Not Really Much Pressing Going On At Today’s Presser

 

Today I watched President Biden’s “press conference” if you could call it that.  This was frightening on so many levels.  Let me touch on a few.

First, it was clear that Biden was not really present, not in the moment and not in the bigger picture of the issues about which he was supposedly talking.  He lost his train of thought too frequently and too often read an answer to a different question than that which was asked.  And yet this man is our president, the leader of the free world.  That should alarm us all.

A commentator before the press conference noted that Biden had been practicing for this event for several days.  Wow.  If he had been practicing the names of those reporters who were listed in his notes to call on, he did not do very well.  If he were practicing the canned answers that he clearly had available in his notes, he did not do very well.  If he were practicing receiving signals from some aide in the room or otherwise connected to him, he did not do very well.  And, on another note, how can one practice answers to what are supposedly spontaneous questions?

The syrupy answers he gave were full of nothing more than campaign talk and promises.  He said he would address and fix any number of things but gave specifics to none – no details about the problem or the nature of the promised fix.  Just promises:  I will get to that, I plan on making progress on that, I will get to all those problems, don’t worry.

He said his focus was on Covid and seemed to tell us that he could only address one issue at a time.  Yet it was not clear what he is actually doing for Covid.  He had no problem taking credit for the number of vaccines given, something that is possible primarily due to the previous administration’s Operation Warp Speed.  The number of vaccines promised by the end of his first hundred days just continues that which Trump began; we should note that administration of the vaccine began prior to when Biden took office.  Yet Biden did not have the common decency to give any credit to his predecessor, even though he kept telling us that he himself is a “nice guy.”

Any actual seemingly factual information that Biden presented was for the most part erroneous.  For example, the surge at the border is not the same as it has been in years prior to his taking office.  Unaccompanied minors have come to the border in far greater numbers than those stated by Biden. According to statistics published by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, authorities encountered 9,457 children without a parent in February, a 61% increase from January, not 28% as Biden stated.  Moreover, while some seasonal trends in migration do exist, migrants interviewed by The Associated Press have expressed their understanding that the country would be more permissive to migrants under Biden than under Trump, and thus they come.

Biden kept telling us that he is such a humanitarian, a good guy.  He seemed to deny that there is any problem at the border.  Yet the cages are overflowing.  Unaccompanied minors are being sent by the thousands to large spaces like convention centers to live in crowded and unhealthy conditions.  Covid positive migrants are being bussed throughout our country.  Illegal immigration is off the charts.  Migrants are being bussed and dumped around the country in cities and towns that do not have the resources to care for them or the issues associated by this sudden influx.  This is not nice, and it is not humanitarian.

In campaign, not presidential, mode Biden made sure to trash the previous administration as well as current Republicans.  His figures about the Trump tax cuts were inaccurate and then he used those misleading figures to make a case against Republicans and their concern for the working class, a class that was in many ways lifted by the Trump administration and a variety of Republican policies.

Similarly, he claimed lack of bipartisanship of the Republicans while admitting that he, by his own choice, is not meeting with them.  He completely distorted the substance of the Voting Bill and what it is that each side is really fighting for.  (The reality is that Democrats would remove all state control and nearly all methods of ensuring only legitimate voters vote, while Republicans would maintain and strengthen a variety of procedures that ensure election integrity.)

Beyond the many misstatements (some would say lies), some of which are noted above, Biden seemed to take credit for what is already going on as if it were some great accomplishment of his own.  I mentioned the vaccines above.  Another example is his promise that he would now require that calls regarding minors at the border would occur within 48 hours.  According to Border officials, that requirement is already in place and was followed throughout the entirety of the prior administration’s control.

Biden wanted to show us he is a nice guy.  In fact, he told he is a nice guy – over and over and over.  That he is not like his predecessor because he is so calm and nice.  Well, great.  But that does not mean that he can lead the country or that he has any clue about what is really going on.

But the press conference is not solely about the president.  It is also about the reporters.  Anyone who watched a Trump presser is aware that the press core would not let him finish a sentence without attacking him with one or another allegation.  There was little if any respect shown for the man or the office.  Despite the press hatred for him, Trump called on reporters from both the Left and the Right, as well as the foreign press.   He answered their questions directly along with their antagonistic follow-ups and was clearly on top of what was going on, whether you liked his answers or not.

Here, we had very few reporters called on, and apparently someone (Biden or his handlers) had listed the names of whom would be called.  They were on one of the papers on Biden’s podium.  Whether these reporters’ questions had been vetted beforehand we will likely never know. 

What we do know is that the reporters were not the same attack dogs that attended Trump pressers.  Where was the Jim Acosta style reporter to harass and interrupt before the president could get a word out?  Indeed, where were any interruptions or meaningful follow ups?  Today’s “reporters” allowed the President to ramble for as long as he wanted, even if what he was rambling about had absolutely nothing to do with the question asked.  And those questions – could they have been any more friendly and soft?  Perhaps the press lost its ability be assertive in its questioning when faced with this clearly fragile and perhaps senile old man. 

