The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

Editor’s Note: Did you know there is a special column from Larry on Thursdays? A third per week! Sign up here to become a Townhall VIP member to get it .

"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." It's an oft-repeated quote from Democratic politician Rahm Emanuel. It was November of 2008 when Barack Obama had just won the presidential election in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. People often forget the second part of the former Obama Chief of Staff's famous quote, but it's actually even more telling.

"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste," he told the Wall Street Journal and followed it with, "And what I mean by that, it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."

As our nation now faces enormous and unprecedented disruptions do to the reactions to public health, Democrats are doing what Democrats do. They are exploiting fear and temporary disruptions to fundamentally transform and ultimately destroy our nation.

Here are just five, America-destroying proposals that we would never seriously consider but are now floated as serious policy proposals during this crisis.

1. Nationalize Industries

New York City mayor and failed, humiliated presidential candidate Bill de Blasio can't keep his own city streets clean, but he thinks it's a good idea for the government to step in and replicate Venezuela.

"This is a case for a nationalization, literally a nationalization, of crucial factories and industries that could produce the medical supplies to prepare this country for what we need," de Blasio told MSNBC's Joy Reid.

While major cities across the country chose to close public schools at the suggestion of the Centers for Disease Control in an effort to slow the spread of the disease, de Blasio dragged his feet for days and refused to do the same in New York. While he fiddled and ignored his own responsibilities as mayor, he instead proposed to have the federal government take over entire segments of the medical supply systems because government ownership and control always make things more efficient, or something.

2. Universal Government Controlled Healthcare

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Sen. Bernie Sanders and liberal intellectuals everywhere seized on the public health crisis to demand universal health care controlled by the federal government. Setting aside the fact that the Left demands this if a person gets a splinter, let alone a worldwide pandemic, the demand for government-run health care in the face of COVID-19 makes no sense at all.

The virus began in China and spread there like wildfire. China has government-controlled medical services and it was miserably inept in controlling the virus. Ditto the other major hot spot in the world, Italy. In fact, left-wing organizations consistently rank Italy as one of the best government-run health care systems in the world, several positions higher than the United States, and by all accounts, Italy was caught flat-footed and entirely overwhelmed by COVID-19.

So, naturally, Democrats want to replicate their stellar system here. The fact is, the solution to COVID-19 will most likely come from the private sector and the incredible private health care industry still supported and encouraged here in the last relatively free-market economy left on the planet. As long as Democrats aren't allowed to destroy it.

3. Gun Ban

Not one instance of COVID-19 had appeared in Champaign, IL, but that didn't stop Mayor Deborah Frank Feinen from declaring a coronavirus emergency allowing her to ban the sale of guns. The executive order gave the mayor tons of other extra-constitutional powers but the gun ban got a ton of attention.

It's ironic considering that one thing many Americans are thankful for as basic needs in our society become rationed and stretched thin is our ability to protect ourselves, our property and our families.

Even in liberal Los Angeles, CA, we saw lines out the door and around the block at the few gun stores that still exist in that state's already-restrictive anti-gun atmosphere.

4. Empty Prisons

Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley told MSNBC's Al Sharpton that she was advocating for a blanket commutation of sentences to release prisoners from incarceration in light of the COVID-19 dilemma.

"This pandemic, COVID-19, has certainly highlighted and exasperated every socio, ratio, and political fault line in our country. And I'm just advocating to make sure that when we are talking about those that are most vulnerable, our low-income residents and citizens, those experiencing homelessness, our seniors, that we are also including the incarcerated men and women, who are certainly amongst one of the most vulnerable populations. And given the crowding and overpopulating in our prisons for a confluence of other reasons ... are an ecosystem in a petri dish for the spreading of this pandemic, which is why I partnered with my colleagues, Reps. Velasquez, Ocasio-Cortez, and Tlaib, to lobby the Bureau of Prisons to use their full power and to communicate guidance for how we will contain and mitigate this epidemic behind the wall," she said.

Rep. Pressley didn't exactly explain how convicted criminals would be safer from the virus when released to roam America's streets rather than the forced "social distancing" they are currently experiencing in their cells. Even more importantly, she didn't explain how the law-abiding innocent Americans would be safer with criminals prematurely released.

5. Cease Arresting and Convicting Criminals

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner used concern over the spread of COVID-19 to announce an enormous reduction in arrests for what he called "low-level, non-violent crimes."

"We want to make sure the police are safe and don't have prolonged contact with people that have the virus," he said. "Taking one person back to the police station risks everyone at the station. They go into custody, they endanger other inmates in that great cruise ship that is a jail. And then they go to court."

So, let's add up all of these initiatives so we can properly evaluate what Democrats would do if they had complete control over our country during this crisis.

They'd release prisoners, ignore crime, ban private ownership of guns, seize control of private industries and take over the medical industry. In other words, they'd pretty much enact all of Sen. Bernie Sanders' proposals. Let's face it though, despite Sanders' robust socialist inclinations, the Democrats' platform has inched closer toward these proposals every year over the past several decades.

This crisis just allows them to show their true colors under the guise of "emergency." This is who they are and this is what they truly want to do... COVID-19 is just the latest crisis that these Democrats don't want to waste.

Be warned.

Larry O'Connor hosts two separate radio programs on WMAL in Washington DC and on KABC in Los Angeles. He has a daily, 30-minute podcast covering U.S. Politics and featuring interviews with newsmakers and pundits on the biggest stories of the day. Subscribe here.