ELECTION FRAUD VERSUS IDEOLOGICAL DELUSION

If nothing else, the current election fraud debacle has highlighted the risks and dangers of succumbing to ideology. And none of us is immune.

We know that widespread early mail-in voting, easier to manipulate, was used for the first time with the easily disprovable argument promulgated by the Left that it was required due to the pandemic. We know that observers in swing states were blocked from observing, that dead people voted, postmarks were ignored, specious addresses were used, and that signatures were not always checked. We know that some precincts allowed ballots to be “cured” while others were not. We’ve been told of middle-of-the night vote dumps in Biden’s favor that occurred outside the realm of statistical probability, and that video evidence supports this. There is conjecture that the voting machines and software used in critical precincts were flawed and easily manipulated. We’ve been told that the judiciary has been unwilling to examine the evidence, with the credible example of at least one instance of a PA state court ruling that operating outside established election law is permissible. There is no question that irregularities and fraud occurred (despite the Left’s claims of a “perfect” election that would clearly have been riddled with corruption had their candidate lost); the question is the extent. And we’ve been assured that the unproved (and possibly unprovable) malfeasance involves at least hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of votes, enough to upend the results. Nothing of substance, to date, has been proved in court.

In light of the apparent dense smoke of circumstantial evidence in search of fire, and my firm belief that Trump did an amazing job policy-wise (but uneven politically), and the knowledge that Biden is more of an anti-Trump placeholder than a real candidate for the Democrats, I’ve found myself willing to accept the notion of a “stolen” election. After all, it seems improbable that this figurehead who couldn’t attract more than a few dozen supporters at a rally would garner the most votes in history, even more than the venerated Obama. Or, alternatively, I’m becoming the deluded ideologue I’ve labeled the Left.

For 4 years the Left and its servants, the mainstream and social media, have caricaturized and demonized the president, ignored and hidden his accomplishments, exaggerated his evident flaws, and manufactured elaborate hoaxes such as a Russian collusion investigation and as impeachment trial. While right-wing sources demonstrate bias, the ones on the Left have become so contaminated that they’re useless sources of information, with the wheat being buried so completely in the partisan chaff (or absent entirely). The final preelection evidence for this was the absent coverage of the Hunter Biden/Biden family corruption. Not only was an FBI investigation of Hunter hidden for 2 years (in a system that leaked like a sieve when it came to Trump), polls showed a depressing minority of Biden voters were aware of this reported faux “Russian disinformation” and enough admitted they might have changed their votes that the election would have gone to Trump. In light of this, it’s easy for conservatives to believe the believable but unproved allegations about a stolen election, since the opposing “information” sites have a strong track record of unreliability. Nevertheless, belief does not equal reality. As left-wing ideology becomes more prevalent and powerful there is an inevitable, necessary, and appropriate right-wing backlash, but no guarantees it won’t overreact. And it’s easy to be manipulated by either side. For example, here’s a reasonable argument of how statistical improbability as a defense of a stolen election may be flawed. Adding to this, for me, that at least two respected, reliable sources of balanced right-wing commentary I’ve followed refuse to accept the idea of sufficient fraud and/or irregularities to reverse the election without proof, and my personal ideological programming alarms go off.

Ultimately, these are issues we all have to sort out for ourselves. Part of me believes we conservatives should choose not to waste our time and effort with cries of election illegitimacy and instead focus n fighting against the policies and values of the Left, with better than even odds of reclaiming within a few years not only the White House, but the Congress. The other part cries out for no capitulation lest we lose forever the ability to believe in in the sanctity of future elections, for with even the widespread perception of doubt, the country cannot stand.

WHAT NOW IN A DIVIDED AMERICA?

It’s over—sort of. What have we learned? Right now there’s a lot of smoke indicating election fraud but pending fire. It’s clear that state election laws regarding monitoring were ignored in some blue cities. It’s clear that it’s odd that Biden’s margins in those cities were high compared to other blue cities such as New York and Miami making them suspicious statistical anomalies. It’s less clear if the claims are true that Biden had a vertical overnight climb in votes in certain contested locales with hundreds of thousands of ballots appearing overnight only in his name (the Tweets supporting this have been deleted, no surprise there). It’s also not clear if the amount of voter fraud did reach, or can be proven to have reached levels that fall into the margin of error that would invalidate a Biden victory. I predict that after the dust of the litigation settles, the court(s) will not invalidate the election. A Biden presidency will be seen by many on the Right and some on the Left as illegitimate, just as many Democrats felt about the Trump presidency, although with perhaps more than manufactured reasons for the allegation.

I’d posited that the election would be a referendum on the current state of our values. The good news is that we haven’t lost America, yet. We’re an evenly divided nation. Regarding values, we may even be faring better when one accounts for those who’ve simply been duped. This is reflected in the unexpected small Republicans gain in the House and the small (hopefully) retained majority in the Senate,with some voters splitting their tickets. It is also noteworthy that Trump gained votes in the black and Latino communities. Enough Democrats turned were turned off by the sharp lurch leftward of the party that they wanted to limit its power, underscored by the reported dissension within the party ranks following the election results.

Biden now has a binary choice. He can move to a more moderate position, like Bill Clinton did, or he can continue to support the far left positions he’s been espousing and incorporating into his platform (before Harris takes over). With a Republican majority in the Senate, the more radical path will be made more difficult, requiring robust use of the “pen and phone.”A lot of damage can be done with executive orders, as we’ve seen. However, in the post-Trump era of conservative judicial appointments, these executive decrees will hopefully be checked by equally robust litigation. If the Democrats continue to acquiesce to radical left demands I think they will continue to bleed members. A road back to a former detente is possible, but if the policies and cultural shifts remain on the present trajectory, I see at best a bifid country with leftist and conservative businesses, social media, and schools, an unsustainable situation. At worst, I see violence or secession.

On the pandemic front, I see no change. The people will continue to mask and socially isolate as they see fit, the virus will do what it does despite our efforts, and a vaccine will hopefully suppress or eradicate it in time. Biden may choose to exhort the states to lock down again. If so, the economy will suffer. The schools will probably reopen now that the election is over. I can’t predict if the alarmism will increase (since fear is a useful political tool to support power) or decrease to support the beneficence and efficacy of the new, non-Trump president. In any case, as the pandemic resolves, Biden and team will surely take full credit.

On the economic front, both parties overspend, but the Democrats extol and double down on the practice as a perceived “solution” while simultaneously favoring government over the private sector in terms of taxation and regulation, so we can expect the vigorous recovery we’re experiencing to be blunted or critically wounded.

On the foreign affairs front, Obama’s former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said of Biden, “I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.” Biden has followed a policy of appeasement toward Iran; if he returns to that I expect to see destabilization in the region. The “October surprise” of the Biden corruption with respect to China sounds political and conspiratorial. But when you look at the facts and the primary data being used to support them, the concern that Biden might be compromised is very real (and a friend who attended at least one meeting that included Hunter Biden confirmed this to me). Had the full electorate had the benefit of clear, unbiased reporting, I believe the presidential outcome would have been different. Now it’s unclear if the investigation will just be buried, like with Hillary, or will come back to bury him, like Nixon.

The election results show America isn’t gone, but divided. We’re a big enough country for differences; in fact, they’re our strength, and keep us centered, when not commandeered by extreme elements. The road back to equilibrium, if possible, could be peaceful, violent or a dead end. Stay tuned.