Rigged elections …
A year or so ago, President Trump was warning of a rigged election. He believed – or at least said – that if he did not win it would be because of a rigged election.
That brought about a chorus of opposition voices. In even suggesting that the 2020 presidential election was in any way rigged was not only wrong, but the mere claim undermined public confidence in the electoral process, the claimed repeatedly.
Weeeell … Trump lost and sure enough he proclaimed it to be a rigged election that he had actually won by a wide margin. That claim – and the counter arguments – have dominated the political discourse to this day. It led to peaceful protests across the nation and culminated in a protest-turned-riot on Capitol Hill on January 6th.
I have never stated my definitive opinion as to whether I believe that Trump won the election, or he lost it – although I have no doubt that there was some level of vote fraud, irregularities and illegal counting.
Despite the claims by Democrats that there is no such thing as significant vote fraud, their contention of perfect elections is preposterous and easily disproven. Whether it was sufficient to flip a Trump re-election to President Biden is a whole ‘nother matter.
I have not – and will not – give my opinion on that question because the answer is meaningless at this moment. Biden was elected President by the Electoral College and certified by the Congress. He is sitting in the Oval Office with all the powers of the presidency. A hostile debate over how he got there will not change that. Engaging in that debate is a waste of time. It is destructive and creates needlessly heightened public confrontation. It distracts from critical current issues and the much more important 2022 midterms election.
Speaking of the 2022 midterm election … there is a profound irony in the debate. Once again, there are specious predictions of a rigged election. In fact, those voices claim that the entire Republic is on the precipice of collapse if their side does not win.
This is not coming from Trump – or even Republicans. This is the Draconian warning of the Democrats – being amplified by their cronies in the Fourth Estate. They are implying that if THEY do not win in 2022, the election will have been rigged by Trump-led Republicans. Their contention is a toxic combination of hypocrisy and hyperbole.
Ironically, they have abandoned their previous contention that calling elections rigged – prior to and after – undermines public trust. In this case, Democrats are making an overt attempt to … undermine public trust in a future election. This comes on the heels of their exaggerated claim that vote fraud simply does not exist.
Their narrative is based on a bogus claim that there was a real insurrection – and there is an ongoing coup attempt that is designed to put Trump into the White House as a permanent dictator. Anyone who believes that nonsense should be embarrassed at their level of critical thinking.
There are two things that are central to their propaganda campaign. They contend that the various election laws being enacted in some 48 states are part of the coup attempt. They would have you believe that thousands of elected officials are all coup-plotters.
While the laws are designed to make elections more secure, they pose no threat to easy ballot access by any voter with an IQ higher than a hockey score. All states have early voting. (Georgia actually increased the time contrary to Biden’s 4-Pinocchio-lie that they shortened the hours). All states have mail-in ballot provisions.
Democrats claim that Republican state administrations have been manipulating the voting process to reduce the number of minority voters. They make this claim despite the fact that minorities have been voting in record high numbers in the very states where the suppression is supposed to be happening.
No eligible American will have a problem voting in 2022 if they desire. It will just be a bit harder to cheat. Harder for the ineligible and dead to vote. Harder to cast a ballot for another person – dead or alive.
The Democrats second leg of their narrative is based on the claim that Republicans are empowering state legislatures to send an alternative delegation of electors in opposition to those who were on the ballot. In this, Democrats are relying on the ignorance of the American people.
State legislatures have always had the ability to send electors to vote in the Electoral College. In fact, in the earliest days of the Republic, the President was chosen by electors chosen by the state legislatures. After the system was changed to have electors chosen by popular vote in congressional districts, the state legislatures still had the constitutional power to send electors to replace the delegation elected by the people. That is not new.
In the election of 1876, the selection of the President was held up over a fight between Republicans and Democrats of the legitimacy of competing elector delegations. The election was settled in what is known as the Compromise of 1877 – with the southern states agreeing to support Republican Rutherford B. Hayes in return for the removal of federal troops from the old Confederacy. It was a tragic deal, since Democrats quickly seized control of the South by force, leading to the era of southern segregation and black oppression.
The right of state legislatures to trump (no pun intended) the popularly elected electors has been upheld by the Supreme Court.
If there is concern over that possibility, it is not due to any GOP actions. None of the proposed state election laws change the reality or enhance any power held by state legislatures under the Constitution. To change the historic reality, it would probably take a constitutional amendment.
Most politicians and pundits predict that the GOP will regain control of the House – and perhaps the Senate. They base their predictions on historic precedence and the declining popularity of Biden.
Democrats have only one strategy to try to stop Republican resurgence. Make the election about a demonized Trump and slander the Republican Party brand — and claim that 2022 will be a rigged election to explain the loss.
