospital or their office?” she asked. Military academies are still trying to force cadets to get the COVID vaccines, despite growing evidence that the shots are ineffective and cause serious side effects.
The COVID mistakes hit children particularly hard. ”How many students are now homeschooled — which, I love homeschooling, so I’m okay with that — but how many are now homeschooled and now have severe mental trauma that they’ve endured in school?” Cammack questioned. Suicide attempts among young people skyrocketed during the COVID lockdowns, young men are particularly vulnerable to vaccine-triggered myocarditis, and there is evidence that masking has caused permanent damage or developmental delays to children. “We will be feeling the effects and the brain drain up to, I think, 20, 30 years from now,” Cammack predicted.
“Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” Hageman chimed in. “And that’s what this was. It was corruption for corruption’s sake, and it was absolutely to control us.” She noted we have only to look at “inflection points” in history, like the Bolshevik Revolution, to see how this mentality works. “What you will always find, is tyrants always say they are doing it for your own good,” Hageman said. “That has been the excuse and the claim since the beginning of time. ‘I will take care of you. Your life might be miserable, but I’ll take care of you.’” As the World Economic Forum said, you will own nothing and be happy.
“And that’s what we’re dealing with. We are dealing with tyranny,” Hageman insisted. But people did fight back, and “I don’t think we’re going to fall for it next time.” She said she thinks government agencies are starting to be nervous. “That’s why we need to name names,” she added.
Hageman and Cammack hit the nail on the head. The COVID policies, from start to finish, were never about science or saving lives. They were simply about control.
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