Is it any wonder that millions of Americans no longer have faith in our national institutions? That so many are so confused as to the correct response to the China Virus? While the reality of the virus (infection rates, death rates, transmission vectors, etc.) is science-based, there’s clearly a political agenda behind the narrative being spun by politicians and the media.

The media and the Democrat Party (but we repeat ourselves) seem driven by a desire to tear down this nation and this president, even during a global pandemic. They seem absolutely triumphant over every morsel of bad news while they minimize any good news.

For example, the media has excoriated Republican governors in Florida, Texas, and Arizona for reopening their states too soon, blaming them for a recent spike in infections. But why?

While it’s true that there was a spike in infections following the states’ reopenings, we knew that would occur. Too many folks forget that the whole point of “flattening the curve” was never to prevent infections or deaths (an impossibility until we have herd immunity or a vaccine) but to spread out the infections so as to not overwhelm the hospital system.

Once that was accomplished (and it was), there was no reason to keep the nation on lockdown. In fact, there was every reason not to. Even if some COVID-19 deaths were delayed or prevented by lockdowns, they were more than offset by increased deaths from undiagnosed or untreated cancer, diabetes, hypertension, etc., and increased suicide rates related to skyrocketing unemployment and economic collapse.

However, what is fascinating is that, even as the number of infections continue to rise, the number of COVID-19 deaths continues to fall. Though the CDC now says that the number of coronavirus cases may be as much as 10 times higher than reported, the seven-day average of daily COVID-19 deaths has dropped from 952 deaths per day a month ago to 615 on June 19 and then to 548 on June 29. This is good news, since it means that the death rate is substantially lower than originally believed.

As far as the Republican governors, they made the prudent decision to begin phased reopenings based on the data they had at the time, which showed it was feasible. And while many of their critics claim they have made the U.S. an embarrassment on the world stage by their incompetent handling of the virus, the reality is these red states have much better numbers than Europe.

Far from being failures, the red-state openings should be praised for balancing the ongoing risks of the virus with the greater risks of extended shutdowns.

These states began phased reopenings around the same time as European nations began to reopen. France reopened shops and schools on May 11, and Italy opened shops, bars, and restaurants on May 18. Germany began even earlier, reopening shops on April 20 and bars and restaurants on May 15.

By comparison, Texas allowed restaurants and malls to reopen at 25% capacity on May 1 and bars on May 22. Florida allowed restaurants and stores to reopen May 4 at 25% capacity, increasing to 50% on May 15. On June 5, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis let bars open at 50% capacity, except Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach Counties, which had higher numbers of COVID-19 cases.

Even factoring in recent spikes, the U.S. is well below Europe in deaths per 100,000 people. The death rates for England (66), Spain (61), Italy (57), and France (44) are well above the U.S. overall (38). Meanwhile, Arizona (21), Florida (15), and Texas (8) are far below both Europe and the U.S. overall average.

These same critics of Republican governors heap praise on New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s disastrous handling of the pandemic, despite his state having a death rate (161) nearly eight times higher than Arizona’s and almost 20 times higher than Texas’s. In fact, 11 of the 12 deadliest states for COVID-19 are run by Democrats.

Even California, which initially seemed to have escaped the worst of the pandemic, has seen a rapid rise in infections in recent weeks. After taking a few politically motivated jabs at President Donald Trump and Texas Governor Greg Abbot, Dr. Bob Wachter, chair of medicine at UC-San Francisco, admits, “While CA got most of the nat'l press for being a star pupil, TX [numbers] were equally good. This, of course, is an inconvenient truth for those who prefer a simple narrative that attributes everything to clueless, right-wing politicians… or to a caricatured view of the populace that says that everybody in CA acts perfectly & everybody in TX is a careless ignoramus.”

With the politicization of the COVID-19 pandemic, Democrats again see a weapon to take down President Trump. The virus dominates the national headlines, and Democrats are eager to blame Trump for every death in order to defeat him in November.

The CDC repeatedly bungled the coronavirus response, and the World Health Organization repeatedly hid the sins of the Communist Chinese Party, which allowed a local epidemic to become a global pandemic. Then Democrat governors shut down churches and arrested small-business owners for violating stay-at-home orders while they praised protesters, rioters, and looters.

With such a politically motivated agenda, it should be no surprise that concerned, rational Americans are now highly skeptical of authority figures.