From the paper of record’s “The Morning” briefing:
The Times contacted top election officials in every state to ask about illegal voting. Officials in 45 states responded directly. For four of the remaining states, The Times spoke to other statewide officials or found public comments from secretaries of state. None said they had found evidence of any substantial fraud.
Of particular note here is that the majority of state Secretaries of State are Republican.
Elizabeth Nolan Brown writing the Reason Roundup:
Libertarians who were less than 100 percent psyched about a Trump win this year have been taking gruff from some right-of-center types, who suggest anyone who didn’t help secure Trump a second term must intrinsically support Biden, or at least has no right to complain about anything Biden does.
But libertarians who opposed Trump did so precisely because he deviated from limited government and classical principles in significant ways, whether we’re talking free markets, free expression and other civil liberties, or foreign policy. Refusing to vote for Trump wasn’t a vote for big, overzealous, and unaccountable government; it was a vote against Trump’s version of it.
Precisely. As I’ve said numerous times before, Comrade Trumpski is not a conservative — he’s a lifelong Democrat, and with the exception of appointing conservative judges, he has governed just like the lifelong Democrat he is: trillion dollar deficits, trade wars, expanding the federal government, and he’s certainly no friend to individual freedom.
Few libertarians harbor any delusions that a Biden administration will be good for liberty and limited government. Everyone knows we’ll have our work cut out for us as watchdogs and non-partisan analysts of government shenanigans—undoubtedly more than during the past four years. A lot of journalists eager to point out Trump’s flaws and question federal law enforcement authorities during his tenure will, under Biden, suddenly rediscover the joys of regurgitating government press releases and calling it a day. A lot of people will assume good motives, and will assume that a good motive means good policy.
It’s going to be…well, basically, the Obama years all over again. Which won’t be very pleasant, but also won’t be new. This is a thing we recognize. This is a thing we know how to fight.
Indeed.
I have to say that as an actual Conservative1, I disagree with Joe Biden more than I agree with him2. But I also have to acknowlege this:
Last night, I watched a President-Elect address the nation. He spoke in coherent, cogent, complete sentences. He spoke of his vision for the nation, and did so without lying, without attacking anyone, without insulting anyone, and without making it all about himself.
And I almost started crying.
Thank you Joe Biden.
2 Of course, as an actual Conservative, I disagreed with Trump more than I agreed with him, as well.
“What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.” -Christopher Hitchens https://t.co/k2suaAMOFW
— Michael Shermer (@michaelshermer) November 7, 2020
Indeed.
Ladies and gentlemen: our long national nightmare is finally over:
Joe Biden has been elected the 46th president of the United States of America.
Hopefully, Sleepy Joe — by being a rational adult — will be able to reverse the awful situation that Trump has brought us concerning our allies and enemies. It’s funny, but one thing that can’t be denied — and that practcally no one is talking about — is that in four short years, our allies no longer trust us, and our enemies no longer fear us. And that ladies and gentlemen, will forever be the legacy of Donald Trump1.
Yes, he cut taxes2 and yes, he did some really good things for our veterans3, and yes, he has appointed many good conservative judges, but let’s be honest: history will not be kind to Donald Trump.
Why? Well, let’s start with the fact that he is not a conservative. As I have written before, you can call yourself anything you like, but if you are not practicing Conservatism, you are not a “conservative”, and Donald Trump, being the lifelong Democrat that he is, does not have the slightest respect for any of the cornerstones of American Conservatism4.
Add to that his dismal record on Climate, Immigration, Trade and Foriegn Policy, and history will deal him the reality check that he so greatly dreads.
An era is over. Thankfully.
Let’s hope the future is brighter than our recent past.
2 Of course, unlike Ronald Reagan’s famous tax cuts that actually increased the tax revenue to the federal government, because the tax rate at the time was higher than the optimal level, Trump’s tax cuts have cost the nation money. Oops.
3 Of note, of course, is that Trump did not pass or sign the Veterans Choice health care program (Veterans’ Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act of 2014) as he has repeatedly and consistently claimed. That bill, which of course was put together by Sen. John McCain in bipartisan fashion along with Sen. Bernie Sanders, was actually signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2014.
Now, President Trump did actually sign the VA MISSION Act of 2018, which modified and expanded the private-care program created by the Choice Act.
I’m not here to split hairs. Anything good that is done for our veterans, I’m in favor of, no matter who is responsible. But giving President Trump credit for the Choice Act is like blaming President Obama for the auto industry bailout in 2018, which of course was signed into law by George W. Bush with the provision that the funds would not be distributed until the next administration took office…
4 Much less the bedrock of Conservatism: character.
Presumptive President-Elect Joe Biden in remarks to the nation last night:
I know watching these vote tallies on TV move very slowly, and as slow as it goes it can be numbing.
But never forget: the tallies aren’t just numbers – they represent votes and voters, men and women who exercised their fundamental right to have their voice heard. And what is becoming clearer each hour is that a record number of Americans – from all races, faiths, religions – chose change over more of the same.
Sure, he started out bragging a bit about his win. Of course, by the standards of the current president — Comrade Trumpski — Biden’s bragging was incredibly subtle and reserved.
And then, Joe Biden demonstrated the thing that this nation has been sorely missing the last four years:
We both know tensions can be high after a tough election, the one like we’ve had. But we need to remember, we have to remain calm, patient, and let the process work out as we count all the votes.
