Sunday, May 23, 2021

The Atermath, Part 8

 

The idea that every complaint on the political right is somehow a conspiracy theory, overlooks the basic premise that just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean that someone isn’t out to get you.

When Donald Trump claimed that the phones in Trump Tower had been tapped and that someone had been spying on him and his campaign, he was correct. When he claimed that the Russia collusion narrative was noting more than a hoax/witch-hunt meant to hamstring his presidency, he was correct. When he discussed his concerns about Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine and the firing of prosecutor Victor Shulkin, he was impeached over a bogus “quid pro quo” charge. We now know, during that same timeframe, Hunter was indeed under investigation by the FBI, as a result of his foreign business dealings. 

In the aftermath of the 2020 election cycle, claims of election irregularities and potential voter fraud were never looked into by the courts or other governmental bodies in any sort of systematic fashion. In fact, most of the cases brought before the courts were summarily dismissed due to lack of standing to bring them. This didn’t mean that there was no validity to the cases, as we’ve been led to believe by the political left and the legacy media. It simply meant that the courts did not feel that they were the proper venue for these issues. The complainants were basically told “see ya, wouldn’t wanna be ya, and don’t let the door hit you in your rear ends on the way out”.

A lot of extraordinary measures were undertaken to ensure that Americans could safely vote during the pandemic last year. Quite a few of these measures would not have passed muster under normal circumstances, but then again, last year was anything but normal. In a previous post (Part 6), I briefly discussed how the state legislatures were the ultimate arbiters concerning the voting process within their respective states and how to get them to make changes to election laws. Lo and behold, several states have taken steps to adopt quite a few of these measures, but with specific controls on when, where and how they can be used. As if on cue, the political left lost its collective mind. One would think that the very measures they had been pushing in the runup to the 2020 election would have been met with approval (grudging or otherwise) or some sense of relief, but that wasn’t the case.

Georgia , hands down, has become the poster child when it comes to folks playing Chicken Little, running around claiming that the sky is falling. The Republican majority in the state legislature has come under withering fire for establishing guardrails around some of the aforementioned measures  that were put in place, as well as a hard and fast requirement for, of all things, voter ID. One of the more interesting claims that initially circulated about the new election law was the fact that you couldn’t give water to voters standing in line at polling places. Of course, there was no basis in fact to that claim. The rule was set up to prohibit electioneering. What this means is that anyone working for a political organization or candidate, cannot hand out any sort of item, including water, at polling places. Poll workers, on the other hand, can hand out water, and voters can bring their own.

I decided to cut through all the noise in the media (internet, television, and radio) and take a look at what some of the voting laws in Georgia, versus President Biden’s home state of Delaware, looked like. Having gone through a list of voting sites trying to find an impartial one, I finally settled on Ballotpedia. Here’s what I found:

Voting in Georgia https://ballotpedia.org/Voting_in_Georgia#Noteworthy_events

Early voting allowed.

No excuse absentee voting.

Felons regain their right to vote upon completion of sentence. 

 

Voting in Delaware https://ballotpedia.org/Voting_in_Delaware

Must have a valid reason to vote absentee.

Early voting not allowed unless you qualify to vote absentee. 

Felons lose their right to vote permanently for certain offenses.

 

It could be just me, but Georgia’s laws seem just a bit more voter friendly than Delaware's. But that didn’t stop local Atlanta corporate giants, Coca Cola and Delta Airlines, from issuing knee-jerk statements condemning the legislature’s actions as a throwback to Jim Crow and a move meant to disenfranchise voters of color. In fact, they became initial signatories to a  group letter condemning the law. Delta, for starters, should have known better. This wasn’t their first rodeo. They initially made a foray into the political arena weighing in on a controversy surrounding the National Rifle Association (NRA) several years prior. Anyone remember how well that turned out for them? It didn’t. As more corporate names joined the woke protest list, it became quite obvious, by the time the list was finalized, that Delta and Coke were no longer lending their names to said list. Whatever happened to sticking to your guns or the courage of your convictions if you truly believed in something? A consumer advocacy group called Consumer's Research, recently launched a series of commercials turning the spotlight on some of these “woke” institutions and explained that their actions were meant to distract from the difficulties they’ve been experiencing in their core businesses. It’ll be interesting to see how these organizations react to this ad blitz.

Business mogul and NBA great, Michael Jordan, famously reminded everyone that even Republicans bought sneakers. Something to keep in mind the next time these companies want to pick sides in an argument where they obviously don’t  have a dog in the fight.

 

“Some like it hot and some sweat when the heat is on. Some feel the heat and decide that they can’t go on.”  Some Like it Hot – The PowerStation