In 2016, Donald Trump, New York City brash, thrice married, most recently to an international model; not refined, not from Harvard or Yale, but a multibillionaire with a flair for gold came down his escalator and declared a run for President. The man who built hotels, casinos, and golf courses was putting his hat in the ring.
His skeleton crew of advisors bested the professionals and their staffs. He said things no politician would dare say and he drew crowds and loyal followers who could not be dissuaded that this guy was the answer the nation needed.
When the dust settled he won the nomination and then there was the great dilemma in the land. Hillary or Trump. The woman or the womanizer? She the champion of Planned Parenthood, he aligned himself with Pro Life. He produced a list of originalist judges for the Supreme Court. He decried the trade deals that shipped American jobs to China. He believed in borders; NATO nations should pay more of their own defense. America should look out for its own interests first. He told the African American community, give me a try, what have you got to lose?
All the polls said Hillary, and then he won. The stunned media was left speechless, some in tears. This couldn’t possibly be happening. Oh No!!.
Immediately the investigations began. The Mueller Probe spent $40,000,000, trying to find the evidence of Russian collusion. The long promised impeachment happened over a phone call to Ukraine. It was a four year barrage of attacks by the media, the loyal opposition, and members of his own party. He was called a hater, a racist, a Nazi, a fascist, his likeness was beheaded by a comedian.
Trump carried on. He recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and moved the embassy from Tel Aviv. He withdrew from the Iran Nuclear Deal and the job killing Paris Climate Accords. He eliminated regulations so companies could come back to do business in America and brought unemployment down to record lows. He made America energy independent. He addressed prison reform and instituted Right to try.
In the midst of the impeachment the China Virus hit. He shut down travel from China, and then from Europe. Medicine didn’t really know how to deal with this virus and directives were given that often contradicted one another. The President worked with companies to manufacture PPE and researchers worked hard to learn how to deal with this virus.
Suddenly time for another campaign season. The Democrat field looked like the Republican field of four years before, a myriad of candidates. Just as Donald Trump was the unlikely winner for the Republicans four years before, so Joe Biden came out on top for the Democrats.
COVID brought restrictions on campaigning but then the Trump campaign hit on the idea of airport rallies. A destination city was announced, Air Force one would pull up, he would emerge from the plane, make his speech and be on his way again. The rallies became a thing that drew huge crowds. There were spontaneous boat parades and car parades.
In the meantime former Vice President Biden did little campaigning. He relied on political ads and groups of 10 in circles. He promised masks for all and said Trump had done it all wrong except his solutions sounded a lot like Trump policy.
The media which couldn’t say a good word about the President couldn’t find it in themselves to criticize Mr. Biden. Even when his son’s laptop was found with incriminating evidence it was declared off limits for questions by the press and social media. That laptop must have been planted by the Russians to hurt Joe, defenders said.
Election night, things were looking good for President Trump, until about one AM when all counting stopped and in a few hours leads vanished. Claims of irregularities came in from a myriad of sources. The media and the Biden campaign say it over and let the healing begin. But that’s not how the constitution says it works.
Using COVID as an excuse to do mail in ballots, all kinds of safeguards against voter fraud were dropped. Efforts to ensure a safe and secure vote was decried as voter suppression or lacking safety.
The integrity of the vote is the most important thing we have in a representative democracy. When that is compromised the whole system is compromised. In any sane system any changes in voting regulations should be tested and debated, and not in the heat of a campaign season. That is a recipe for distrust in our system and a disaster for the future of election integrity. The United States is dependent on an informed and self policing electorate where integrity is in everyone’s self interest. If we lose this we lose the basis for our democracy.
It is of utmost importance that every instance of possible voter fraud be investigated . Just like Al Gore had recount after recount in a handful of Florida Counties there can be no rush to say this election is over.
We have a couple of years before the next big election and our legislators need to work to see what needs to be done to make our election system more secure and not less. I for one don’t care about convenience. Voting is serious business it needs to be treated as such.
