Taking MAGA to extreme: Arizona county refused to certify Nov. 8 election

 Post-November 8 midterms, Arizona narrowly elected Democrats to some. major positions, but the election denier stench lingered as one county refused to certify the election while unable to prove evidence of fraud. The secretary of state is suing the county. This county is taking loyalty to MAGA to the stupid, crazy, and dangerous extreme. It is a Republican heavily dominated county, and if successful not even those who voted GOP would have their votes counted, resulting in flipping a house seat from red to blue, setting a precedent for others to destroy the foundation of democracy, free and fair elections.

Arizona secretary of state sues after Republican officials refuse to certify county election results | US midterm elections 2022 | The Guardian

The Hunter season begins, prepping now to fire away in January: update 2/11/23

Update: 2/11/23

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-02/hunter-biden-s-lawyers-go-on-offense-against-his-accusers-as-gop-readies-hearing?utm_source=website&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=mobile_web_share

Original Nov. 2022 posting continues;

As the narrow GOP majority scrambles to agree on leadership, whoever emerges as speaker will not change the GOP plans announced in advance to try to bring down Joe Biden with one after another series of "hearings" and impeachment. House Republicans vow to investigate Biden and his family's business dealings | CNN Politics 

First on their agenda is Hunter Biden's laptop and an attempt to prove Joe Biden profited or participated in Hunter's business foul-ups.  Expect them to raise. whatever flak they can with table-thumping indignation and accusatory tone of witness examination. They will need to make a ton of noise if they want to divert media attention from their divisions and lack of any plans to solve inflation and crime, or the deficit,  the issues they claimed were reasons to elect them in 2022.

Preliminary investigations of the Hunter laptop flap show no there there if the goal is not to \ to dig dirt to implicate the father, Joe Biden.    That was more or less the conclusion drawn by CBS news.  There is forensic evidence the laptop will be of no help to the GOP in spite of conspiracy theories to the contrary.  If the GOP flamethrowers fail to come up with anything resembling evidence and proof other than flagellating hapless Hunter,  the attempt may backfire on the GOP in 2024, when all House seats are on the ballot again.  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hunter-biden-laptop-data-analysis  Some GOP House members have also loudly announced their payback attempt to impeach Joe Biden. For what? A troubled son? A successfully enacted public policy agenda? During these next two years, the House Democrats should take every opportunity to remind voters these revenge hearings will do nothing to make their lives better.

House Republicans vow to investigate Biden and his family's business dealings | CNN Politics 

With Majority in Sight, Republicans Hush Talk of Impeaching Biden - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Ted Cruz says Joe Biden could be impeached if GOP takes U.S. House | The Texas Tribune

How could the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago and legal action be taken more seriously

How could the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago and subsequent  AG Merrick Garland's  actions be taken more seriously than just more politics as usual?  Whatever the outcome, it will look like dirty politics and abuse of power to Trump supporters and it might never  be strong enough action for Trump's detractors that want to put an end to Trump's political ambitions or to put him in jail, or  to deter future presidents from doing the same. One constructive outcome will be to reaffirm the principle that no person, not even the president in or out of office, is above the law. The more important result of this drama could be to convince both sides of the political divide that abiding by the rules of classified document handling by even the commander-in-chief is vital to our national security and needs to be taken very seriously.  That possibility exists if enough convincing evidence is found that  ties Trump's irresponsible handling of the documents resulted in serious damage to the US spy network.  The  allegations are out there; so far there are only circumstantial suspicions.  Intelligence agencies fear that Trump has been leaking information on U.S. spies overseas (dailykos.com)

The problem  Attorney General Merrick Garland is facing is how any indictment or punishment can be viewed by skeptics and critics as more than a political gotcha and a technical violation of the laws. No matter what transpires from the more arm's length  special counsel's findings and recommendations, Garland will still have the make the ultimate judgment call. Whatever he does will be viewed as motivated by politics. Those who think Trump needs to be punished for setting an example to future presidents ignoring rules on handling classified documents and then obstructing the investigation will be angry if Garland does not prosecute Trump. Supporters of Trump will go ballistic, assigning political motivations to Garland. Whatever Garland does could make him seem the villain, not Trump, as the right wing media goes into overdrive..

If Trump's actions regarding the classified documents he took to Mar-a-Lago result in an indictment for breaking the rules of law and, most likely, obstruction of justice, and then found guilty at a trial that results in some sort of punishment, is serious on its own, but it may still appear to many that he was politically prosecuted on a technicality.  However, if his irresponsible actions and playing loose with classified national security documents resulted in real harm to national security, that may make his actions look truly dangerous. 

