Op-Ed Pages #13: Voting by mail…
DeJoy, Il Duce’s campaign donor and sneaky fascist, is having fun doing Narcissus le Grand’s bidding to destroy the USPS as a way of suppressing voting in 2020. [Note added in press: He’s backtracking on Post Office removal of sorting machines and cutting overtime and other things, even before Speaker Pelosi holds his feet to the fire. That’s not enough, of course.] You see, most Good Ole Piranhas know they don’t have enough votes if everyone votes (some mail-in states like Utah see 80% turnout), so they have to make sure that all the tired and poor who vote democratic either don’t vote or go to the polls and catch COVID-19—the latter will at least guarantee they’re dead by 2024, making it easier for their planned fascist takeover of America.
Seem harsh? Maybe, but I intend it to be harsh, because all the evidence we have so far points in that direction:
First, let’s dispel the myth and show Il Duce (he of the imperious scowl) is a liar when he says mail-in voting leads to fraud. While I’ll admit that Trump and his wife, who use mail-in votes (they are unwelcome in NYC, so they registered in Florida), have already been shown to be complete frauds, even their votes will count. Oregon, Utah, and other states have used mail-in voting for years, and Colorado, more purple than blue, just approved it. These efforts have been successful with negligible voter fraud and larger voter turnout in most cases. And some states now think it’s not correct that voters should have to risk dying from COVID to vote.
To beat a dead horse, i.e. that mail-in voting leads to fraud, the Trump administration has sued NJ’s Governor Murphy, who wisely decide to offer mail-in voting for everyone and is mailing out the ballots to do so. Of course, that will play out in Federal courts, and it still might be going on well after the election, even with Trump’s packing of the courts. How far the Good Ole Piranhas have come: They used to trumpet state’s rights, be for small government, and minimizing the national debt. They used to work against despots and authoritarian practices. No more. Poor Abe must be turning over in his grave.
Most red states don’t care about COVID, never have, never will, and, as a consequence, don’t care what happens at the ballot box either, as long as their Q-anon candidates and other fascist personalities get elected and re-elected. (Gerrymandering is another fascist tactic they use, but you already knew that.) In fact, they make sure that fewer ballot boxes are available for minorities, who, for many reasons, give the finger to the Republican party and vote for Democrats, with few exceptions like toadies Ben Carson and Clarence Thomas . Minimizing voting by mail is just another wonderful fascist tool for the red states.
To be fair, some Republicans aren’t “f^%$ing morons” (SecState Tillerson quote). In Arizona, a few are standing up for democracy and promoting the only agenda that’s logical and reasonable for the 2020 election, #NeverTrump. Romney and Murkowski have pushed back against Trumpism on occasion. More power to them all…literally. We need true conservatives to take back Lincoln’s party and toss the current fascist majority out on their butts. (The Dems have some bad apples too, but those bad apples don’t control the party, thank God.)
Voting by mail, if done correctly, allows many more voters to participate. Let’s face it: minority workers, often essential workers in this time of pandemic, are the foundation of the American economy, and they often work seven days per week. When do they have time to take off and vote? Early voting, mail-in voting, and easily accessible polling stations with extended hours were all put in place so everyone had a chance to vote and have their vote counted. And that is exactly what Donald Trump fears! The only way he can win with his terrible poll numbers is to disenfranchise Dem voters, especially minority voters who justifiably hate his guts.
Trump’s not smart enough by his lonesome to come up with ways to attack the process, like destroying the USPS, but you can bet that fascists in his White House staff and campaign committee have convinced Il Duce that to win, he must suppress the vote. (Not only that, he’s already declared the election is rigged if he loses! What a jerk!) Ideally, he’d want his own family to be the only ones to vote, or have complete election control like that fascist in Belarus had so it can be declared a landslide in his favor. Simple tactic: Just change all the Biden ballots to Trump ballots? That won’t work in America, but not counting the Biden ballots will! That’s likely to happen if Trump et al rig it so the mail-in ballots aren’t delivered on time by the USPS.
The Good Ole Piranhas’ disenfranchisement plan has many facets. Myths have to be maintained. Mail-in voting leads to fraud (False). COVID-19 isn’t a problem (False). Russia isn’t meddling in the 2020 election (False). [Note: A Republican-dominated Senate committee just released the report of a three-year study that reaffirms the conclusions of the Mueller report, and more.] Kamala Harris isn’t American (False). Biden’s son was a traitor (False). Biden is senile (False). Trump lies so often that the Washington Post has trouble keeping up with the lies and debunking them (the number will probably reach 10,000 by November 3). Perhaps they should focus on those dealing with the election until November 3? Trump’s buddies in Congress will add to their number. I’d like to see some Biden ads that list them, just to take some pressure off that poor Washington Post crew.
Countering Trump’s lies is important—too many people are gullible, including voters. The whole Q-anon conspiracy theory shows how gullible people can be (if you can believe in Q-anon, you can believe in anything apparently, including the pope is an agent o the devil). But destroying the post office is a physically obvious attack on American democracy. DeJoy should be behind bars for doing it. We’ll have to wait for January, 2021 to do that to Trump. US Marshall’s should be ready and waiting when Biden kicks him out of the White House, ready to haul him off for trial in the NY Southern District and send him to jail where he belongs.
Until then, every patriotic American should be pressuring their representatives and senators to preserve the sanctity of the vote. Democracy is at stake here, folks. The 2020 election is the most important one in this nation’s history. Fascism is lurking around the corner if we can’t vote and have our votes count to get rid of the pest in the White House. Many Germans recovered logic and reason and recognized their mistake in supporting Hitler, but too late. Americans shouldn’t wait as long as they did. The safety of the nation and the world, and freedom for future American generations, is in danger.
***
Comments are always welcome!
“Esther Brookstone Art Detective.” While you’re sitting on the edge of your recliner eagerly waiting for me to announce Death on the Danube, #3 in this series, don’t forget there’s a lot of entertaining reading to be found in the first two books, Rembrandt’s Angel and Son of Thunder, very different stories tied together by Esther’s obsession with finding the truth. In the first book, the Scotland Yard inspector obsesses with recovering a painting stolen by the Nazis; in the second, she obsesses with finding the tomb of St. John the Divine. Her paramour, Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden, struggles to keep her on an even keel. Available wherever quality books are sold, including at the publisher Penmore Press.
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
