A majority of American voters distrust the pillars upon which democracy rests the vote itself.
They perceive cracks within the marble. Some perceive fissures. Reports Rasmussen:
Most voters think this year's election could be impacted by cheating...
A new telephone and online survey by Rasmussen Reports and the Heartland Institute finds that 62% of likely voters are concerned that cheating will affect the outcome of the 2024 election, including 37% who are very concerned.
Are 62% of likely voters correct or incorrect to distrust the looming election?
Are 37% justifiably very concerned?
For our purposes it makes no nevermind.
They may be correct or they may be incorrect.
Yet here is the cardinal fact: 62% of likely American voters are distrustful of electoral legitimacy and 37% are deeply distrustful of electoral legitimacy.
How can a democratic system endure such vast suspicion of its pillars?
In our estimation it cannot.
Today we once again propose our solution. As we have argued before, it will cement the cracks.
It will brace the pillars holding up American democracy... and restore their structural integrity.
What is it? Answer shortly.
We first note that claims of electoral mischief are already loose.
Consider for example the pivotal Keystone state of Pennsylvania. Thousands of potentially fraudulent voter registrations have reportedly been dug up.
Reports AP News:
A criminal investigation is underway in the crucial presidential battleground of Pennsylvania after election workers in one county flagged about 2,500 voter registration forms for potential fraud. Two other counties were alerted to look for similar problems...
Some [forms]had false names, suspicious handwriting, questionable signatures, incorrect addresses or other problematic details...
"It appears to be an organized effort at this point," said [Lancaster County District Attorney Heather] Adams, an elected Republican...
Do we have on our hands an organized effort? Do we have on our hands actual voter fraud?
Or do we have on our hands a clerical bungle or some other nondiabolical boo-boo?
We do not know. Yet we do know what Mr. Trump thinks. The fellow sniffs a rodent:
Wow! York County, Pennsylvania, received THOUSANDS of potentially FRAUDULENT Voter Registration Forms and Mail-In Ballot Applications from a third party group. This is on top of Lancaster County being caught with 2600 Fake Ballots and Forms, all written by the same person. Really bad "stuff." WHAT IS GOING ON IN PENNSYLVANIA??? Law Enforcement must do their job, immediately!!! WOW!!!
Imagine Mr. Trump loses the state of Pennsylvania to Ms. Harris. Assume further that the tally is pristine a square and fair victory for the Democratic nominee.
Do you believe Mr. Trump will simply doff his cap to his opponent? Or do you believe he will raise a royal rumpus about voter fraud?
We bet very, very high on option two.
After all, he will argue, who knows how many fraudulent schemes slipped through the dragnet?
Merely a handful got caught, he will claim.
Thus the claims of voter fraud that afflicted the 2020 presidential election will afflict the 2024 presidential election.
And the nation's vast political chasms will only widen.
Yet we have in hand a solution. It will restore faith to the electoral apparatus... and to American democracy itself.
You may label it a quack cure. And we concede, it is indeed rough medicine. You may choke upon the potion.
Yet we fear it is necessary medicine. Desperate times as the phrase runs require desperate measures.
What is it? Read on for the answer...
By Brian Maher
Again, the answer despite all hell's angels is to anoint Mr. Trump president next week. It does not matter if you adore Donald Trump or you abhor Donald Trump. He must be elected for the sake of American democracy.
We have cited the means. All that remains is the will.
Consider our proposal's manifold blessings. For one: It would instantly disarm the Trump-drummers still yelling he was wrongfully denied the 2020 election. Their foundations would crumble in a heap. After all:
All the alleged mechanisms of 2020 fraud remained intact in 2024. All the ballot harvesting, all the mail-in balloting, all the relaxed identification requirements, all the compromised vote machines the entire apparatus of electoral fraud remained up and going.
Meantime, the same "Deep State" that undermined Trump in 2020 was arrayed as heavily against him in 2024. So with the media, so with the judicial system. And yet and yet Trump won the 2024 election.
How is that possible if Trump confronted the identical apparatus of fraud he confronted in 2020? The Trump drummer must therefore concede the possibility that the 2020 election was just after all. He must concede the possibility that it was not "stolen," and that his candidate simply lost.
Suddenly he is soothed and disarmed. His faith in American democracy is back. Multiply him by millions and millions... and you have a general restoration of the democratic faith. What can be better?
"I see your argument," comes the counter. "It may even have some benefit, however dishonest the means. But at what price? You say it'll restore American democracy, but it could actually mean the end of it. Haven't you seen? Didn't Trump admit he aspired to be dictator if only for one day? Lord knows what he'll actually do if elected."
