The Road To Societal Suicide “A republic, if you can keep it” (Benjamin Franklin) The Fulton County DA’s indictment of Trump and several others has thrown gas on the already burning question of “was there widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election?”  The only honest answer to that question is “I don’t know, and neither does anyone else.”  And that’s the problem, a problem that is a major factor pushing the U.S. to the brink of a breakdown of civil society.  Other problems that are pushing the country to the brink are the belief that there is a two-tier justice system, and the federal government is using its police powers to persecute political opponents and those they view as belonging to a disfavored group. The combined effect of these three factors has been to push our nation to the brink of complete distrust in government among a significant part of the population and that will result is civil unrest ranging from mass protests to rioting to armed resistance.  Think I’m creating a crisis where none exists?  Read about the riots and armed groups of the 1960s. Loss Of Faith In The Fairness Of Our Elections. For the sake of argument, let’s assume there was some voter fraud in 2020, but not enough to swing the election from Trump to Biden. Under this assumption Biden was rightfully elected as President, so what’s the problem?  The problem is that about half the voters believe the election was rigged and are losing, or have lost, faith in the integrity of our elections. A Rasmussen poll conducted on November 19, 2020, found that 47% of voters believed it was likely that Democrats stole votes or destroyed pro-Trump ballots in several states to ensure that Biden would win.  A Rasmussen poll conducted April 11-12, 2021, saw that number increase to 51% of voters who believed it was likely that “cheating affected” the outcome of the election.  Polling on this subject for 2022 and 2023 is a bit scarce but seems to indicate between 40% and 50% still believe the election was stolen.  To put that in perspective, the number of registered voters in 2020 is estimated to have been 168,310,000.  This means that somewhere between 67,324,000 and 84,155,000 Americans believe the 2020 election was stolen. When there are between 67.3 and 84.2 million people who believe the 2020 election was rigged, even if they are wrong, you have a crisis of faith in the electoral system.  Yet the federal and state governments refuse to conduct a good faith transparent investigation into the alleged voter fraud.  To the contrary, they merely tell people there is no evidence of voter fraud, or at least no evidence of wide-spread voter fraud.  In other words, federal and state governments are telling the people to “trust us.”  That might have worked at one time but not now when Americans’ confidence in Congress is a staggering low 8% and only 26% in the presidency. While the state and federal governments refused to open an investigation there was, and still is, a steady stream of purported evidence that widespread voter fraud occurred.  Much of it has been shown to be inaccurate and some of it false, but some of it is concerning.  Additionally, Trump’s attorneys were busy conducting their own investigations, which I believe were flawed, and filed several court cases based on those investigations.  Trump either lost these cases or they were dismissed for lack of standing, but none of them resolved the question of whether there was widespread voter fraud. Trump vocally stating his belief that the 2016 election was “stolen” is often pointed to as the reason for Americans’ lost faith in the integrity of our elections.  While it didn’t help to restore faith in our elections, it is not the cause for the loss of faith in them.  As an initial matter, Trump honestly believes the election was “stolen” and is justified in being vocal about the issue.  Just like everyone of the following were justified in raising their allegations of voter fraud and stolen elections: Nixon voter fraud (1960); Gore hanging chads and military absentee ballots (2000); Kerry voter fraud involving Ohio (2004); Clinton allegations of stolen election (2016). Trump allegation of stolen election (2020) Allegations of stolen elections are not the reason for the loss of faith among Americans.  Instead, the loss of faith results because the government refuses to address Americans’ concerns, conduct an honest investigation, fix any problems found and prosecute any who violated election laws. Would investigations have resulted in finding widespread voter fraud?  Again, I don’t know and neither does anyone else – because no true investigation has ever been conducted. What I do know, is that an honest investigation, whether it found widespread voter fraud or not, would have addressed the concerns of Americans and there would not be the loss of trust in election integrity that we have today. Instead, of conducting an honest investigation and fixing any problems found, those in a position of authority repeatedly said “trust us” – which is really saying though we have not investigated the allegations, we know there was no widespread voter fraud, so we don’t care if you believe there was widespread voter fraud.  As a result, a large number of those supporting Trump still believe, correctly or not, that the 2020 elections were rigged, and the current President is not legitimate. Two-Tier Justice System. A second crisis is the belief among many Americans that there is a two-tier justice system – one for the favored class and one for the rest of America.  I don’t think this is a new phenomenon nor a conspiracy theory – some have always been given preferential treatment.  However, what is new, is now it has become blatant. Since leaving office Trump has been indicted four times and in at least three of those cases a number of his associates have also been indicted. Manhattan, New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg 34 count indictment for business records … Continue reading The Road To Societal Suicide