The Discussion (Part 1)
Is it fair to compare killing a human to killing their freedom?
It makes me crazy to watch pundits declare "Our elections are secure." Then go on to suggest anyone that thinks otherwise is a "conspiracy theorist". I believe that instead of arguing whether the process is secure or not, we should be asking a different question altogether: "How highly do we treasure free elections? If any election is determined to have been corrupted, how would we react? What is the punishment for committing such a crime?
After the 2020 Presidential election, President Trump claimed the election was rigged. It caused an uproar, and since then tons of evidence has been uncovered that challenges the veracity of the process.
Then in 2024 another election was controversial, and leaders of the opposition party claim it was an invalid election, that foreign powers decided the outcome, not the American voter. The point is, Americans cannot be sure if the process is secure or not.
"If election fraud does exist, wouldn't it be more egregious than systemic racism and police brutality? As unfair as an involuntary draft to fight in an unjust war? As repugnant as the trafficking of women and children? Wouldn't it be equivalent to poisoning our water supply or destroying our electrical grid?"
-- f'd: For Your Own Good
People born in America have no personal experience with governmental authoritarianism. For nearly 250 years we have enjoyed something unique to human experience: total personal sovereignty. We can choose where we live, where we work, who we live with, whether or not we believe in God, and how we raise our children.
We are spoiled and privileged for sure. Which can manifest itself in insolence and selfishness. An island mentality that results in a limited perspective on how authoritarianism can quietly, stealthily overcome societies.
To have an intelligent discussion about voting we need to agree to the reasons it is important to have election integrity:
"The slightest hint of fraud in the election process suggests a cancerous tumor is present and should it be malignant, it would certainly be deadly to our Constitutional Republic. No system of self government can exist without a secure system of collecting the will of the people. Representative government is a myth if the vehicle of representation is simply a realistic facsimile, an electronic digit or a ballot with no connection to an established identity."
That quote from my book f'd: For Your Own Good suggests fraudulent elections are synonymous with authoritarianism. If we are not in charge of selecting our representatives in government, than we don't really have any government, just a massive ruling counterfeit bureaucracy.
We should begin our discussion by agreeing on some foundational definitions:
What is voting? Do our votes actually get counted and then have any real affect on public policy?
What is democracy? Is it majority rules (some would say mob rule) or is it a "process" by which public policy is determined and implemented?
What is a Constitution and how is it a part of the process to determine public policy? Should the governing body be subjugated to a defining document?
Do the majority of Americans clearly understand how a Democratic Constitutional Republic works?
As time passes, what happens to a state if the importance of participating in the process of self governing, by choosing candidates, vetting them, comparing their platforms and then voting for them to make civic decisions about housing, policing, educating, and farming, becomes secondary to exercising liberties? Will traveling, partying, doing drugs, making love and ignoring the sometimes painful and time consuming elements required to participate in the election process become more important and popular?
Thieves have always been condemned by civilized people. Whether it is stealing food, horses, or money, the act of taking something of value from the rightful owners has always demanded justice.
As the value of the goods increased, so did the consequences. The Old West hung horse thieves from the nearest tree because the American Horse was the single most important element of freedom to those settlers who required a form of reliable mobility.
So what should happen when any of our fellow Americans try to hijack the very process that defines our freedom? Like taking the life of another human being, isn't the act of destroying the integrity of our lifeline to freedom like stopping the beating heart of another human being? Is it fair to compare killing a human to killing their freedom?
Life is the single most important component of living, right? Does it follow that living life in freedom is the next most critical component of living? And if so, how do we, as a nation, propose to protect that vital condition?
Is disrupting the voting process just as egregious as stealing horses? Should vote thieves face hanging?
Finally, we should agree that our freedom is of utmost importance (if not, then we can simply end this discussion immediately). In our complicated culture today, beyond the acquisition of wealth and information, the single most important element of our freedom is the right and ability to vote and have our vote be recognized.
The Founding Fathers contemplated that question and answered it with the Constitution of the United States, which declared: "We the people of the United States" are the reason for the need to have a document like the US Constitution. It bestows the power to the people themselves, not to any self appointed General, King, or Authority. It states that God gave Mankind certain Rights, and therefore no Earthly Man can remove or alter them.
"This signifies not just that we are founding a country, but that it’s the people doing so. Not a king, not some particular God, but just we people as equals, and we are granting to this government we’re founding only such powers as we think it ought to have. It was unprecedented in human history and remains acknowledged universally as the greatest political achievement of all time."
-- David Dunlap, retired Judge.
Next: Will serious consequences like execution be the punishment required to stop voting corruption?