Yet we have anticipated your objection. To which we reply, simply, the bureaucratic powers that sabotaged his first term... will sabotage his second term. They will bottle the man in his cage. If Trump orders his understrapper to do such and such that the understrapper does not wish to do... the understrapper will say yes... then proceed to heave the order into his hellbox.
Or if the understrapper passes the order along to his own understrapper, understrapper number two will heave the order into his own hellbox. So on and so on, down and down the line, clear through the bureaucracy.
How would this dictator get anything done in the teeth of this opposing force? He cannot. He is a tiger neutered and tame as a tabby. He will be unable to deport 20 million illegal aliens. He will be unable to facilitate Vladimir Putin's conquest of Europe west of the Dnieper River. He will not jug Joe Biden.
The bureaucracies will simply not permit him. That is our answer to your objection. You have little to fear of actual dictatorship.
Yet with the honey comes the aloes. We do not claim our solution will gratify everyone. And perhaps we would cure one malady, only to introduce another. What for example about all the disenfranchised Democratic voters who will distrust the electoral process after the rigged 2024 election?
Our proposal would simply substitute the suspicious Democratic voter for the suspicious Republican voter. A conundrum!
Yet we have anticipated this objection as well. How would we rewin their trust in American democracy? We first counsel a stoic patience for the following four years. Democratic partisans must simply sit upon their hands and endure them.
Yet we would remind them that the rigging works in both directions at times for Republicans at times for Democrats.
And as the rigged election of 2024 will restore Republicans' faith in American democracy... the rigged election of 2028 will restore Democrats' faith in American democracy...
Here, as we have argued before, is our cure for the ailing American democracy: Rig this election in favor of Donald Trump. That is correct. Rig the election in favor of Donald Trump.
If Ms. Harris wins the actual election? We call upon all election officials to alter the vote machines, to load the ballot boxes with fraudulent votes, to enlist the dead whatever is required to elect this fellow.
We further entreat the courts to dismiss all attending legal challenges on grounds of "standing," "laches" and other legal theorems. Moreover, we implore the media to denounce all "election deniers." Simply declare the 2024 election "the most safe and secure" ever.
And declare Donald Trump its winner. Will you now refer us to the United States Department of Justice for sedition? We will not stand in your way. Yet here is our reasoning... such as it is.
As stated, a fatal 62% of American voters lack belief in the electoral system. Most acquired this distrust following the 2020 presidential election.
They believe that ballot harvesting, mail-in voting, relaxed identification standards, compromised vote machines and related tricks yielded Mr. Biden the election.
Consider the Peach state of Georgia. Georgia was one "swing state" that swung toward the Democratic candidate.
Yet VOTERGA is an outfit consecrated to "electoral integrity." Their examinations revealed that:
The U.S. district court found on Oct. 11, 2020, the Dominion Voting System that was used in the November 2020 election is unverifiable to the voter and in violation of two Georgia statutes.There are six sworn affidavits of counterfeit mail-in ballots in Fulton County election results scaling into the tens of thousands.State Farm Arena video shows at least four violations of Georgia election law.Approximately 43,000 DeKalb County drop box ballots have no chain of custody forms to authenticate them.Tru the Vote geo tracking showed evidence of ballot harvesting teams driving repeatedly to drop boxes in Fulton and DeKalb [counties].All 350,000+ original in-person ballot images in Fulton are missing in violation of federal, state retention law.All 393,000+ original ballot images in Cobb [county] are missing in violation of federal, state retention law.At least 17,720 certified in-person recount votes have no ballot images in Fulton.18,325 voters had vacant residential addresses according to U.S. Post Office.904 voters were registered at a P.O. box address, which is illegal.All or large parts of 2 million original ballot images from 70+ Georgia counties are missing.Failure to make mandatory check of ballot envelope signature to signature on file resulted in a 2020 absentee ballot rejection rate drop from 3.47% (in 2018) to 0.34%, which translates to the acceptance and inclusion of approximately 4,400 dubious Fulton County mail-in ballots.We remind you that Mr. Biden claimed the state of Georgia by some 12,000 votes. If a mere percentage of these claims are authentic... would the election swing the other way? It almost certainly would have.
Are these claims correct? Are these claims incorrect? How many result from fraud? How many result from honest error or poll worker incompetence? These are but some questions that present themselves.
Yet the answers scarcely matter. The fact that they have been asked at all is trouble. They have kicked up a mighty dust cloud that obscures the electoral machinery. Thus blinded, the Likely American Voter employs his imagination.
And 62% of Likely American Voters imagine the worst be they right or be they wrong. American democracy cannot endure it. How can we restore their faith in the electoral processes?
The Daily Reckoning