It is my opinion that at this time, there is no issue more important than "election integrity". Everything else in the political sphere is a distraction.
Election integrity is critical because the 10% who believe that the end always justifies the means are driving the nation off a cliff. Zealots are dangerous and they are able to illegitimately grab the reins of power through corrupt elections.
We can recover from an economic collapse. We always have. We can recover from bad policies and bad adjudication. We cannot recover from "Kings" or mandarins and the systemic corruption that results.
Look at Israel in the Old Testament. They survived 120 years from the coronation of Saul (the first King) to the end of Solomon's rein. Then the kingdom shattered into chaos. Absolute power corrupts at an absolute level.
The two sides (D. and R.) are going to quibble about which side "wants to be king". But how do
- One citizen, one (and only one) vote
- Vote in person
- No vote without picture ID from an authoritative source
- Real-time reconciliation of voter to the rolls
...result in "Kings"?
The argument that "it will suppress the vote" tells me that there are legions of would-be voters who simply don't care enough to go to the polling place and to vote in person...and yet, miraculously, their votes get cast. If they don't care, then "their vote" should not count.
The cynics will undoubtedly start commenting that "voting doesn't matter". If that is true, then the cynics would also have to support the contention that there would have been no difference between a Donald Trump administration and a Kamala Harris administration. I don't know anybody who would support that position.
Read about Gadianton Robbers. They are alive and well in our political class today.
ReplyDeleteYou've always had a King in the USA - your Constitution defines your elective monarchy. To take the obvious example, your elected Monarch has far more power than ever George III had.
ReplyDeleteWhich just supports your point: it's crucial that elections be hard to rig. But then I'm old enough to remember, vaguely, the JFK vs Nixon election. Everyone seemed to accept that it was rigging that gave JFK the win. Certainly American Democrats whom I later met at university didn't bother to deny it. One was even rather proud of it.
Well that’s an interesting take. I’m curious the difference between the longest ruling President (FDR) vs that of your longest ruling Monarch?
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