Political scientists will tell you that the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam war combined in the 1970s to destroy Americans’ confidence in the federal government. A new poll from Convention of States Action and the Trafalgar Group indicates that this generation’s Watergate is Dr. Anthony Fauci and COVID-19. Dr. Fauci — or, as some have called him, “Flip-Flop Fauci” — has lied and obfuscated the truth since the pandemic began last year. He told Americans that masks don’t protect against COVID-19 only to reverse his position and admit that he lied because he didn’t trust the American people. He’s changed his stance multiple times on whether we’ll experience another wave of the virus and he’s changed his stance on outside mask-wearing. Then, in a pure political move, he downplayed the efficacy of the vaccines until the Biden administration decided to lift the mask mandate for vaccinated Americans. Now, the growing evidence of his connections to the Wuhan lab and backdoor funding of gain of function research are threatening to grow into a global scandal that could make Watergate look as small as the virus itself. Senator Rand Paul recently excoriated Dr. Fauci for exactly this kind of hypocrisy. It’s no wonder that everyday Americans have stopped listening not only to Dr. Fauci but to the entire federal health establishment. According to a recent poll from Convention of States Action and Trafalgar group, a significant percentage of voters in every political party say their confidence has dropped in America’s favorite doctor. A total of 42.2% of all voters say confidence in Dr. Fauci has decreased. That includes 66.1% of Republicans, 41.7% of Independents and 20% of Democrats. What’s more, only small minorities of Americans are looking to the Centers for Disease Control to tell them when the pandemic is over. A paltry 26.4% of voters say they’re relying on the CDC/federal government to tell them when the pandemic is over. Over 25% say the pandemic is already over, another 19.6% say it will be over when everyone has had an opportunity to take the vaccine and 11.1% say they never took COVID seriously in the first place. At every step of the way, federal health officials have mismanaged this pandemic. Not because they’ve made mistakes — everyone makes mistakes and this kind of health crisis is virtually unprecedented in the 21st century. Federal health officials have mismanaged this pandemic by communicating their clear distrust and contempt for the average American citizens. The CDC and its army of bureaucrats have communicated time and again that they don’t trust everyday Americans. Instead of giving us all the relevant information and trusting us to make our own decisions, they’ve tried to manage our behavior, obfuscate scientific data and leverage the healthcare industry for political purposes. That’s why, as a recent poll showed, the American people are turning away from the federal government and looking to the states for leadership, truth and self-governance. SEE ALSO: Polls: Majority of Americans Aren’t Buying What Feds Sell Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ star is on the rise, not only because he deftly managed the COVID-19 pandemic in his state, but also because he decided to trust the residents of his state and empower them to make their own decisions. As an independent, self-governing people, Americans gravitate toward leaders who tell them the truth, not those who try to manage them. Unfortunately, for the CDC to “manage” the COVID-19 pandemic and control the behavior of millions of Americans, it had to resort to lies and misinformation. The United States is too big and its regions are too diverse, for one centralized bureaucracy to properly coordinate our response to the pandemic. The CDC’s policies were simultaneously ineffective and heavy-handed — a paradox only the feds could pull off — because the agency is fundamentally unable to transform awkward, one-size-fits all policies into effective governance. So, half the country found itself living under strict lockdowns that didn’t make sense for their area, while the other half wondered why the policies were unable to “slow the spread,” “flatten the curve,” or otherwise do anything useful in the fight to return our country to normalcy. But the end result is the same — the majority of Americans no longer believe D.C. politicians and federal bureaucrats are to be trusted. If there’s one thing the COVID-19 pandemic should teach us, it’s this: The best decisions are made as close to home as possible. Gov. DeSantis proved that in Florida with every well-considered COVID policy. The CDC and Dr. Fauci proved that nationwide with every bungle, lie and misdirection. If we want to avoid another COVID-type catastrophe, whether it’s the next pandemic, the national debt, education or the economy, we must return decision-making power back where it belongs, with the states and the people. Click here to read this article on Newsmax.
