Can Our Nation Conduct an Honest Election in 2020?
I watched on C-SPAN the recent Trump campaign rally that took place on May 20 in Montoursville in rural Pennsylvania. The regional airport outdoor venue drew a large overflow crowd of over ten thousand enthusiastic supporters as the president spent approximately an hour reviewing all his accomplishments in office, emphasizing his administration's record economic successes. He also highlighted key issues such as immigration, trade, energy, late-term abortion, and foreign policy as he criticized the radical left-leaning Democratic Party's agenda and specifically presidential hopeful Joe Biden.
President Trump made his case for electing more Republicans, such his local host, Fred Keller, to Congress and also set the stage for his 2020 re-election bid of which Pennsylvania will play a key role. While watching Trump use his unique style and personality to effectively deliver his pragmatic and mostly moderate to conservative policy agenda, I speculated that only a small audience was actually watching via C-SPAN, YouTube, etc. this live, unfiltered coverage of a Trump rally. Unfortunately, what most often follows after any Trump public event is negative coverage and selective reporting by a hostile mainstream media.
As you watch the rally live, you realize that the majority of Americans have never had the opportunity to witness Trump's ability to connect in such a genuine fashion with his audience and supporters. He wins loyal support by promoting a set of policies that directly relate to improving their lives in meaningful ways and delivering on a great deal of his announced political agenda. He also appeals to his audience's deep sense of patriotism and belief in traditional American values. Most importantly, Trump has successfully delivered on the most important issue facing the country by implementing a set of policies that is directly responsible for making America prosperous again and our economic performance the envy of the world.
Under normal circumstances, it would seem that a political party that supports and implements effective ideas and policies should win future elections, while a party that consistently supports and implements bad ideas and policies should not. Many of the challenges faced by our nation are daunting and complex, however, workable solutions must be formulated, and constructive actions must be taken.
Is the left-leaning progressive agenda for 2020 consisting of a blend of policies such as higher taxes, Medicare for all, the promotion of identity politics, open borders, socialism, late-term abortion, judicial activism, the Green New Deal, globalist trade policies, and a larger role for the federal government in our lives a winning formula with the average American voter?
Joe Biden, who is the current leader in the Democratic primary polls is being packaged these days as a political moderate. However, what is his track record over a long political career, and how about the rest of the Democratic Party? It's a party with a radical agenda driven by emotion and anger rather than facts and reason. It is also one that conflicts greatly with traditional American values such as the promotion of freedom, limited government, free enterprise, and a respect for religious values.
As we prepare for 2020, election integrity and public confidence in the election process are fundamental to preserving our democracy. Given the Democrats' alarming record of public misconduct, a relentless drive for power at any cost, and their seemingly underdog position, what can we expect from them today and in the run-up to the next presidential election? Most importantly, given the current state of the Democratic Party, can we anticipate an honest election being held in 2020?
A good start on the right road would be for the Democrats to finally accept their loss to President Trump in the last election. With Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia collusion investigation leading the way, the Democrats and closely aligned mainstream media have adopted a strategy since President Trump's election of resistance on all fronts and at any cost, without restraint or compromise of any sort, all delivered with a condescending and hateful tone to anything and everything associated with Trump.
The case for an open border–driven immigration policy is being deliberately pursued by the Left to turn America's politics permanently Democratic blue with an influx of illegal aliens to several states, including the key electoral states of Texas and Florida. Turn Texas and Florida and other states blue with more potential Democratic Party voters, and the Republican Party is without any hope of winning any future presidential election.
The accuracy of the voter registration rolls as regards eligibility to vote is an ongoing controversy in the country. The controversy most often revolves around voter ID requirements, with Republicans defending the need to display proper ID before voting to prevent fraud while Democrats argue that the requirement for voter ID disenfranchises minorities and people without the means to obtain a photo ID and promotes voter suppression.
It remains troubling that the accuracy of voter registration rolls and the process of registering to vote are so fragmented and that these systems nationwide are in such dire straits and subject to fraud and abuse. Will Democratic politicians work to exploit this situation, as Stacey Abrams has attempted to do with the false accusation of voter suppression in the recent Georgia governor's race, won by her Republican opponent, Brian Kemp?
Social media are increasingly becoming the primary vehicle of choice for the majority of Americans to receive the news on an everyday basis. Social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter reach large audiences and are able to impact public opinion and voter behavior. Amazon and Google are also dominant tech companies increasingly participating in the political process.
The failings of our mass media and social media's delivery of the news in this country are well documented. A person can follow the news through the mainstream media and social media and find it challenging to come across complete and fair coverage of the leading issues of the day. Both the mainstream media and social media news outlets are negligent in performing their essential duties to comprehensively and objectively report the news and understand and relate to the authentic concerns of the majority of our citizens.
They often utilize a selective lens that provides a partisan view, and too often, "fake" news often favoring one side. They are primarily active advocates for liberal points of view on major issues and the election of Democratic Party candidates and favor the coverage of left-leaning public figures and leading celebrities.
How will the Democrats and their allies conduct themselves in their ongoing and unrelenting campaign to remove President Trump from office? Will their actions ultimately lead to our country not being able to conduct an honest election in 2020? And how will we recover as a nation if the majority of our citizens continue to witness our democratic process and the rule of law being so abused by one of our two major political parties on a daily basis?