 The more serious revelation could be to tie Trump to outing our spies abroad, resulting in their death or recall. The news story that this prosecution is just politics or involves a minor technical detail that deserves a slap on the hand  will take a turn as anti-Trumpers can make a stronger case that Trump cannot be trusted to be a president again because what he did was a danger to national security, whatever his motivation. The purpose of responsible by-the-book treatment of classified documents will be vindicated in the minds of more current and future voters. They are absolutely necessary to protect national security interests. 

For more, go tohttps://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2022/08/ticked-deep-state-is-out-to-get-trump.html

 

 

Attacking educators: GOP's newest strategy: keep our voters ignorant

 Attacking educators is GOP's newest strategy: keep our voters ignorant. The comments by Mike Pompeo, former secretary of state, calling the head of the teachers' union, Randi Weingarten, the most dangerous person in America, was not only an over-the-top jaw-dropper but it also signifies a dramatic shift in party affiliation demographics. No, Pompeo, the greatest danger to America is ignorance unfiltered by reason, respect, and knowledge of facts and history. There is no "been there done that" wisdom to temper irrational behavior and blind devotion to conspiracy theories.

Pompeo's reasoning appears to be fed by the political opportunism of one who is a highly educated person when he knows better, appealing to the least educated person: attacking teaching "wokeness" (i.e. history based on fact and not white nationalist racism) as dangerous to the country. This is verbal manipulation that caters to the change in the demographics of his political party. Pompeo is not the only one. Texas Senator Ted Cruz is another highly educated political leader who knows better but has made a successful political career of taking advantage of those less educated. It is sheer intellectual dishonesty. and demagoguery.

Since the beginning of this century, the affiliation of the GOP by education level shifted from those with higher education levels to the lower, less educated. The GOP is now the party of the more ignorant of history and a perspective of looking at facts and evidence without critical thinking

What is "critical thinking"? Here is my definition: taking a thought, looking at various sources of facts evidence, considering pros and cons, how something like that resulted before, and then drawing conclusions. That is deductive That takes literacy and education and consideration of proof and facts. .

There is another "critical thinking" process that starts with a theory Sometimes treating as fact conspiracy theories that sound right and plausible results in their eventually being debunked. Their advocates are believing the theory is correct first and and then theysearch for evidence to prove it., Even then they just disregad facts and evidence to the contrary, developing more theories to explain away emerging facts. (best example: Arizona Cyber Ninja Audits of the 2020 vote that found no fraud and gained Biden 360 votes) In spite of that, those still say the 2020 election was stolen. Inconvenient truth is sometimes too bitter a pill to swallow.

Pompeo says head of teacher’s union is the ‘most dangerous person in the world’ | The Hill

Opinion | Never Forget What Ted Cruz Did - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

The ignorance and danger of 2023 right wing American Firsters

While the likelihood is faint now that the extreme right-wing nuts in the new Congress will get their way to damage support of Ukraine's war against the Russian invasion, they are still a danger to the US national security. If anything, they are ignorant of world reality and history.  Russians and Putin had publicly expressed designs on reassembling the Soviet empire boundaries, so Putin invaded Ukraine first. Consider it Putin's epic miscalculation valid only so long as US and NATO continue their support of Ukraine. Others like him wait in the wings in this test of US and NATO resolve: China and Formosa and Serbia/Russians in the Balkans. The GOP takeover of Congress will give these neo-American Firsters an opportunity to gain more power with an outsized megaphone and an aura of legitimacy. They may be a small minority now, but they may tap into a larger group of sympathizers. There has always been a vein of isolationists running through American political history, and their assumption is America is an island that does not need to care about the rest of the world or divert human and financial resources to deal with aggressors on another continent.

That isolationist and American Firsters' attitude existed before America finally entered World War I and II after the realization that national interests were fundamental and severe. It did take Pearl Harbor to even convince those who had prescribed to the American First movement, and the American First movement died temporarily. It has begun to emerge again in 2022 in the form of right-wingers making the same pre-WW II arguments that showed ignorance of reality and history and exhorting others to ignore the danger to US national security. Now, the GOP will control the House for at least the next two years, though narrowly, but the latter-day American Firsters will have a media platform, a shrill voice, to undermine Ukraine's support. They will have more power to give cover to fellow believers equally ignorant to join them. While the odds are they will not succeed, they cannot be ignored and must constantly be marginalized. Otherwise, those in the world who want to invade neighboring countries may miscalculate their odds of success and give themselves the green light to proceed.

