Red Ripple
I’m appalled. Appalled at my country. I thought I had grown out of it, but I guess that lurking in the back of my mind was the assumption that, if confronted with the truth of what’s going on, the Common Man will ultimately decide for common sense. Last night was a particularly nasty wake-up call, flying in the face of even liberal polling.
Like everyone else, I’ll spend a good part of the day going over the post mortems (that’s for you, Yancey!). I’d be a fool not to be open to the possibility of election fraud. On the other hand, that’s not the whole story. If you examine multiple state-wide election results in the same states—governor/senator is an easy comparison—it’s clear that there is quite a bit of ticket splitting going on. The implication of that is that a lot of people are extremely ignorant regarding how our political system actually works. What possible thought process could explain that phenomenon in our current national situation, short of shocking ignorance? How do they think human beings work things out in a political system? If people can’t figure that one out, how can one reasonably expect them to figure out more complex policy issues—whether of national security, economics, basic morality, or whatever? Assuming these people make any effort to get informed about such things.
Then again, I don’t care how Blue a state is or how weak a GOP candidate may be—John Fetterman? Really? But, after all, Zhou Baidan? There is a moral corruption at the heart of America that runs very deep.
On the other hand, being an incorrigible glass-half-full type of person, even in the Senate—which is lost, barring something close to a miracle—there were some good signs. There are some better newcomers replacing departing RINOs. That’s not nothing—these are younger people for the most part, and may form a nucleus around which to regroup. We need something to build on. It may be the work of generations, but the work must continue.
And now for the post mortems.
Leaving aside the possibility of fraud, you are left with possibility that people have simply given up on the GOP. People are angry about the Covid response, and they may have some inkling of the immense damage done by the vax, but the GOP went along with the lockdowns and the vax. People may be angry about inflation and high spending, but the GOP never opposed the gusher of money printing that went with the Covid response and they spent like drunken sailors. People may oppose the war in Ukraine, but the GOP as fully on board with that. And the GOP was complicit in the regime change operation against Trump.
This has been a long time coming. I seriously considered just leaving the Senate part of my ballot blank. I didn't, but Ted Budd's campaign was an offense against man and God. Warmed over Fox news talking points from fifteen years ago, and you knew he didn't mean a word of it. "TED BUDD WILL GET WASHINGTON OUT OF THE WAY!!!!!" Please. Nothing about DOJ reform, or getting the three letter agencies back under a modicum of control. Nothing about tech censorship, or the crisis on the border, or getting the pedos out of the schools.
I'm cross-posting this comment. I was completely off-line yesterday from 11/08 5:30 am to 11/09 12:15 am and didn't read this entry of Mark's until just now. I completely ratify his assessment--but admit that I fall strongly into the glass mostly-empty category after having my face rubbed in the corruption, frustration, and hopelessness for 20 hours as a poll worker:
I worked as a poll worker in Maricopa yesterday. It was a f**king disgrace. I would guess that 95% of the voters were GOP (they were carrying their GOP-provided "Golden Ticket" voter recommendations). They stood in line for 4-5 hours--many with young children--to feed their completed ballots into the tabulator machines. Every once in a while a cheer would ring out around the machines as the lucky voter's ballot was actually accepted. Voters were convinced that if they allowed their ballot to be inserted into the infamous Slot #3 it would never be counted (who knows?).
The last voter left the polling place at 10 PM whereupon we began counting the "misread," spoiled, and provisional ballots. The polling place Inspector (the head honcho) was unable to get the tabulator machines to print out the results reports (these are like a retail store's cash register roll). Once all the ballots, reports (finally), and checklist items were boxes and bagged, I volunteered to drive the ballots to an intermediary collection point. A Dem and I drove to a dark parking lot where several Maricopa County Sheriffs were on guard. The folks there transferred the ballots to a large truck and gave us both chain of custody receipts. We returned to the polling place to finish the night at 12:15 AM.
Random Thoughts: 1) the printers and tabulators were tested during the Monday 11/7 polling place set up. They all worked on Monday but immediately began failing on Tuesday morning. Anyone else wonder how that happened? 2) How did this phenomenon occur simultaneously across 20% of the voting locations on the day that was expected to be a very heavy GOP Election Day vote? 3) Why shouldn't Katie Hobbs have recused herself from the management of an election in which she had a direct personal interest? 4) Why hasn't Katie Hobbs resigned in disgrace yet this morning?
The entire election process in Maricopa County and AZ in general is a f**ked up mess. I was checking in voters all day until 7 PM and the voter rolls were dirty ("I changed my information on line, why don't you have my address?" "I registered to vote but never got a new voter registration card" "I changed all my address info at the AZ MVD (DMV) and printed out the screen shots" (but their ADOT account still showed the old information so they had to vote provisionally).
I'm presuming that the felon former Maricopa County Elections weenie Adrian Fontes will be AZ's new Secretary of State. I will certainly never again volunteer to work the elections. My career in large real time information systems implementations tells me that this mess of shiite data cleansing, process chaos has to be the way it is for a reason--a bad reason. Anyone who rolled out such an expensive, flawed, and chaotic abomination in the private sector would be fired on the spot and walked off the premises. In fact, I may just resign as a GOP precinct committeeman and reclaim hundreds of hours of my personal time. America has spoken. My fellow Americans are fine with what the Dems and RINOs have served up for the past six years--and especially the last two. The saying, "You can't cheat an honest man" comes to my mind this morning. The fact that the brain dead and deeply corrupt are still running the country tells me all I need to know about my fellow Americans--and the future.