In 2016 it was widely argued that Russia attempted to influence the Presidential Election. While the whole Russia collusion/hoax thing was eventually dismissed in the Mueller Report, the overall narrative of attempted Russian interference was largely confirmed. But what about 2020? Why isn’t anyone talking about the obvious foreign influence, or dare we say interference, in the 2020 Presidential election?
Look, let’s be clear about this term “interference”. Interference is not a statement about intent. If you run a red light and T-bone another car, whether you intended to hit that car or accidentally hit that car, you still interfered with that car’s intended trajectory. Thus, interference can either be intentional or unintentional.
OK, with that out of the way, let’s start by clearing the air. The Objective Observer in no way, shape or form subscribes to or endorses conspiracy theories ala QAnon, Antifa as the bad actor in the Capitol Hill riots, etc. Furthermore, we do not believe that China acted intentionally to disrupt, influence or interfere with the 2020 Presidential election. That being said, it is obvious that China’s actions, or lack thereof, greatly influenced and interfered with the trajectory of the 2020 Presidential election within the United States. Furthermore, this should raise serious questions and concerns regarding future elections.
Let’s back up. It perhaps goes without saying that the economy is always a major factor in Presidential elections within the United States. Incumbent Presidents with strong economies tend to get reelected, while those with weak economies tend to not get reelected. As James Carville famously put it, “It’s the economy, stupid.“. As such, there can be little doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic greatly affected the economy of America as well as the world. Without the impact of COVID-19 on the United States economy, there is an argument to be made that former President Trump wins the 2020 election handily.
Thus, one could further reason that the COVID-19 pandemic played a major role in the 2020 United States Presidential election. Both from an economic perspective in crippling the American economy as well as how former President Trump and President Biden approached the pandemic during the campaign. Now, if we reject Chinese propaganda and conspiracy theory, can any objective observer deny that the COVID-19 virus originated in China and then spread to the world and eventually to the United States?
Accepting the prima facia evidence that the COVID-19 virus started in China, it is difficult for any objective observer to come to any other conclusion than that a foreign power, intentionally or not, influenced the 2020 Presidential election. That is not a conspiracy theory. China, COVID-19, economic impact, that all actually happened.
While we would not rule out the possibility, we here at The Objective Observer see no credible evidence that China intentionally released COVID-19 on the world in order to weaken the American economy and thus hurt former President Trump’s chances of reelection. However, we do think that the Chinese are not idiots and perhaps they, and/or others, learned something, learned a new attack vector as it were. Given the impact the pandemic had on the world, China and other possible bad actors most definitely realized the potential of these kinds of biological outbreaks.
Let’s face it, China was no fan of President Trump. President Trump was the first America President in history to define China as a rival and aggressor, one even more dangerous than Russia. It would be difficult to argue then that China preferred to not have Trump reelected versus a Biden administration that appeared more favorable to the current Chinese regime. It would also be hard to imagine a circumstance where China did more to damage President Trump’s reelection prospects than releasing an economy destroying pandemic on the world. Again, we here at The Objective Observer do not believe that any of this was intentional or conspiratorial…this time. But what about next time?
Think this through. China and other potential bad actors have realized that a global pandemic can be advantageous to essentially getting what they want. For example, getting a pro-China administration installed within the United States versus an anti-China administration. What is to prevent China, or some other nation, from doing it intentionally next time?
This is where an objective observer should have concerns. The entire world has learned about the fragility of the global economy in the face of a pandemic. Sure, biological weapons are prohibited under international humanitarian law, but is that really going to stop an authoritarian regime that believes it can stealthily cover its tracks by using biological weapons indirectly versus directly on a battlefield?
Face the facts, there are plenty of regimes in the world that have demonstrated an appalling lack of regard for human life, at least by American standards. Is it such a stretch of the imagination then that in the future a bad actor in the world would potentially be willing to intentionally sacrifice millions of innocent lives in order to achieve a particular political goal? To an objective observer, the answer is obvious.
The Objective Observer 