StaceyAbrams

The War on Democracy

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

If you think that the Capitol Building on 1/6/2021 was half full of citizens trying to overthrow the government, you point to one phrase in particular as you argue that Trump incited those present to march down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol.

“We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” he said.

If you think that the Capitol Building was half empty of citizens not trying to overthrow the government, you point to a different passage, in which Trump said, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

So, what is the simplest definition of insurrection?  It’s a violent uprising against an authority or government.

Was the 1/6 in the Capitol Building event violent, then?  Or, was it mostly peaceful and patriotic?  That it was dumb is not in question.

It comes down to how you see it, doesn’t it?

Think back to all of the riots in the streets the world over when George Floyd’s arresting police officer was accused of and convicted of killing him.  Many in the media labeled the looting, burning, and killings in the streets as mostly peaceful and necessary.  The local governments even told us that masks and social distancing could be and would be suspended so that America could have its say.

To shop owners and business owners, it didn’t seem peaceful.  To policemen and citizens killed in them, it didn’t seem too patriotic.  To all of them, it seemed more like a violent uprising against authority.

 

And, now one impeachment trial later, after President Trump left office, we sit 18 months removed from 1/6/21.  How far forward have we moved?

Well, according to some the war on our very democracy is very alive, not well, and on the ballot in the fast-approaching midterms this November.

An issue isn’t an issue until it’s an issue we presume.

Isn’t the very right to vote, count votes, protest illegal ballot harvesting, support voter ID laws, and demand a recount when our elections laws deem it reasonable at the very heart of democracy?

Did, as Trump claimed after he offered, Nancy Pelosi ignore his offer to station the National Guard around the Capitol Building?  If so, did she aid in a violent (or mostly peaceful) uprising?

Did the FBI infiltrate the MAGA men and women to further the chaos?  They redact every memo ever written under the guise of the nation’s security, so we may never know.

Did city officials from Portland to Oakland to Minnesota, to DC ensure that police stood down as the city burned down?  You know they did.  They told you so.

So, where does this leave us in this “war on our democracy?”

It leaves us at the ballot box to determine the winners and losers in this war.

Isn’t that where it all started?

It’s the same place in 2000 where Al Gore took time off from inventing the internet to insist that we count hanging chads, where Hillary had trouble accepting defeat in 2016, where Stacey Abrams did the same in 2018, and where Trump threw a temper tantrum in 2020.

It is where it all started, and it’s about to start all over again.

Now if we could just get the media slants and big techs to stay away.

Let’s hope this war on democracy, or just plain old democracy never ends.

 

 

Kudzu

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

How can you win when you lose?

Stacey Abrams was a big win for the Democratic Party on a national level when she lost the 2018 Georgia Gubernatorial Race. Maybe few saw it then, but looking back you can see it clearly now.

“Voter suppression,” she screamed.  “Vote counting irregularity,” the Dems and their national lawyers who flew in yelled.  Recount the votes.  Recount them again.

Georgia is a have or have not state.  The title to its fertile land was owned by slave-owning, white farmers, and is perceived the same to this day.  The same with its politics.  It’s always about power.

But, in that rich soil seeds of doubt were cast about how we cast and count votes.  And the valuable crops of social injustice and voter suppression were cultivated all over again and spread like nasty kudzu.

“Hmmm?” the DNC pondered.  “How can we fertilize and water this and get it to harvest nationwide by November 2020?”

And, like the much-needed rain to nourish, fell a plague from the sky.  Covid-19 it was called, and its case count was growing like the aforementioned nasty weed.

How can we ask people to stand in line and show a silly voter identification when they could die doing so?  “We can’t,” said many blue states, using a version of the infamous blue flu to approve mail-in ballots, dropbox ballots, absentee ballots, and most of all harvested ballots.

Eighty-one million ballots in all were cast for the next President of the United States-Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.  That’s the highest vote count in American Presidential voting history for one candidate.

Donald Trump nearly lost his mind over losing to a man that may have lost his mind, claiming voter fraud from sea to sea.  “Turn those machines back on,” he squealed.

And, the Democrats roared.  “How dare you contest the fairest election that we’ve ever had?”

Team Trump had no more valid claims of illegal activity than the DNC did in Georgia, but never let facts get in the way of a good narrative.

And, just 14 months later the most voted for President in our history is polling at historic lows.  In fact, a poll yesterday of American adults aged 18-64 had 70% of its respondents checking the box “no, I do not want Biden to run for reelection in 2024.”  Go figure.

That poll was released just one day after Biden held a nearly two-hour press conference, his first in nearly 80 days.

During the presser, Biden pressed on about voting fraud.  When asked if he was concerned about the upcoming 2022 midterms he offered,  “I’m not going to say it’s going to be legit,” Mr. Biden said. “The increase and the prospect of being illegitimate is in direct proportion to us not being able to get these reforms passed.”

Those reforms were two bills, both defeated in the Senate disguised as voting rights bills but were really fed overreach to take election control from the states.

Mr. 81 Million vote-getter is now worried about fair elections with the same laws in place that got him elected.  Go figure.

Jen Psaki, clean up on aisle two.

The kudzu spreads.