It is a desperate strategy, to be sure. But you have to laugh at the irony of all those Democrats and media personalities fearmongering about a “rigged” 2022 election. They must think the American people have the attention span of a fruit fly.
So, there ‘tis.
A poll shows that most Americans believe that cheating helped tip the election to retard joe. Don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just saying what’s been reported. And I also believe it. Too many things don’t add up. Yes, I know that the courts wouldn’t look into it all the way. Maybe they didn’t want the courts to become weapons in upcoming elections. Or money or threats. Look at how the left has threatened the scotus with court packing, which the committee looking into court packing said it was a bad idea. But the left overplayed their hands and pissed people off. Not to rile Frank and joe up, but the midterms and 2024 are going to be a huuuuge Republican victory
Dan, show us your poll because I am saying you are a LIAR.
BUSTED;
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+many+americans+think+the+election+was+rigged&rlz=1C1CHBH_enUS923US923&oq=how+many+americans+think+the+election+was+rigged&aqs=chrome..69i57.10853j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Larry,
Definition of weasel words: “I have no doubt that there was some level of vote fraud, irregularities and illegal counting. “ Shit Larry, there’s always “some level.”
Definitions of spin: “their contention of perfect elections is preposterous and easily disproven.” Uh, most Democrats will do that themselves.. Few will say “perfect.”
Larry, I got more, but enough from me, let’s cut to the chase. Republicans overwhelmingly support The Big Lie with words, money, and actions. Today. Still. Ongoing. That’s all Republicans.
Democrats stand united against restrictive voting laws. Especially ones targeting less affluent constituents. Democrats stand united against actions to easily allow the voice of the people to be overturned by the political whims of the few. Democrats stand untied against replacement of experienced voting officials with unexperienced political hacks.
So Larry, when are you joining Christie Todd Whitman in the true Republican cause?
Don’t call me a liar you moron. I’m not the one reporting this. Maybe it’s true, maybe not. We’re stuck with the retarded bastard until 1-20-25. If our country survives. I touched a nerve so you know that it’s true. But hang in there. Help is on the way. The commiecrats will fade away like a fart in the wind and you snowflakes can go out and scream at the sky again Action speaks louder than words. And the noise of the voters will be loud starting with the midterms next year.
Ad hominem attacks are the last resort of those without factual support, a last ditch effort to intimidate others.
I am not calling you a liar; the polls are calling you a liar. I even led you to them so you could walk it back. The fact that you can’t even name the poll does not help you. Did Cyber Ninja’s do it? Or maybe Rudy not that he can’t practice law?
And yet you CHOOSE to double-down on the lie even after I linked all the polls I could find.
“A majority of Republicans still believe the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll. The latest findings show how persistent this false narrative continues to be, despite the preponderance of evidence against it…..The survey of 1,552 U.S. adults, which was conducted from July 30 to Aug. 2, found that 66 percent of Republicans continue to insist that “the election was rigged and stolen from Trump,” Yahoo News
“Twenty-eight percent of independent voters also said they think Trump was the rightful winner of the 2020 election, as did a small 3 percent of Democrats.”
I read your post. You called me a liar. But that’s ok. I have truth on my side
If not a liar, then wildly and intentionally mistaken. Or completely confused. Or delusional. Or divorced from reality. Or duped by a cult. Or conned by Don…
Feel free to pick the one you think most closely fits.
Yes, you called me a liar. But that’s ok Spin it any way you want to.
In the immortal words of Reagan, “there you go again…” `
Following your usual article pattern, you’re constructing your scarecrow arguments – To begin with, you have two different statements that you attribute to Democrats: “Despite the claims by Democrats that there is no such thing as significant vote fraud” and “their contention of perfect elections”. First, those two statements are not equivalent, and secondly, while many Dems might say there was no significant fraud (at least by Democrats), NOBODY claims that elections are perfect.
The second offense is attributing two more claims to Democrats and conflating them together: “the entire Republic is on the precipice of collapse if Republicans win” and “if THEY do not win in 2022, the election will have been rigged by Trump-led Republicans”. I don’t hear any Democrats saying that the entire Republic will collapse, but there is certainly concern for our democracy if Republicans ever win a majority again, given their history with Trump and the Big Lie about the last election. If they’ll lie about that with a straight face, what else is possible? Republicans have lost any credibility that they had before Trump came along. THAT is the case for Republicans undermining public trust, and that topic has NOT been abandoned by Democrats. In fact, Democrats are working hard to counter what Republicans have caused.
