Opinion
At the risk of repeating myself, I’ll repeat myself. In a previous column, I quoted Benjamin Franklin’s answer to Elizabeth Powel’s question about what sort of government the Founders had given us. Franklin wisely replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
We have elections coming up this year, elections with great portent for our state and nation. Elections that are the lifeblood and heartbeat of our republic. And Franklin’s cautionary answer applies today every bit as starkly as it did when the ink was still wet on our Constitution.
We American citizens have, in the intervening years, risen to Franklin’s challenge and have proven ourselves worthy of the trust that our Constitution placed in us. We have kept our republic. We have faced daunting challenges to our country and overcome them; we have fought enemies both foreign and domestic and we have prevailed. We have kept our republic.
It seems now that we will be called upon to defend our elections with equal determination and vigor. Our electoral process is facing threats every bit as deadly as foreign threats to our shores. Here’s where we rise up again to defend ourselves, our republic and our elections.
Let’s take a peek at those threats to our elections, and determine for ourselves whether or not they are idle.
President Donald Trump (who is called by many nicknames, none of which are suitable to be repeated in a family news outlet) has openly proclaimed that he wants to nationalize our elections. By this, he means that he doesn’t trust the states to conduct elections within their borders. He wants to pry our elections from the hands of our elected county clerks and give that power to faceless bureaucrats inside the Beltway who answer only to him.
Trump has proven himself to be skeptical and pugilistic toward elections that don’t turn out his way. Jan. 6, 2021, should have demonstrated that to everyone’s satisfaction. He knows that if the federal executive can control all the elections in the country, and if he is the federal executive in charge, his chances of a disappointing election suddenly vanish.
Trump has gone so far as to have his FBI raid an election office in the sovereign state of Georgia, seize voting machines and ballots and have the whole shebang shipped to D.C. where he can control them. Once in federal control, those Georgia ballots and voting machines are susceptible to federal monkey business, and who knows what the outcome will be. Perhaps another attempt by Trump to rewrite history to favor his viewpoint away from prying eyes.
Steve Bannon, Trump’s convicted and pardoned attack dog, has called for federal ICE troops to monitor elections in the states of our nation. If anyone thinks that ICE goons surrounding our polling places are sent there to help us keep our republic, I have a surfside cabana near Wamsutter that I want to sell you.
Closer to home, our own secretary of state, Chuck Gray (aka Dr. Dropbox) has willingly sent Wyoming’s voter rolls to the federal Department of Justice, complete with personal voter information that will be very helpful to Trump as he tries to nationalize our elections.
His rationale for so doing is murky at best. But Gray has a history of watching “2000 Mules” too many times, not trusting Wyoming county clerks to conduct elections and claiming rampant voter fraud in the Big Empty. However it must be noted that in the last 40 or so years, the number of verified cases of voter fraud in Wyoming can be counted on one hand, with a finger left over to salute Dr. Dropbox.
What is curious about this whole deal is that none of the Freedom Caucus, states-rights, anti-fed, individual-liberty crowd is raising a stink about it. These “conservative” voices remain silent and seem comfortable with the notion of the federal government exercising ultimate control over the constitutional responsibility of state government to conduct elections.
It is disappointing that the right wing of Republican politics in Wyoming seems to favor the idea of replacing the will of Wyomingites, as expressed in the sanctity of the voting booth, with the will of the White House.
Disappointing, but not surprising. The muttonheads in the Chemtrail Caucus are too preoccupied with threats from the sky to notice the threats from the Trump administration. And too preoccupied to heed Benjamin Franklin’s warning.
That leaves it up to the rest of us.
I doubt Trump means to have the feds step in to run federal elections in all 50 States, just those which have proven enormous election integrity issues. Good click bait when stated as such however.
Looking at each State’s voter roles and matching that info with the SSN database info will open the doors quickly to who has major issues. Obviously Georgia does. Any State where the feds want to step in must have major levels of provable election fraud, or the judicial branch will rightly nullify the effort. Don’t fall for the usual ‘two minutes of hate’ on this stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhqlOV6j0Ow
Lest we not forget Little Donny’s call to Georgia’s Sec of State when he asked him to find 12k votes and overturn the election. I don’t think that one made the brainwash media. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump%E2%80%93Raffensperger_phone_call
The only election integrity issues came from dumpy. No state has election issues, just trump issues.Georgia was a straight shooter when trump asked for 11000 plus votes. But hey, trump won the 2020 election. Right?
Of course the Wyoming FC would be okay with it, they get all their voting directions from House FC back in DC, so why shouldn’t the rest of the state/country?
Actually, watching Gray chase his tail is a good thing for Wyoming. All of the “fixes” will never pass the Supreme Court and it is so embedded in his head that it prevents him from doing real damage in other areas. Kind of like playing with laser pointer to distract your cat so he won’t shred the curtains. Voter fraud is a nonexistent problem. Who better to fix it than the least effective state
officer ever elected.
Actually, watching Gray spend all his time chasing his tail in pursuit of a nonexistent problem is positive for the state. Not only are all his “fixes” blatantly illegal (they’ll never get through the Supreme Court ) but they keep him from doing things that might do true harm. It’s kind of like using a laser pointer to distract a cat so it won’t claw up the curtains.
Yet again an excellent summary of the peril our democracy faces at the hands of and machinations of the clown show in the “Freedom Caucus” and their MAGA handlers.
Unsecure/flawed voting in the eyes of the public have given BOTH sides the chance to cry “Stolen” going back to 2000. How many times is the 1960 election referenced regarding the dead voting in Chicago.
Forget nationalizing, how about simply rolling back 30-40 years. No computers, no mail ins, remember when America used to have national results before 8pm on election night? With all the tech, elections and “counting” go on for days and are ripe for accusations of rigging.
All this aside, what good are the elections anyway when the worst of our society now become our “Leaders and representatives”?
There’s no rigging. Come back to reality.
Thank you, Rod! I used to take pride in being from Wyoming and participating in Wyoming elections. While I was stationed in Germany with the US Army, I was proud to engage in discussions and affirming Wyoming’s Republican, though independent leaning stance on many issues. Wyoming had a fiercely “live and let live” culture whereby we could live how we wanted to, love who we wanted to, and be who we wanted to be as long as we weren’t harming others through our actions. We balked at any perceived federal over-reach. Chuck Gray and his Freedom Caucus cronies have proven to be an abomination of our great state.
You’re absolutely right Mr.Sullivent. Wyoming used to be full of strong, independent, people who could think for themselves. Unfortunately, many of them have been conned, by a mostly out of state contigent of ultra right wing zealots, into believing that anything that isn’t “certified” MAGA is morally wrong and should be eliminatated from our state and from our country, which in itself is morally wrong, corrupt, and un-American.
Thanks for another truthful opinion Rod and I always save a finger for people like Gray and some of these so called republicans. Keep cranking them out Mr. Miller!
Nice work, my friend. There’s an agenda here, masquerading as a “election integrity.” My bullshit detector is reading “very high.”
Quite honestly, what we now have reminds me of the Romans and Julius Caesar…
Rod, not exactly saying that I believe in chem-trails and such; but should they be real, their existence could explain how Benjamin Franklin DNA could become so horribly twisted and disfigured into Steve Bannon DNA in 250 short years… and whatever substance it was that RFK senior experimented with behind the outhouse during his formative years Wow! That stuff must have been particularly potent.
Don’t agree with every point Rod makes in this article, but the comment about having one finger left to salute Gray is hilarious. Keep it up Rod!
Rich front Stormy Kromer country.