You know, we’re proving again what we’ve proved for 244 years in this country: democracy works. Your vote will be counted. I don’t care how hard people try to stop it. I will not let it happen. People will be heard. Our journey is toward a more perfect union, and it keeps moving on.
In America we hold strong views, we have strong disagreements, and that’s OK. Strong disagreements are inevitable in a democracy, and strong disagreements are healthy. They’re a sign of a vigorous debate, of deeply held views. But we have to remember: the purpose of our politics isn’t total, unrelenting, unending warfare.
No. The purpose of our politics, the work of the nation, isn’t to fan the flames of conflict, but to solve problems, to guarantee justice, to give everybody a fair shot, to improve the lives of our people.
We may be opponents – but we are not enemies. We’re Americans.
No matter who you voted for, I’m certain of one thing: The vast majority of the almost 150 million Americans who voted, they want to get the vitriol out of our politics. We’re certainly not going to agree on a lot of the issues, but we can at least agree to be civil with one another.
We have to put the anger and the demonisation behind us. It’s time for us to come together as a nation and heal. It’s not gonna be easy, but we have to try.
My responsibility as president will be to represent the whole nation. And I want you to know that I’ll work as hard for those who voted against me as for those who voted for me. That’s the job. That’s the job. It’s called a duty of care, for all Americans.
We have serious problems to deal with — COVID, the economy, to racial justice, and climate change. We don’t have any more time to waste on partisan warfare.
And more than that, we have such an incredible opportunity to build the future we want for our kids and grandkids.
I’ve said it many, many times: I’ve never been more optimistic about the future of this nation. There is no reason we can’t own the 21st century. We just need to remember who we are. This is the United States of America, and there has never been anything, anything we’ve been unable to do, unable to accomplish, when we’ve done it together.
I hope to be talking to you tomorrow. I want to thank you all. May God bless you, and may God protect our troops.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is leadership. Full stop.
This is why CNN had to cut the live feed
(audio by @shrimpJAJ) pic.twitter.com/W2dTDPizhR
— James Kelleher (@etienneshrdlu) November 6, 2020
The subhead says it all:
This isn’t fraud. This isn’t a scheme to steal the election. It is the very predictable outcome of the president’s own words and actions.
No. Fucking. Shit. I mean, seriously, duh!
Even as dozens of states were expanding mail-in voting eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic, President Donald Trump spent months on the campaign trail telling his supporters not to cast their ballots that way.
“It shouldn’t be mail-in voting. It should be you go to a booth and you proudly display yourself,” Trump said in April, one of the first times that he spoke publicly on the issue. “You don’t send it in the mail where people pick up—all sorts of bad things can happen by the time they sign that, if they sign that, by the time it gets in and is tabulated. No. It shouldn’t be mailed in.”
He beat that same drum for the next six months. Mail-in voting was risky and dangerous, he said. It would allow postal workers or other nefarious forces to alter or lose ballots. “Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed,” he tweeted in May.
The result, unsurprisingly, is that Trump’s supporters voted mostly in person on Election Day. As a result, the piles of mail-in ballots that are now being counted and that may prove to be decisive in several key states tend to favor former Vice President Joe Biden—in Pennsylvania, for example, Biden is getting 78 percent of the mail-in vote total, The New York Times reported today.
This isn’t fraud. This isn’t a scheme to steal the election. It is the very predictable outcome of the president’s own words and actions.
Precisely.
Judith Miller, Fox News contributer, and Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter:
Never during his four-year term in office did a majority of Americans approve of him. And his Grand Old Party achieved this despite the still soaring COVID-19 pandemic, which Trump has continued claiming would “mysteriously disappear,” but which has cost the nation almost 230,000 lives so far and an estimated $16 trillion, or some $125,000 per household.
Kind of says it all, doesn’t it? Trump has never — NEVER — had a positive approval rating.
Yet again, Trump accused Democrats — calling them a “sad group of people” — of trying to steal the election, saying he wanted “all voting to stop,” which of course it had by the time he spoke.
What Trump really meant was that he wanted the courts to help him exclude millions of valid mail-in and early votes from the Midwestern and other battleground states where the winner of the presidential race remained undetermined, but which seem likely to go to for former Vice President Biden.
What is telling is that Trump supporters in Arizona are yelling “Count the vote” simultaneus with Trump supporters in Georgia and elsewhere yelling “Stop the count.” Of course, hypocrisy is par for the course for Comrade Trumpski (pun intended).
There is an obvious contradiction between the president’s fraudulent claim of victory and his demand to throw out ballots that might award the victory he claims to Biden. Despite his bravado and exaggerated assertions of triumph in state races that state officials have yet to declare, Trump’s appearance smacked of desperation and of fear that he might actually lose to Biden.
Well, if he realizes that he’ll lose to Biden, then he’s not quite as dumb as he always seems…
“Winners” don’t seek to suppress and disqualify ballots; they want every vote to be counted, confident that they will win.
Good point.
But what the election has not yet sparked, for those who care about law and order, is the widely anticipated violence that so many feared. So far, Americans have exhibited restraint and patience with the pace of the ballot counting.
As you would expect.
The slow counting of votes and state rules to include ballots that reach officials even days after the election are not evidence of voter fraud. It is how Americans traditionally elect local, state, and national officials. It is, as Biden called it Wednesday, evidence that “democracy is the heartbeat of this nation.” It should be celebrated.
Rational thought coming out of Faux News is refreshing, to say the least. Of course, the author, Judith Miller, used to be a reporter for the paper of record, the New York Times, so, no stranger to rational thought is she.
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