Democrats are NOT contending that Trump will ever be leading Republicans or the country again (he’ll be in jail). There IS real concern about Republicans’ constant eroding of voting rights – Republicans, once gaining power in the South, managed to gain an edge in local and state government by gerrymandering districts, purging voting rolls, making it harder to register, limiting voting places and times in minority/poor/Democrat districts, and preventing mail-in voting. There is almost no evidence for destroying ballots, counting irregularities, people voting multiple times, non-US citizens voting, or any of the other fraudulent practices that Trump alleged. But how do you explain the southern states and/or congressional districts where Republicans are in the minority but have majority representation? Most races are pretty tight – how much of a difference do Republcians have to make with voter suppression before you call it “rigging” – 1%? 3%? 5%?
You are still in denial that Trump attemped a coup. He spent months before the election telling people that Democrats would cheat. He primed the pump among his followers. He tried to get the military leaders to support him. He urged his supporters to go to the Capitol and “stop the steal”. He created a VIOLENT mob and sent them to intimidate lawmakers. He called (and continues to call) Secretaries of State to change the vote totals. He LOST the election, and is STILL conspiring with anyone who will help him to change the results. THAT is the very definition of a coup attempt. The only reason we don’t have Dictator-For-Life-Trump is that he’s incompetent at everything he does.
If Trump had, for example, hired 1000 Proud Boys, armed them, and told them to take the Capitol and force Congress to overturn the vote, they would have easily been able to take over – he would be the next Putin or Xi declaring that the rules are changing and he’s there until he turns it over to his family. Fortunately, Trump was too cheap and/or too broke to do that, or too stupid to realize that his volunteer army of idiots wasn’t smart enough to take over the Capitol. There are hints of small groups of militia-types being at the Jan 6th Insurrection, but they were self-directed and (fortunately) not well organized.
You talk about how the new laws don’t make voting more difficult – true if you work in an office, and have an understanding boss or company that will let you take time off to vote, and have a car and opportunities to do occasional chores during the weekday. It’s a lot more difficult if you work a minimum wage job, and your boss won’t let you leave. If you go to vote, and unbeknownst to you your registration has been cancelled and you find out at the polling station, just how much time can you spend to fix the problem? If you can only go register or get a voting card during normal business hours, but have to work, it’s a barrier to voting. Or if you don’t have a driver’s license and have to rely on public transportation?
The new law “expands” voting time to any time between 7AM and 7PM, which looks like more hours, except those hours aren’t required – only “normal business hours”, 9AM to 5PM are required, so yes, in some places that previously required 7 to 7, hours could get reduced at the discretion of county clerks. One more time, if you have to work, and don’t even have the option of going to vote early in the morning or late in the evening, what can you do? What about reducing the number of polling stations in black neighborhoods – many people can’t afford to stand in long lines for hours to vote. That didn’t happen in white neighborhoods. Republicans don’t try to stop ALL voting – that would look bad and probably draw attention (however toothless) from judges that enforce the Voting Right’s Act. But if you can make it just hard enough to discourage a few percent in a few targeted areas, then you win elections, and it gets chalked up to “poor turnout”.
The fact that minorities came out in droves in the last election doesn’t disprove Republican tampering with elections. It just means that Trump constantly vilified BLM while praising white supremacists and was just so blatantly racist that Democrats and minorities were super-motivated and extremely well organized. For many people, it became a matter of survival, and they chose to do whatever they had to do to vote.
You comment about “most pundits” predicting that Republicans will win the midterm elections doesn’t hold up either. It may be somewhat historical (for the last 40 years or so), but every election is different, and things happen that have never happened before (or at least not for a few election cycles). Biden is not in the midst of “declining popularity”. One poll had him down in the 40’s (which Trump was never able to beat), but two subsequent polls have him over 50%. Numbers jump around and you are cherry picking. Biden is still going strong. If you want to look at falling numbers, look at Trump’s dismal turnouts at his speaking events, the approval ratings of Republican members of Congress (some down in the 20’s), and the losses incurred by almost every candidate that Trump has endorsed. Getting endorsed by Trump is like the kiss of death… and Trump is actively telling Republicans not to vote unless he somehow gets “reinstated” as POTUS. Despite his waning popularity, if he pulls away 10% of Republican voters, Dems will win practically across the board.
It’s hard to counter everything you’ve written, because it’s so disorganized and full of falsehoods and misleading statements and incorrect attributions of ideas to Democrats… at some point, it’s just exhausting. I’ll leave the rest of the rebuttal to Frank (where’s Ben when we need him!).
Ok, you’re right; I called you a liar. My bad, I did say it. My reason to name call is because you are a proven liar. The polls say you are a liar. You have neither proved me wrong or walked back your obvious lie, as I proved above.
You haven’t even tried.
I think you do this a lot.
If I could prove you wrong I would have to fix stupid. Not gonna happen
If you could prove me wrong, you would. But apparently you are not smart enough.
You can’t substantiate what you said. It is a lie. That would make you ……