Last week, The National Pulse reports that Trump is leading in all seven battleground states. Pop the cork! Trump wins... Not yet, anyway.

This isn’t to suggest that Trump boosters shouldn’t be heartened by polling data and trends favorable to 45. Apart from hardcore progressive Kool-Aid drinkers, who believes that their lives are better off after three years of doddering Joe Biden? Four more years of the Enfeebled One would transform the Republic into Oakland.

Yet what did we learn from polling in 2016, 2020, and 2022?

A lot of polls missed Trump’s upset in 2016. Reliable polls looked promising for Trump in 2020. Four years ago, though, Democrats and their henchmen used the pandemic to rig presidential elections, as in plenty of ballot hijinks. Ahead of that, they busied themselves rewiring election systems – as in litigating to change laws, lying, censoring, and funneling lots of Mark Zuckerburg’s dinero into blue county elections offices. The latter juiced Democrat turnout.

Overall, it was a sophisticated effort that’s become a machine. D.C. lifer jackals, like Christopher Wray and William Barr, helped oil the gears on the inside and squelch investigations. The Machine operates outside and inside government now, and we’re smack up against it in 2024.

The Machine hummed during the midterms. That huge red wave? The Swamp was never swamped. That wave just lapped gently on the Capitol’s steps.

Time crowed in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 elections that, of course, what we barbarians call election rigging -- and prewiring -- was just well-intended collaboration among a broad spectrum of powerful interests to “save democracy.” The skullduggery included establishment Republicans who despise Trump. Let’s add that RINOs love playing Stepin Fetchit to their Democrat massas. Guys like doddering Mitch McConnell pretend that betrayal and selling out serves a higher purpose -- like lining their pockets.

Mollie Hemingway stripped the bark off Time’s pretense. I’ve previously cited Hemingway’s exposé, Rigged: How Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections. Her book title pretty much sums it up.

Back to the polls. Let’s understand this: No matter how wrong-track the nation, how poorly Biden is performing in polls, regardless of how high Trump is riding today, tomorrow, or right up to Election Day (whatever that means anymore), the Machine is cranking on all cylinders.

Dreadful thought, but, say, like 2020, Trump wins the General Election only to lose it?

The Epoch Times has issued a sobering analysis titled, “A 'Well-Funded Cabal’ Influenced the 2020 Election -- What Lies Ahead in 2024?” The subtitle is the gut-punch: “Republicans may be holding a losing hand this November as the Democratic Party uses the advantages it gained during and after the 2020 election cycle.”

What Epoch Times discovered is that:

Fundamental changes in state election laws, coupled with an alliance of left-wing federal, corporate, financial, and nonprofit entities, have handed the Democratic Party advantages that the GOP may be unable to overcome.

The Epoch Times details the claim. Consider it something of a clarion call.

So, before you chuck your MAGA tee-shirt and head for the bench, recall that the game of life is fraught with unknowns. Yes, the Machine is real but is it invincible? No. History offers a plentitude of examples of slam-dunks that neither slammed nor dunked. The British took the court expecting a sure W, only to have those pesky colonists block their shots. Who won that game?

As was the 2020 presidential sweepstakes, 2024 hinges on seven states, per the National Pulse, or eight, per an organization called the Voting Rights Lab.

The Voting Rights Lab is, according to Influence Watch, an organization that “works to support left-of-center policies concerning vote-by-mail and restoration of voting rights to former convicted felons.” It’s got progressive stink all over it, but it did issue a report last October that merits examination. The report is called: “Battleground 2024: How Swing States Changed Voting Rules.”

According to the report, of the eight battleground states it’s tracking, voters in four states have “less access” to ballots. Translating from progressive to English, that means Georgia, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Wisconsin have tightened laws to reduce -- shh!! -- fraud. In Wisconsin, “pending litigation” may make the landscape less favorable to honest balloting. But, overall, voter ID requirements are tougher and other changes have been enacted to make it harder for Democrat ballot harvesters to game the system.

In those four critical states, the playing fields appear closer to level. Trump has fighting chances to pick up electoral votes in any or all four. Short of a sweep, the combination of Ws matters, per 270ToWin.com.

Laws are one thing, though. Enforcement and resources sufficient to back up enforcement are another story. State elected and appointed execs have to act with vigor to give laws teeth.

Take Georgia, for example. A handful of Black majority, Democrat counties are where much of the election rigging is said to have occurred in 2020. Will Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger employ state resources to better ensure honest elections in those counties? Or will those two very establishment Republicans step away, fearing racial troubles?

Kemp and Raffensberger were in the eyes of swirling election controversies in 2020. Both men hate Trump. Raffensberger is at the center of Georgia’s latest elections integrity storm.

The storm involves voting machines, not surprisingly. There’s litigation in federal court. Raffensberger is denying expert findings from an audit of the state’s electronic voting machines. The federal court trial wrapped up last week. U.S. District judge Amy Totenberg is expected to rule this week.

Even Politico offered a searing indictment of Raffensberger.

From Politico, June 23, 2023:

...Raffensperger’s dismissive reaction to the unsparing audit conducted by security expert Alex Halderman has turned him into an object of intense criticism from cybersecurity specialists, who say he is painting legitimate research with the brush of far-right conspiracy theories -- and imperiling the 2024 elections in the process.

As the Washington Examiner reported last week:

Totenberg’s ruling could have a significant impact on the hotly contested presidential election in November as the battleground state awaits her decision on the use of the machines.

Another key consideration that may favor Trump is if RFK Jr.’s campaign makes it onto swing state ballots. That’s a taller order than appreciated, but if Kennedy’s campaign succeeds, it promises to disrupt the presidential election in favor of Trump. Per The Hill, Democrats are starting to worry.

Until recently, the conventional wisdom has been that RFK Jr. might draw more votes from Trump. Don’t buy it. A good many Democrat voters and leaners are disillusioned with Biden. That disillusion promises to grow in the coming months. RFK Jr. represents a safe haven for those voters.

Sure, in three-way contests in battleground states Democrat ballot shenanigans might skew results for braindead Joe, but that’s easier to accomplish in a handful of blue counties where resources can be focused. Lopsided results in some blue counties versus others would scream fraud. Would that be enough to trigger a real national blowup?

Trump’s campaign and honest elections public interest and citizens groups need to work overtime in battleground states. Choking off every avenue for the Machine to queer the 2024 presidential contest isn’t an option.

Some things we know, though. David downed Goliath. The Jets upset the Colts. Trump beating the Machine would be a helluva victory.

J. Robert Smith can be found at Gab, @JRobertSmith. He also blogs at Flyover. He’s returned to X. His handle there is @JRobertSmith1.

Image: go digital