Americans are a forgiving people, but when it comes to China, they aren’t looking the other way any time soon. With the coronavirus death toll now surpassing our losses in the Vietnam War, the outrage over Wuhan’s lethal cover-up is infuriating the world over. A lot of Americans were concerned about the communist regime before it turned humanity upside down. Now, with economies tanking and families grieving, a majority of the country thinks it’s time to throw down the gauntlet. And trade is a good place to start.

These days, it isn’t a question of whether we deal with China — but how. And according to a new Just the News Daily Poll with Scott Rasmussen, more than 70 percent want to restrict trade with the lying regime. The breakdown is even more revealing: “Forty-one percent of registered voters said they want the United States to reduce its level of trading. Eighteen percent said they want to halt trade with China until that nation has negotiated compensation for the pandemic. And 11 percent said they simply want to ban all trade with China.”

As for the administration, President Trump is putting everything on the table. “There are a lot of ways you can hold [China] accountable,” he said during a press briefing. “We’re doing very serious investigations, as you probably know. And we are not happy with China. We are not happy with that whole situation. Because we believe it could have been stopped at the source. It could have been stopped quickly, and it wouldn’t have spread all over the world.” The message from all sides seems to be the same: it’s time for some political distancing.

Of course, considering the widescale brutality in China, nothing about how their government has handled the coronavirus is a surprise. If anything, it’s the perfect illustration of their contempt for basic humanity. Just this week, in our U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report, the country landed — once again — among the worst abusers in the world. And things are not getting better. They have as many as 1.8 million Uyghurs in concentration camps, who knows how many Christians in prison, and a nationwide crackdown on liberty of every kind.

They’re incompatible with American values on almost every single scale. The last thing we should be doing with them is business.

Originally published here.


Biden’s Abortion Vision Isn’t 2020

Forget falling asleep on the job. Joe Biden is falling asleep applying for it! In a virtual event with Hillary Clinton Tuesday, the former vice president was so disinterested that he seemed to close his eyes and nod off. But amazingly, that wasn’t the most concerning thing about the “Women’s Townhall on COVID-19.” Biden’s abortion views were. And unfortunately, no one’s been able to open his eyes on those either.

He was pictured to the left of Clinton, which was fitting — since for 10 months, that’s exactly where Biden has managed to be on almost every issue. On screen, Obama’s second-in-command shook his head in agreement as Hillary talked about this being a “high-stakes time, because of the pandemic.” But this is also, she went on, a really “high-stakes election. And every form of health care should continue to be available, including reproductive health care for every woman in this country… So I can only say, ‘Amen’ to everything you’re saying — but also to, again, [remind] people that this would be a terrible crisis to waste…”

In other words, they want use these deaths to lobby for more deaths. Like House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), said: “This is a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.” And that vision, as Biden has articulated over and over again, is: more abortion, fewer limits, higher funding. After all, he insisted Tuesday night, “abortion,” is an “essential health care service.” In fact, he told viewers, “It’s being used as a political wedge now. And it shouldn’t be.”

He’s right. Rather than kick and scream about the shutdown, abortion groups should have seen the devastation and offered to do their part. Instead, they packed women into waiting rooms like sardines and carried on — defying government orders and putting more communities at risk. The killing can’t wait, they said. Not even when almost 60,000 Americans have lost their lives to a virus their pet procedure could help spread. Nothing, Biden insisted, not even a global pandemic ravaging our nation, should ever stand in the way of “a woman’s constitutional right.” Including, apparently, the safety of other people. “Health care delayed,” he argued, “means health care denied.”

“Well, look,” Clinton smiled, “I think you’re going right down the path that people need to follow you on.” But as most pollsters will tell you, getting Americans to follow Biden — at least on this issue — is a tall order. Abortion extremism isn’t where most people are — and, come this fall, it may not be where their votes are either. Even using the data from liberal-leaning organizations, the Washington Post argues that Americans aren’t nearly as “absolutist” on abortion — unless the subject is regulating it. A clear majority of people in this country (69 percent, based on the Left-leaning Kaiser Family Foundation’s numbers) agree: abortion should be severely limited.

So if viewers are turning in to see the Joe Biden they used to know, they’re wasting their time. The former VP shed his “moderate” label faster than most people can say “Hyde amendment.” This isn’t the second coming of Barack Obama or even Hillary Clinton. This is a radically aggressive campaign that is only marginally more sane than Bernie Sanders’s was. “On nearly every major issue, Biden has either exponentially increased the scope of what Clinton proposed or advocated for new ideas that most Democrats would have up until recently considered fringe," McClatchy’s Alex Roarty warned. "Many Democrats see Joe Biden as a voice of ideological restraint in a party rapidly moving to the Left,” he wrote. They’re wrong.

On abortion, the vice president is so extreme that he wouldn’t just allow abortion right up to the moment of birth — he’d order you to pay for it! And millions of abortions the world over. The one-time defender of the Hyde amendment traded his 40 years of integrity for the support of groups like Planned Parenthood last year — ending any veneer of rationality. From there, he swore to appoint only rabid abortion activists to the bench and bulldoze every state pro-life law.

There isn’t a starker policy difference anywhere than the one reflected in these two parties. Look at what the Trump administration has done in just three and a half short years: appointing almost 200 constitutionalist judges; ending overseas abortion funding, Title X abortion funding, fetal tissue experiments, and health care mandates; reinstating conscience protections; opposing the U.N.‘s assault on human life; returning the freedom to states to defund Planned Parenthood; siding with pro-lifers in court; issuing citations to states that would order abortion coverage in health insurance; and more. Imagine what this list of accomplishments would look like if someone with Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden’s agenda were president. We don’t have to imagine. It wouldn’t exist.

For more on what’s at stake in the 2020 elections, text “ACTIONS” to 51553. See for yourself the progress that hangs in the balance.

Originally published here.

This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.