Divided, we’re falling. Can we stand together?
We have a lot of shorthand for historical eras and attaching the moniker “The Greatest Generation” to the men and women who brought the Allies to victory in World War II seems the most natural of metaphors. America in particular pulled off a number of miracles in less than four years: launching a massive industrial and manufacturing boom; fast-forwarding numerous world-altering technologies still in use today; accelerating agricultural production to feed an army like the world had never before seen.
A simple trip back to high school history class will show that America in the first part of 1941 had significant political divides similar to those we experience 80 years later. A progressive Democrat was looking to pack the Supreme Court and had spent the previous eight years launching massive national programs to stimulate the economy. Rising aggression from Germany, Italy and Japan was a cause of concern, but the U.S. stayed true to the isolationism and non-aggression policies preferred by Congress since the rejection of the League of Nations at the end of the First World War.
Although public sentiment generally supported a military buildup after the fall of France to Germany in 1940, strong voices from powerful factions strongly opposed any involvement. Henry Ford refused to manufacture aircraft or anything else in support of Allied efforts until the attack on Pearl Harbor. Antisemitism was an element in American anti-war sentiment. Father Charles Coughlin, with a nationwide radio audience reaching tens of millions, felt Hitler’s and Mussolini’s policies would stem the tide of communism and socialism and famously asked, “Must the entire world go to war for 600,000 Jews in Germany?”
80 years later, the world is being ravaged by a pandemic that originated in China. America is again divided. And like our old opponents in World War II, our 21st century adversaries use disinformation to further divide our citizens. The Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported back in March that Russian intelligence agencies are using faux-news sites and social media posts to discredit the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. The reports were all based on State Department reports.
The websites are News Front; New Eastern Outlook; Oriental Review; and Rebel Inside. From these sites, all controlled by various Russian state intelligence or security agencies, any bad actor can post disinformation on social media. Also from these sites, which look legitimate, any skeptic can also re-post disinformation.
By the way, Russia and China are both hacking the hell out of us on a daily basis. Solarwinds? We are never going to hear how bad that hack was because it hit so many military information systems. Colonial? It was funny seeing people pump gas into open containers but also not so much. And on and on.
Want a car? Good luck. We’re still in a chip backlog. Want anything? We’re in an everything backlog. American business sent everything to a single country for manufacturing for easy profit from Barbies to penicillin (For real, 93% of penicillin comes from China. What could go wrong?) 30 years ago and we are paying the price now in every way because of the pandemic interruption. Dear readers, we are at war.
Which is why vaccine disinformation is so dangerous. A healthy America goes back to work and life. My party should stop being complicit in the disinformation. Nationally, there is great messaging for the GOP: Cybersecurity, supporting Made in the USA manufacturers, the phenomenal vaccine development that happened on President Trump’s watch. In New Mexico: all of the above, plus offering an alternative to the decades of political corruption at the hands of Democratic politicians.
This vaccine “freedom stand” is divisive and deliberate. It’s an old GOP trick straight from the playbook: Galvanize the base for Election Day turnout. Here’s the thing: That base isn’t a majority in our state. This base doesn’t live in the Albuquerque Metro, or the northern part of the state, or Las Cruces. There are numbers to support this position for the 1st Congressional District in the southeast portion of the state. That’s it. I don’t live in that district. I would like more Republicans to win races statewide.
I respect anyone’s decision to be vaccinated or not. I strongly suggest following your physician’s recommendation—not a politician’s or a website’s. And I encourage everyone to look past any single issue; instead examine our nation as a whole and our place in the world. The world looks to America as the preeminent democracy and superpower. United, we stand.
Merritt Hamilton Allen is a PR executive and former Navy officer. She appears regularly as a panelist on NM PBS and is a frequent guest on News Radio KKOB. She lives amicably with her Democratic husband and Republican mother north of I-40 where they run two head of dog, and two of cat. She can be reached at news.ind.merritt@gmail.com.