Excerpts from my Feb. 24, 2022 post as Russia invaded Ukraine, I asked why should Americans care about Ukraine. In short, it is a stitch in time to save nine. How dangerous and unstable do we want this world to be? What is so great about having the freedom that these messy democracies offer? If the west does not inflict pain on Russia for this, it could inspire others elsewhere to go and do likewise out of lust for taking and invading other lands their ideology considers their own. The message we send should not be the west is so divided and weak that we can be ignored. Why wouldn't our adversaries think, why not give it a try when think they can succeed if the opposition is weak or unwilling to stop them? Trump refused to support the mutual defense clause of NATO, as well as indicating he would not defend the Baltic NATO members. Biden furthered the impression to Russia that the US was still on an isolationist path with his messy withdrawal from Afghanistan. Biden reversed Trump's sabotage of NATO, and Russia's threats of territorial grabs by military force also contributed to a rejuvenated NATO. The purpose of NATO was originally to stop Russian aggression just like what is happening today. Other areas of the world with predators waiting to invade their neighbors for their related ethnic makeup are North Korea v South Korea, China v Taiwan, Serbia v Bosnia. Except for Serbia (allied with Russia), all of these potential aggressors have nuclear weapons and could start World War III., as Putin reminded us yesterday that Russia has them, too.. There are those on the right in the US who think we should have moved US troops into Ukraine just like the Russians threatened to do. Biden wisely did not want to spark World War III and a nuclear confrontation with Russia. He took that risk off the table because 1) we did not have a treaty with Ukraine to require this because Ukraine was not a member of NATO. 2) we would be doing what Russia threatened and did that we said was so wrong, only we would have taken the first step. This is not a pre-nuclear world. Get real

World War II was Hitler's epic miscalculation based on his reading of western governments' weak resolve to defend themselves from Nazi control. In the 1930s, some of the same isolationist sentiments now espoused by FOX talkers flooded the radio waves, and radio demagogue Father Coughlin was a supporter of the style of Hitler. Such isolationists do not need a resurrection of Father Coughlin when we have Tucker Carlson and MAGA followers fawning over Russia and patting them on the back. Thanks to other similar America First and isolationists advocates and politicians in 1939-1941, public sentiment mostly opposed entry into World War II until after the Blitz in London, Czech's Sudetenland was handed over to Hitler to appease him, Austria was joined to Germany, Poland was conquered by the Nazis, and US looked useless and weak.

Japan then took this as evidence they could take over the South Pacific and Pearl Harbor happened

What US election results mean for the future of Ukraine aid | AP News

Democrats, messaging, and the Latino vote updated: 11/14-11/17/22

Democrat Yadira Caraveo's victory in Congressional District 8 in Colorado, a brand new district, reflects the growing Latino population in Colorado. https://www.coloradopolitics.com/elections/colorado-latinos-voted-for-democrats-in-dominant-fashion-exit-poll-shows/article_05c27822-6477-11ed-a0d7-1b185549ec99.html 

In Arizona, the increasing Latino demographics contributed to that state's shift from red to purple recently. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/how-suburbanites-latinos-and-the-ghost-of-john-mccain-turned-arizona-into-a-presidential-battleground/ar-AA1jcHYS?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=DCTS&cvid=0ebe0487102d4ec290e853e5d0eaf556&ei=7

This 2022 midterm election provides an opportunity for Democrats to shape national messaging that appeals across the Latino/Hispanic divide of diverse experiences. 

There was a great deal of handwringing before November 8 midterms that there was a shift of Latino voters to the GOP.  It panned out in Florida and less than predicted in Texas.   However, in Colorado, Latinos/Hispanics voted around 70% for Democrats.  The assumption has been that uniform interest was dictated by ethnic identification and that they would vote as a block.  That assumption works in Colorado, but not everywhere, and the Latino experiences in Florida are different than the Latino experiences in Colorado.  In Florida, both Cuban and Venezuelans fled socialism and communism and were most often the more affluent in the countries they were fleeing. They have been given special access to citizenship and immigration.  The Puerto Ricans were once considered mostly Democrats, and Puerto Ricans are  American citizens. Even they departed from the Democrats in 2022.  All three groups do not have problems with green cards, immigration barriers, and voting. Many are now first and second-generation. In Colorado,  some Hispanics trace their roots to the early 1700s and others to the late 1900s.  While my roots of ancestors are very mixed, one great-grandmother, an immigrant from Spain, married to a man from a Missouri French immigrant community,  settled in eastern Colorado in the 1880s, and Spanish was the language of my paternal grandfather's childhood.   The very recent influx of those from Mexico and Central America do not arrive with a green card in hand or the ability to vote. They must rely on those who have attained citizenship by birth or naturalization to vote on behalf of their interests.  Many with family ties in the US  receive a hand-up from them.  Such family ties are a powerful force and a fundamental characteristic of Hispanic culture. 

