It Doesn't Take A Genius

 

"I didn't spend my life defending this country to let a bunch of pansies squander it away."

--Don Bolduc

Mad Dog has never claimed to be the sharpest blade in the drawer, but he does appreciate some simple things:  For any democracy, especially a republic, to be a democracy, the citizens must believe in voting.

Without accepting the notion that by voting people can elect folks to represent their concerns and point of view, there can be no democratic government, no republic.

This, of  course, requires that citizens believe their votes are counted and tabulated honestly and without manipulation. Mad Dog has worked at the polls and seen how mail in ballots are accounted for and how they are processed, in a procedure he can only describe as "scrupulous."  There is no monkey business in vote counting or voting machines in Hampton, New Hampshire. But what happens to those tabulated votes once they are reported up the chain, Mad Dog acknowledges is beyond his observation.

At some point, we rely on others, not our own personal observations. As Alex Jones' lawyer once asked, "Unless you were present at the morgue, how do you know any children actually died at Sandy Hook." Yes, Mr. Lawyer, we do have to invest belief in some things we cannot verify ourselves, personally. 

But I still believe children were killed at Sandy Hook and I still choose to believe Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in 2020. 

When President Trump said that he would not accept the results if voters voted him out of office--as in, 

Q: President Trump will you accept the vote if you lose? 

A: "We'll see." 

And when he said he could not possibly lose, then he was saying, one would have to accept, that he had no intention of leaving office, no matter what. No matter the verdict of the voters.

Only Donald Trump's opinion about the validity of the announced votes matters. Only he is allowed at the morgue. 

But how can anyone really know if the voters' votes were actually counted accurately, fairly?

That requires some faith. Faith in news reports, faith in voting observers, faith in courts to examine whether or not there is credible evidence--as opposed to simple statements of belief--for "voting irregularities."

Now, there are any number of Trump acolytes--most visibly Kari Lake in Arizona--but also Tudor Dixon (whose name alone ought to be disqualifying anywhere but FOX world)--who say they "cannot" lose their elections and if it is claimed they have lost, then voters ought to know, in advance, the election was stolen from them, which is to say, there is no point in going to vote because the decision, at least in MAGA minds, is already a fait accompli. Ipso facto, if I run, I win. Why bother with all the expense, time, effort of actually holding an election?

This attitude has been dignified with a category name: "The Big Steal."

This is, of course, what January 6th was all about.

If you somehow KNOW that Trump actually got more votes than Joe Biden and not only that, if you KNOW that he won key states, then it is entirely justifiable to launch a revolution against the Big Steal.

This is a form of simple faith. If you BELIEVE, then all things are possible.

Evidence is a dirty word. For the true believer all that matters is faith, or the word from the only source that matters: Der Fuhrer. 

This sort of rationale is routine in some African countries, where the losing side simply refuses to believe the votes were counted honestly.

In America, we have shaken our heads when viewing videos of post election mayhem in third world countries, those "shithole countries" Trump so despises, countries where you see crowds rampaging through the streets after election results are announced, tires burning in the streets, crowds of young men in rhythmic dance headed toward the Presidential palace to overturn the election. 

Until, of course, we saw much the same thing here in Washington, DC with the Proud Boys leading the charge wearing shirts saying, "Stop the Steal" and "Camp Auschwitz" and "Veteran: Capitol Hill War" and "The Civil War Starts Now."

These folks are true believers in the Trump victory and no amount of evidence or persuasion will ever change their minds. As Lincoln said, "Twelve angels blowing Horns, the clouds parting will not convince them otherwise."

Locally, here in Hampton, we go door to door and we try to perform our civic duty of talking to our fellow citizens. But we work for a Democratic Party organization which wants us to follow a script, even as they say the best sort of campaigning is neighbor talking to neighbor. But they want us to say to our neighbors certain things, to ask specific questions:

1/ We are supposed to ask (and record the answer)  if the citizen at the door intends to vote for Maggie Hassan and Chris Pappas. This is not an attempt to have neighbors talking to neighbors, but to have neighbors reporting on neighbors, perform polling duties, which actually undermines the whole effort to "reach" citizens where they live.

Most people come to the door annoyed. Someone is intruding on their Saturday morning or their Sunday watching the Patriots game, probably trying to sell them something. 

Good canvassers know to begin by making connections: Oh, your daughter went to Winnacunnet with my son. And then move on to "What matters most to you in this election?" 

2/ But that does not satisfy the Democratic bureaucrats, because now comes the second questions the Party wants asked:   canvassers are told  to present a blue post card for the home owner to sign saying they promise to vote for Democrats on November 8th. Will you sign this commitment to vote? 

Thus neighbors talking to neighbors is  transformed into a transaction; this friendly discussion morphs into a sort of sales promotion and the looks on the faces of most homeowners at being asked to sign some card on their porch says it all: "Oh, and here I thought you were my friend."

So the Party brass, the Ray Buckley's squander the opportunity to allow local citizens to engage in conversations which they know will be more effective than the Party line. Our candidate, Maggie Hassan may read from a script, may avoid getting negative for fear of offending, but local folks do not have to do that. Local folks can say "We are not pansies. Bolduc wants to kill Social Security and Medicare. He denies Biden won the election. He doesn't believe in democracy! He says COVID vaccines are a way Bill Gates can get microchips into us. He says facemasks do more harm than good. He says Democrats want schoolchildren to use kitty litter in schools. He wants to ban abortions and IVF." 

Of course, some of us do that, but most do not, which only feeds into the image of a toothless party of pansies. 

Democrats thought, last August, that the decision killing Roe would be the big moment, the thing that swept all Republicans from the field, but that is now so yesterday. Three months later canvassers found abortion was hardly in the top five of what voters said motivated them to vote.

All the outrage, all the certainty that THIS would finally be the thing which defeats the Republicans, gone now. 

"Oh, I don't like that," voters would say about Roe. "But I'm more pissed off about gas prices right now. And the economy and crime."

And of course FOX has managed to sell a lot of people on the notion that crime is rampant--which is statistically untrue--and that President Biden has the power to lower gas prices if he really cared.

So, here we are in the 21st  century, with a republic we may not be able to keep because, well, the Democrats are simply not bright enough to know attack ads win elections and door to door canvassing does not matter, especially when done wrong.

And there is no Democratic Party propaganda machine like FOXNEWS.

And, well, maybe we've just got tired of democracy, which takes so much time, effort and thought. 

We'd rather watch the Patriots game.