Will Our Votes Count?

The Former Guy has a lot of help casting doubt this time around

As we’ve learned, and relearned, often the hard way, there is little the ex-president won’t do or say to regain power. On his own, he is incapable of an election coup, but, sadly, there are too many individuals willing to sell their souls for the opportunity to rule. They’ve spent time and money undermining our free and fair elections.

The first time around, the Former Guy hired an elite corps of cabinet offices. Well, mostly, we still must account for the likes of Ben Carson, who, at the end of the day, was no Ben Casey (ask your grandpa). Of the former generals and captains of industry he appointed last time, most are denouncing him as unfit in training and temperament. The roll call is a veritable who’s-who of American heroes.

Many came along out of nothing more than duty. They are honorable people who answered the call when the president asked for their help. Then he proceeded to overrule them, disregard them, and ultimately disparage them. Stop me if this seems familiar. There is a discernible pattern to the man’s love: it trends robust and lustful to complacent, and always ends up in a fit of pique. In case you haven’t cracked the code on this personality disorder, I’ll spell it out for you in the most basic of terms: His damaged ego is insatiable. He can’t be wrong—ever—and anyone who says he is disappears. They’re all lucky this isn’t Putin’s Russia, because they’d all turn up dead with poisoned underpants.

Because the quality, service-oriented people are disgusted, fed up, and gone, he’s left with the sycophants who need to be near power, and the connivers who only wish to use him to return America to the 1950s. The sycophants I can handle. They’re not bright enough to cause much damage, But the connivers are another story. They’ve already pushed him to appoint the most theocratic Supreme Court in history. They got Roe v. Wade overturned, and as November 5^th approaches, they’re sitting on “G” and waiting for “O” as they say in the South.

I can’t advise you to read the whopping 900 pages of power-porn that is Project 2025, it’s too depressing. The realization that there are folks out there working hard to take away birth control, round up millions of migrants and put them in camps, or destroy the apolitical Civil Service that makes the country tick, will have you begging for a blind fold and cigarette.

They are also the engineers of the actual election steal that made President Biden wonder aloud whether we will have a peaceful transfer of power if Trump loses. They are working overtime on fixing the things they missed last time, namely the precinct-level officials whose job is to certify the vote, street by street, county by county, and state by state.

Witness the latest from Georgia via Dave Pell’s Next Draft:

“There are two big question when it comes to the 2024 presidential election. The first question: Who will people vote for? The second question: Will those votes count? Following the last election, the insurrectionist in chief tried everything from legal quackery, to political intimidation and violence, to just asking Georgia to find him 11,780 votes. The difference when it comes to the 2024 election is that his election-deniers have had nearly four years to lay the groundwork. "Across the country, conservative organizations and allies of Mr. Trump have sought to create new laws or win court rulings granting local officials more authority over the certification process. In Arizona, conservatives are targeting the state’s election manual with several lawsuits. In Nevada, an official in the state’s second-largest county refused to certify a recent election, setting up a legal test at the State Supreme Court. And in Georgia, even before the state election board’s meeting on Tuesday, allies of Mr. Trump were seeking a similar resolution in the courts." NYT (Gift Article): Georgia Board Grants Local Officials New Power Over Certifying Elections.”

Lauren Groh-Wargo, CEO of FairFight.com, an electoral watchdog explains, “Trump’s 2020 election interference playbook hasn’t changed, but the MAGA operation has become more sophisticated. Now, there are election deniers holding local elections positions in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania (in addition to Georgia). GOP officials have resisted certifying results in Arizona, Michigan and Nevada.”

How is all this possible? Because, as former federal prosecutor, Joyce Vance, explains, “The Supreme Court gutted Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder, states like Georgia have been free to impose measures like this.” Vance goes on, and I hope she’s right: “People who are loyal to him, not the Constitution, may try to claim election results aren’t clear…lawyers may have to go to court to force them to certify elections. They will win.”

©2024 Jon Sinton