 How does the Democratic party devise a national message that has universal appeal across this great divide of Latino diversity, ranging from Florida to the American southwest?  First, realize Latino voters are those that have achieved or have been born to US citizenship and have various views of the current wave of immigrants coming from central America.  While all politics is local, there are some national sentiments held in common by this very diverse group that favor Democrats.  What they all share is what other immigrants to America sought. Like all waves of immigrants since the founding of America, they are trying to pursue '" the American dream," to have the ability and the social and political freedom to raise a family and nourish it,  to move up to the next rung in economic prosperity, and some to start and own their own businesses. They want the playing field to be level and look for candidates who support fairness regardless of race or national origin. Those are aspirations as old as the nation, founded on the values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness on the basis that all men were created equal.  My late husband immigrated to America, escaping a Communist dictatorship, and was one of the post-World War II immigrants to America. While he was from South Eastern Europe, he found a kinship with Latinos in their aspirations and even a cultural affinity.  His medical practice was bi-lingual. 

Achieving those aspirations of the American dream in the land of opportunity is easier in a  society that respects those who do not look like or even speak like the majority and who believe in less government control and intrusion into their private lives (including supporting women's control over their health care),  Democrats can make the case they are the party that provides the personal freedom and the ability to make it easier to pursue the American dream.  

 We are experiencing a demographic shift.  By 2040, minorities will become the majority. American voters have a choice to delay this shift by suppressing civil and voting rights and limiting immigration of target groups,  or they can realize that demographics are destiny and can make the attempt to live together in peace and acceptance for the sake of future generations.  Democrats, by their liberalism and personal values, have as their mantra to be inclusive of all regardless of religion, race, national origin, and sexual orientation in pursuit of the American dream and have the will to shape a public policy agenda that provides a level and fair playing field for all.  In political terms, that means support for civil and human rights. The GOP has shown a willingness to cater to those within their ranks who advocate freedom for those who are partisans of a certain race, religion, or sexual orientation. and ideology at the exclusion and expense,  disrespect, suppression, and control over others who do not.  Achieving the American Dream is easier with fair access to opportunity and governance by a democracy that reflects a level playing field. This is the view of inclusion that works peacefully in this very diverse nation of descendants of immigrants, more recent immigrants, and the indigenous. 

 Democracy provides a framework and enforcement by the rule of law to provide the level playing field and power-sharing with the public will expressed through the ballot box.  That is a democracy as we have tried to practice it for 250 years. In November 2022, this normal, traditional version won, and in key states, those were defeated who had hoped to deny the will of the voters by controlling who voted and how the vote was counted.  These election deniers planned to use distrust and chaos of the election system to deny that their candidate lost the vote,  to try to delegitimize the ability of the real winner to govern, or to abuse the system to overturn the popular vote cast by the majority.  Their impact on the  2024 presidential election cycle would be to favor Donald Trump,  an advocate of autocracy and favoring those loyal to him at the exclusion of "others," and the promoter of a  political strategy and goals that would enhance his own personal political power.  A fair and level playing field is not a plank in his platform. https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2022/11/13/election-deniers-defeated-state-races/   Election deniers are still a threat and still are in a position to damage to democracy in 2024.How Election Denial Lost the Midterms - The Atlantic

Voters Push Back Against Election Deniers in Key States | The Pew Charitable Trusts (pewtrusts.org)

Democrat Yadira Caraveo wins competitive District 8 race to represent Colorado’s newest congressional district | Colorado Public Radio (cpr.org)

Biden fast-tracks work authorization for migrants who cross legally (usatoday.com)

https://www.coloradopolitics.com/elections/colorado-latinos-voted-for-democrats-in-dominant-fashion-exit-poll-shows/article_05c27822-6477-11ed-a0d7-1b185549ec99.html

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/13/latino-voters-midterm-elections-republicans-00066618

Latino voters critical to Yadira Caraveo victory in CO's 8th district (denverpost.com)

ELECTION 2022 | The 'unrealized potential’ of Latino voters in Colorado elections | News | coloradopolitics.com

Midterm Election Results Highlight Importance of Engaging the Growing Hispanic Electorate | UnidosUS

What happened to the Republican Hispanic wave? - Vox

GOP: we got gripes. Democrats: we got solutions. GOP: No, no, not that way.