In the end, this presser was about what I expected it would be – a big lot of nothing.  Biden knew nothing.  Biden said nothing – nothing that was true or specific or more than a fluffy promise.  The reporters asked nothing.  It was to some extent (how much we will never know) rehearsed.  Just a big lot of political show.

Which brings me to perhaps the most frightening thing of all:  why don’t the people see what is going on?  Why don’t they see this presidency for what it is?  Do they really fall for Biden’s syrupy smooth talk and his promises that he will make us all happy?  C’mon Man!  Wake up.  Biden is cluelessly destroying America but we the people are allowing him to do it.  And no one seems to notice or to care. That is terrifying.

 

Democracy May Involve Disorder and Disruption but It Requires Dependable Integrity

Do I think the objections to the Electoral Vote certification will succeed? No.
Do I think that the objections should nonetheless be made? Yes, absolutely.

Some may question my answers above, but if one takes a step back from their feelings for or against President Trump and looks at this past election more objectively, anyone who cares about our American democracy must agree.

There is no question that there was a much higher number of ballot irregularities in this election than the few that occur in every election.  In some cases, the numbers were huge enough that they could have changed (though there is no proof, nor may there ever be any, that they did or did not change) the outcome of not only the presidential result but results of other contests on the ballot as well.

If there is any possibility that fraud or other lack of integrity allowed illegal votes to be cast and counted, then those votes diluted the votes of those who cast legal ballots, thus disenfranchising those legal voters just as if their valid votes had not been counted.  This should concern everyone of us who enjoys the benefits of our democracy.

A number of senators, led by Ted Cruz, will object on Wednesday to results from specific states.  Their joint statement indicates that they will vote against accepting the election results until there is a 10-day audit:

Congress should immediately appoint an Electoral Commission, with full investigatory and fact-finding authority, to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of the election returns in the disputed states. Once completed, individual states would evaluate the Commission’s findings and could convene a special legislative session to certify a change in their vote, if needed.

Will this divide the country?  Perhaps, but probably no more than it is already divided.  Will it cause some anger and uncertainty during the 10 days if the objection prevails and the proposed Commission is established?  Yes.  But then, uncertainty is a part of democracy.  Only in those nations where a governing body, not the people, makes all decisions is there any kind of certainty.  That certainty may not be pleasant (“This week you will get one loaf of bread and two potatoes”), but the people will know exactly what will happen. 

Democracy does not have certainty, pleasant or unpleasant.  That is because the people have a voice and as that voice changes and evolves, the people will make different choices.  And, because those choices often address if not resolve many opposing viewpoints, then the disruption and disorder they cause become an essential part of the preservation of our democratic freedoms.

Putting aside the turbulence this objection may cause, isn’t it more important that we establish the integrity of our elections when it is those very elections that are a key cornerstone of our democracy?  The trustworthiness of our elections is needed for the people of the nation to accept and support their results as the true voice of the people.  Without that certainty, we no longer have a government of, for, and by the people, and our democracy is in peril.

Today, 39% of Americans believe the 2016 Presidential election was “rigged”; that includes 17 percent of Democrats and 31 percent of independents.  This needs to be addressed.  It affects not only the legitimacy of this election and presidency, but the legitimacy of all future elections as well. 

Ted Cruz said, that dismissing these claims “does real violence to our democratic system. We ought to have a serious, fair process and tribunal to consider these claims, consider them quickly, consider them expeditiously. We can do it in 10 days before the inauguration.”

What is wrong with that?  We have within our democracy a system for objecting to the Electoral vote.  These senators are following that established procedure.  It is not treasonous as Democrats and others who oppose the objections assert.  Indeed, Democrats objected in 2004 and 2016 and were praised by Democratic leadership and the media when they did. Those objections, like the objections to be made by Republicans this Wednesday, were legal and a valid and necessary aspect of our democracy.

The people need to know that they can trust the democratic process, they need to know that only legal votes will be counted and that all such votes will be counted.  Our vote is a great privilege and to weaken or cancel it by allowing even the perception of a lack of voter integrity is one of the most destructive things that can be done to the American people and their democracy. 

I am aware that the fact that this election was about retaining or not retaining President Trump causes many people to lose any objectivity in the matter and forget what the bigger picture of election integrity is all about.  I understand that President Trump’s sometimes abrasive language, which is not missing in his current fight to find the actual and true vote totals, is a trigger for some sort of anger and/or hate in many. 

The cloud that covers so many eyes and minds when President Trump speaks (the cloud sometimes known as “Trump Derangement Syndrome”) was triggered again by the leak of a phone conversation with Georgia’s Secretary of State wherein, amongst his rant about the hundreds of thousands of questionable ballots, President Trump commented that all he needed was 11,780 of those hundreds of thousands to win.  How this could be any kind of criminal act is ludicrous, yet Democrats and Trump-haters are calling for criminal investigations if not the death penalty.

But while for Trump, who may very well have had an election stolen from him, this is primarily about his vote totals, for the rest of us this should be more fundamentally about American democracy.  While we can clearly see the very different consequences for our country that a Trump or Biden presidency would have, hatred of or love for our current president should not remove our focus on the bigger picture. 

While it is unlikely that, even if the objection prevails and a commission investigates, the final election result will change, that does not mean that this objection should not be made.  The Commission it seeks should be granted. 

