Election shenanigans are for real. Only a fool would ignore the fact that in many states, there is a loose and wobbly process regarding the collection and tabulation of votes. How widespread and serious is that problem? I am not sure. Any lack of integrity in the voting process is serious; but the source and intent of that lack is the real question. When you have fifty states and numerous counties/parishes within each state, the problem is very likely widespread; but the real questions relate to the seriousness of the issues within each state. We all know it is pretty wide…but how deep is it?
While
each state is bent by the ruling national party in that state, the degrees of
the bending vary widely. In many blue
states, the Democrats have ruled for so long that election abnormalities have
become institutionalized and accepted. Election Day in many of these states is
now election weeks…or months.
The hands of the Republican Party are certainly not pristine when it
comes to election chicanery. They too
have states and communities where they have essentially put their own election
system in place with the sole intent of maintaining their control over the
process.
This
system of national elections in America is both a strength and a weakness. It is a strength because not only does it
recognize the constitutional rights of the states to manage their own
elections…it also poses an impossible challenge to any person or entity that
might want to interfere with our national elections. That person or entity with malice on their
mind might mess with a few counties/parishes here or there and might even
manage to influence a state occasionally.
But the mere fact that there are fifty states representing 3,144 county
equivalents means that there is currently no threat out there that can
effectively reach them simultaneously with the same process. The
strength is in the diversity and the scope.
It is clearly an over simplication…but if you don’t like the election
process in your state, then find another state that is preferable. There are lots of choices.
The weakness lies in the fact that
state governments many times celebrate their constitutional independence in
election management by both permitting corruptive influences to enter into the
process and also by coming up with simply stupid ideas about how elections
should be conducted.
Now whether or not a state election rule is stupid or not is in the eye
of the beholder. But it is difficult to
understand how the Open Primaries practiced
in some states make any sense. Why
should we allow opposing parties to participate in the primary elections that
determine another party’s representative?
There are 18 states that have some form of the open primary system. This would appear to be a clear and present
distortion of the two-party system.
Ranked-Choice Voting
and Jungle Primaries seem to be
bizarre ideas that are being practiced in a few states. Perhaps these new election ideas will become
accepted and serve to improve the integrity of our federal elections. Maybe they will be similar to the new influx
of highway roundabouts in rural America…whereby they are adamantly opposed at
first, but then easily accepted once proven to be effective. Time will tell. I have my doubts.
While
it is important to maintain the strength of our federal elections through
constitutional federalism…I see nothing wrong with Congress passing broad federal
laws that, while preserving the essential management authorities of the states,
will establish a broad set of reasonable steps that will better insure the
nationwide integrity of our federal election process. The SAVE Act https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/22/text
is a good step in that direction and seriously needs to be embraced and formed
in a bipartisan fashion in order to be broadly accepted.
Voting
is a privilege and should be limited to those who earn or are subject to that
privilege. There is simply nothing
unreasonable with demanding some form of identification in order to exercise
that privilege. Election days are just
that…days on which elections are held. It is patently absurd for many of our
elections to stretch weeks or months past election day with no result being
reached. This in and of itself is an
open invitation to corruption. Absentee
ballots are acceptable options for those valid voters who cannot get to the
polls for sound reasons; but choosing not
to make the effort to get out and vote when you are able is not a sound reason.
Congress
does NOT need to micro-manage state
elections and usurp the federalist model.
But someone…somewhere…somehow
sorely needs to restore UNIFORM respect
and integrity back into our election systems.
Voter turnout must INCREASE if
we are to realize the promises held for us in our Constitution. Here is a good website to consider that
turnout issue on a yearly and state-by-state basis: https://statesunited.org/resources/voter-turnout-since-2000/
. Ben Franklin famously said about our
nation and its Constitution… “It’s a
republic, if you can keep it”. When
a minority or a slight majority of our citizens participate in the selection of
the leaders who will run our government…that is not an exercise in democracy.
And if that continues, old Ben will be disappointed because we will not keep it.
Our
Executive and Legislative Branches of government have been choking on many of
the big issues facing our nation. They
are political cowards when it comes to making hard choices on national
immigration policy and essential social security reform. Now they are waffling on the SAVE Act. It is no doubt an imperfect piece of
legislation; but it is a good faith
effort to address a critical problem facing our country and it should get a
chance to do just that.
Perhaps
Rand Paul vs. Anthony Fauci should first play out in the Octagon? …and then, following
that, perhaps we could get down to
seriously considering the terrible mistakes we made in managing our nation’s response
to the COVID epidemic.
I am still raw over the intrusion of government into our personal
liberties during this episode and even more infuriated at how accepting our
population was of those actions. Fauci
was the driving force behind many of those authoritarian mandates. The man was clearly a celebrity wannabe who
fell in love with his own press and allowed that weakness to pervert the job he
was selected to perform. But Fauci’s proper
punishment is the exposure of his egotistical hypocrisy and lack of
character. It is a shame he will take to
his grave. Now is the time for Rand Paul
to accept victory, give Fauci immunity in exchange for his Senate testimony,
and get on with the critical business of preparing our nation for the next
epidemic headed our way.
https://amgreatness.com/2026/08/02/the-rise-and-fall-of-anthony-fauci/
https://www.nationalreview.com/2026/07/the-damning-fauci-diaries/
https://thefederalist.com/2026/07/30/anthony-fauci-the-covid-czar-ticked-off-the-wrong-moms/
The
Iran Conflict and Foreign Affairs in General…
https://amgreatness.com/2026/07/30/the-iran-war-at-the-crossroads/
https://amgreatness.com/2026/08/06/the-long-view-of-iran/
https://freebeacon.com/columns/chinas-gambit-in-the-gulf/
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/08/russian-invasion-in-the-offing.php#google_vignette
https://nypost.com/2026/08/01/opinion/the-uns-latest-embarrassment-shows-the-need-for-punishment/
https://amgreatness.com/2026/08/01/north-america-first-is-america-first/
Politics
and the Mid-Term Elections…
https://jonathanturley.org/2026/08/03/the-confession-of-joe-biden/#more-247709
https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/the-semi-retired-president-and-the-gop-congress/
https://amgreatness.com/2026/07/28/the-gop-is-fighting-to-hold-the-house-it-just-might-do-it/
Education…Education…Education…
https://www.dailysignal.com/2026/07/25/gov-sarah-huckabee-sanders-shows/
The
many faces of the American economy…
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/07/whats-affordable-what-isnt.php
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/08/disappointing-job-numbers.php
https://americanmind.org/salvo/what-the-welfare-state-unleashed/
A
good first step towards governmental fiscal sanity: Shrink the government!
https://americanmind.org/memo/floridas-doge-is-delivering/
There is no need to create more
government in order to achieve less government.
Don’t reinvent the wheel…use the wheels you have. The Government Accounting Office (GAO) could
easily be re-imagined to not only provide non-partisan statistics to our
Legislative and Executive branches of government…it could also assume the
mantle of providing non-partisan advice on how to make our government more
efficient and more effective: https://www.gao.gov/ .
How
equitable and reliable is our current justice system…
You
think WOKE is passé? Think again…
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/08/calling-the-wnbas-bluff.php#google_vignette