Rebuttals and closing arguments:

GOP: we got gripes. Democrats: we got solutions. GOP: No, no, not that way.   Me: So...got better ideas?

 One of the strangest stances of the GOP has flown under the media radar.  They tout buzzwords they think to resonate politically, and either fail to offer a plan to fix it or, if they have a plan that does not fit their ideological boundaries, they vote against the fix. The buzzwords cropping up in October were crime, inflation, small government, and "stop the steal", or the more polite, unspoken term,:" if we lose,   it was because it was a fraud. If our side wins, there was no fraud"." Election fraud is why democracy is in jeopardy"..   Democrats have a different take " claiming fraud is a fraud itself since there was no evidence of fraud. Destroying faith in election security  for political propaganda gain is the basic threat to democracy since the alternatives  to rule by a vote of people and rule by law are autocracy and violence." 

Crime:  "Democrats are for defunding police, so therefore Democrats are to blame for the crime."   Biden put money for 100,000 more police in his "inflation fighting" law every Republican voted against. While there are a few on the far left who bought into the defund slogan,  Biden also has the plan to fund police to help them do their job better by giving them better training and social and mental health workers to relieve the police of that burden, but it will take Democrats to control Congress to pass that.  The day after the "defund police" slogan appeared, Biden slapped it down, and he has been consistently for funding the police ever since.   There is no secret that Biden wants to reinstate the ban on the sales of assault weapons.  That is not what the GOP wants to do to fight crime: they want more guns in the hands of even the too-young and mentally ill,  more weapons of war on the streets, and they support the police who act on their behalf:  In their implied mantra," good police are those who stop Antifa and bash in the heads of those police protecting the Capitol from the peaceful sightseers on January 6, 2021". 

Inflation: " It's all Biden's fault.  His big spending bills caused the problem, so reverse them." While inflation is bad,  say, Democrats,it is not as bad as the rest of the inflation in the industrialized world. That is little comfort, but provincial and uninformed  Americans and the GOP hope their voters just ignore the rest of the world's experience or the lack of presidential power to fix it  . Much of Biden's agenda has not even been implemented and spent yet, but Biden's legislative agenda is to blame for inflation? "Blame Biden anyway'".  Petroleum product prices are set internationally by cartels, including the Saudis. Still, Biden kept gas at the pump costs going down by releasing strategic reserves and is now threatening to slap an excess profit tax on the gas producers who have record-breaking profits due to suspected unjustified price increases.  No, no...says GOP. " It is bad policy to release reserves "(or to tax our oil and gas-supporting political contributors.) Ok, then, any other great ideas, GOP,  to reduce inflation? Zip. Nada. "Great talking points, though."

  One way GOP wants to fight inflation (and the parallel bogeyman, deficit) is to reinstate big pharma's unbridled charges for prescription drugs. "Government debt is bad, but student loan debt is just fine", in the  GOP pantheon of kinds of debt..The usual GOP fallback is: "cut government waste, but we'll not tell you where it is and what should be targeted." (That might upset some folks. )  One they did promote, however, was cutting wasteful spending by putting Medicare and Medicaid on the chopping block for a vote every year or every five years. (This one is a political puzzler, since older people on Medicare are usually GOP voters, and they have been having deductions taken from their paychecks throughout their working lives to fund such retirement security).  

One of the most significant reductions in the deficit lately is the requirement that pharma has to compete with bids to provide Medicare drug coverage, but the GOP does not want the deficit cut that way: They are mum on what they would cut other than Medicare, Medicaid, all social programs, and aid to Ukraine. Better to keep the rest of what they would defund vague.   Instead,  they want to restore tax cuts to the rich that pays for Biden's build-back better agenda,  Cut aid to Ukraine?  Putin loves, American Firsters and US right-wing extremists when it comes to Ukraine, and it appears in this wing-nut bromance, feelings about one-party, strong-man dictatorships are mutual and shared values. Ok, So instead,  Democrats fear,"We'll have to  take our stand in the Baltics and the Balkans instead against an expansionist Russian dictator and give the green light to China to take over Formosa/Taiwan.   American firsters, you like that strategy better?"