We the people have a right to know what happened in this election:  how, for example, in some instances there were more votes than voters, or how a precise needed number of votes miraculously appeared in bulk in the middle of the night.  Even if we live with questions about our president for the next four years, we need to know what happened so that we can have faith in the integrity of our future elections.  That trustworthiness is essential to our democracy.

NOTE, the full statement of those senators planning to object to the Electoral vote on Jan. 6 can be found here: LINK     

 

Look Forward

 Whether or not you say that he won, Joe Biden will be our next president.  One can continue to look back at what happened, or one can look forward to what needs to be done.

               The Election is Over.

We had an election.  Irregularities and fraud were alleged.  Legal processes for those allegations were followed.  The states certified their results.  The electors voted.  Joe Biden won that election.  The votes of electors and the slates of electors can be challenged on Jan. 6, but those challenges will most certainly fail.  The vote of the electors will be certified, and Joe Biden will be inaugurated as our 46^th President.  That is how it works in America.

I am in my 70s and every election that I can remember, whether for president or dog catcher or anything in between, has included allegations of cheating and irregularities.  Sometimes recounts do change a result.  That did not happen in this election. 

Certainly, with mass mail-in ballots, use of electronics with its possibilities for hacking or other tampering, one can perhaps reasonably assume that some fraud occurred.  There is documented evidence of some irregularities and even some cheating.  There are certainly suspicious vote drops and failures to follow some state election procedures that should make one at least question what went on.  But fraud has not been proven.  And even if it were, that does not mean that the fraud would necessarily change the ultimate outcome of the election.

In America, we are supposed to accept the results of elections, of due legal processes, even when we do not like those results.  In recent years more and more seem to find doing that to be difficult if not impossible.  How many Democrats never accepted that Trump was a legitimate president?  Before that, how many Republicans refused to accept that Obama was their president?  How many Democrats refused to accept that Bush, not Gore, was the legitimate winner of that election?

Refusal to accept suggests not only a selfishness, but also a lack of understanding of how America works.  It sounds like schoolyard kids.  I don’t accept you.  Well then, I won’t accept you.  He started it.  No, he started it.  If he did it then I will do it.  And on and on.  But it goes nowhere.

Time to grow up.  Time to review our Constitution and begin to understand how our Democratic Republic works.

I realize that some may say, “but state election procedures themselves were not followed, so this is different.”  No, it is not.  Those procedures could have been, and many were challenged before the election even took place.   The challenges either resulted in some changes or failed.  Others were challenged after the fact; those challenges also failed. Either way, there was due legal process before, during, and after the election. 

Just because one thinks that legal challenges were wrongly decided does not change the decision or make it procedurally or legally wrong.  Anyone who follows and understands our legal processes knows that sometimes the outcome of those processes is not what one might have wished it to be.  Sometimes they are not or do not seem to be fair.  But, in this country, in our Democratic Republic, we follow the legal processes and accept their results.  That is how we avoid the rule of the mob, the rule of dictatorship, and how we keep our freedoms.

You do not have to congratulate Joe Biden, you do not have to like Joe Biden, you do not have to say that he won, but pursuant to our Constitution and our rule of law you do have to accept that he will be our President on Jan. 20 of 2021.

               For the Future

So, rather than whine because one did not get what one wanted, rather than continue the schoolyard name calling, it might be far more productive to work to make elections more secure in the future. 

Here is one suggestion. People unhappy with the questionable integrity of this election (that should be all Americans!) can mobilize within their states to petition their state lawmakers to make changes in their election laws.  I would suggest the following:

1.       Requirement that voting occur only in one of two ways:  in person during the designated voting period or by a requested absentee ballot.

a.      In person voting must require that the voter show a photo ID of a type approved by the state’s voting authority.

b.      Absentee ballot must be requested, and a valid reason must be given for the request.  Such reasons might include but not be limited to:  being out of the state during the election period; being an invalid or impaired in a way that prohibits one from physically going to the polls; having no reasonable means of transportation to the polls; etc.

c.      Submitted absentee ballots shall use signature matching or similar verification before the vote is counted.

2.      Required steps for security of the voting and counting procedures.

a.      Requirement that appropriate steps be taken to guard against cyber-interference with the election, including but not limited to checking and protecting voting machines and tallying machines.

b.      Requirement that even when machines tabulate votes that paper ballots be preserved.

c.      Requirement that one observer from every major party represented on the ballot must be present in each polling place during voting and present during any handling, including verification and counting of ballots and votes. 

With relatively simple steps such as these, perhaps we could instill a greater faith in our election process.  None of the above are difficult to implement and would go a long way towards election integrity, and in dispelling allegations of cheating, irregularities, and fraud, whether real or imagined.

In the meantime, we all need to remember that this is America and we are Americans.  We don’t always get what we want.  Neither do we necessarily get what we need.  But, because this is a government of/for/by the people, we are always able to look forward and do more than simply wring our hands over what has already happened.  Even if we feel what happened was wrong, we have the right and the power to stand up and turn whatever hate we may have for what has passed to hope and action for the future.  That is America.