A word about small government: There is nothing bigger than a government, state or federal, that supports a government telling its citizens it cannot get an abortion for any reason, dictates who they can love and wed, what gender anyone can say they are,  and how or if they can plan a family. There is nothing bigger than a government that imposes and enforces particular religious interpretations held by a minority over the majority.  and even makes it a crime to defy their law, enforced by police and courts. 

Stop the steal:  See you in court over that one, GOP, again, and again, and again, and again. You will lose every time because after nearly two years of trying,  recounts,  official government, and Ninja audits, you still could not come up with evidence. Courts demand evidence, not theories and what-ifs.    Attorneys are disbarred for using lies and failure to provide evidence.  The courts are where the BS buck has stopped so long as we still have the rule of law. 

 It has not just become a choice between democracy and autocracy, but a choice between democracy and. political violence.  Without the trust in the system of voting to give citizens any chance to shape public policy, the alternative is violence.  This is what is at stake.  We saw it on Jan.6 and in Nancy Pelosi's home. How much more do you want, GOP?

The GOP is counting on public ignorance of the process developed by election officials to use modern technology and bi-partisan vote counters to catch dead bodies,  signature forgers, and double voters,  in order to keep their votes from being counted.  Maybe, just maybe, some will realize that the lie the 2020 election was stolen was just a way to explain away a loss, to install their partisan election-denying election administrators,  and to justify violence to overturn elections.  (Anther puzzler since mail-in ballots were the object of their blame for fraud was also a beloved convenience used by older people, who usually favor the GOP).  

The choice facing voters in November 2022 is not between democracy v autocracy, but democracy v. violence

  The choice facing voters in November 2022 is not between democracy v autocracy but democracy v. violence. The attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband by a politically motivated man is just another example of what we can expect if voters do not slap down those who inspire violence to gain political power.  For much of the midterms cycle, the issue of keeping democracy as our form of governance has been expressed as democracy v autocracy. Ho hum. ...... the consequence of Trumpism and the Trump base was not autocracy but more violence to determine the outcome of an election in th future.  The question should be reframed as a choice of who will govern us, not as democracy v autocracy, but as democracy v violence, of the vote in fair and free elections or be government by threats of terrorism and violence.  Last night, Rachel Maddow framed the choice in those stark terms of how we are to be governed in the future: democracy v violence.  To bring this concept down to November midterms, a vote for an election denier to oversee elections, from Secretaries of State, State Attorney generals, to county clerks, is where that choice will be made.  

Stark terms expressed in simple words and repeated is what works, per David Fenton's new book: Activists' Media Handbook.  Opponent messages are not to be ignored, but met head-on, as well.  Fenton's advice is sound, but I should add it is not just a choice between two roads. The potholes of the bad choice and how to patch them should be part of the "keep it simple" messaging. 

 It is likely too late to reframe messaging by November 8 in simple terms like Maddow's words exemplified, but it is not too late for 2024. The election of November 8, 2022, provides a learning experience for those who still want to preserve democracy as we have known it. The attack on Paul Pelosi presents an opportunity to illustrate the point that the alternative to democracy is violence to decide elections and at least to get the ball rolling on messaging for 2024. If more political violence erupts in the wake of the midterms, the opportunities to make the same point will only become more dramatic and heard.  

From my October 10, 2022 blog posting  on the subject. We have already seen what happened on January 6:  violence and riots. We have seen what happened to the free and fair election process with an attempt to count only certain votes and ignore the popular votes. We have seen the death threats and intimidation of poll workers and election administrators who refused to lie or to violate rules and laws to tip the election results to the loser.  Your vote may assume to be for "the other side" and may not be fairly counted. Is the use of violence, threats, intimidation, and chaos to determine who won and who lost what you want to see happen in the future.? That uncertainty, that fear of violence, that failure of trust in the election system means a destabilized country. That distrust was the creation of Trump backers in the last four years, The exhortation and acceptance of violence and threats of violence as a political tool is a recent development and new in the experience of those alive today.   

The ability to go to the polls and be certain the process will be fair, your vote will be counted as reported correctly, and you will not be harassed and intimidated, or unnecessarily inconvenienced is a fundamental key to democracy. . The ability to be certain your vote still gives you the power to voice the direction of governance is your fundamental right in a democracy that has been taken for granted until now. Keeping that trust depends on more than just faith, it now requires assurance no one "fixed" the computers or no election officials gave access to the cast ballots solely to the supporters of candidates they favor. 

David Fenton's Activists' Media Handbook is available on Amazon and sold by Simon and Schuster.