We sit with less than 60 days left in this year with the result of thousands of decisions. Those decisions began in March when we were all confronted with the sum of all fears: A Viral Epidemic. We were told in the second week of March that we needed to begin being careful. We needed to stop congregating in groups. We began suspending sporting events, beginning with the annual NCAA basketball tournament and culminating in the suspension of the entire NBA and MLB schedules.
We were told to be afraid. We were told that we just needed to “ride out the curve for a few weeks.” Fifteen days became two months. The curve became elongated as power was consolidated in a few and fear was spread over many. We continued to comply as our neighbor’s businesses shuttered and our children waited patiently for unemployment checks to keep their electricity on. Some are still waiting for those checks.
We pushed back the primary election. We indiscriminately sent out millions of mail-in ballots. We did this in the face of valid State laws across the country that would and should have prevented this very activity. We ignored calls by our legislature to be called back into session to deal with these problems. We ignored it all in the face of fear.
I spoke with a good friend last night with whom I served in the Marines. We always recall one day standing in formation, for hours, with no plausible reason for doing so, when I asked him “why are we standing here like this?” He said, “Because they told us to.” I asked again, “no, not why are we doing it right now, but what is the reason that you and I will stand here as we were told with no explanation?” We pondered that question, and both of us arrived at the conclusion, “Fear.”
Fear is a powerful motivator. Fear will cause people to submit to that which they would have never considered. Even more powerful is a fear instilled in us of something we cannot see, feel, taste, touch, or hear: a virus that could claim our lives, and the lives of the ones we hold dear.
I believe the Coronavirus is real. People are getting very sick, and some dying from this virus. That is without a doubt. The issue I have with our current situation is our response to this virus is completely different from our response to similar viruses. The death rate from the seasonal flu is higher than that of COVID-19. Tuberculosis still claims more lives than COVID-19 has claimed. Malaria will kill many more people this year than COVID-19 will. Our response to these diseases has never resulted in the limitation of movement and liberties of our citizens the way our response to COVID-19 has. Fast food restaurants kill more people than anything every single year and we literally deemed them “essential businesses” and kept them open while we shuttered businesses that focus more on a healthy diet and lifestyle. Alcohol kills more people every year than COVID-19 would in 20 years and we deemed liquor stores “essential businesses.” Our response is a hodge-podge of nonsense that is designed to confound the average citizen’s understanding of their rights and responsibilities.
To merge two ideas, we are now sitting and counting mail-in ballots in multiple states due to the measures we have taken in response to this virus. We have heard warnings from the President and many others about the dangers of sending out millions of mail-in ballots indiscriminately. We have heard reports from neighbors that are receiving ballots for people that have not lived at that residence in over 20 years. Fear has caused us to mail nearly 100 million valid ballots blindly across America. As of Wednesday, nearly 35 million had been returned completed to be counted.
The Washington Times reported on October 20, 2020 that Judicial Watch had found “1.8 million ‘ghost voters’ in 29 states” with “Alaska, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont” having state-wide registration rates that exceeded 100% of eligible voters.” This issue of bloated voter rolls containing individuals that had long departed this world and the haphazard shotgun blast of mail-in ballots across the country has resulted in an election where we will never know the real outcome.
West Virginia is not that much different, in terms of its people’s political leanings, from the rest of the country. I believe Tuesday night showed we are much more conservative than we originally thought, but how are we that much different than Arizona? Republicans had historic gains in West Virginia on Tuesday night with President Trump having a resounding victory while the rest of the country seemed to be almost evenly divided about the choice for President. These same states that are struggling with counting votes have mountains of mail-in ballots.
Let us look at Arizona. In key republican precincts, poll workers handed out “Sharpie” permanent markers that bled through ballots thereby invalidating them. Wisconsin and Michigan had magic shipments of hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots show up on election night that overwhelmingly supported Biden. Mail-in ballots accounted for more than 1/3 of the votes across the country.
We were set on this course a long time ago, back in March, when a few elites convinced the country’s leaders to sacrifice personal liberties, ignore valid election laws, and consolidate power in a handful of Governors all in the name of fear. Fear of a virus that’s death toll has not even topped 1% of those infected. America should not be surprised that this election could be won by a person for which many of us could not fathom voting. The tool of our destruction was fear.
Sending out mail-in ballots without them being requested is illegal in the State of West Virginia as well as many other states. West Virginia ignored that law in the primary, but fortunately righted the ship prior to the general election and required them to be requested prior to being sent out. I wish other states would have followed suit. Now we sit wading through a mass of mail-in ballots with no way of knowing if they are valid. We sit watching as a candidate that couldn’t piece together 50 people for a campaign event is somehow ahead in the polls against a candidate that commands crowds of over 10,000 upon a moment’s notice, and inspired citizen organized vehicular parades across the country in which millions participated.
If a court were to hear a case in these states concerning the validity of these mail-in ballots which were sent out in violation of State law, that court would be bound to invalidate any mail-in ballot that was not validly requested by the recipient. This is exactly what should be done. The rule of law should be restored. The fear-mongered mob mentality that has resulted in the exploitation of the American election process must be squelched. America needs to shed its fear and return to the rule of law. Courts need to follow laws that were validly enacted by legislatures, not notions cooked up by elites and force fed to governors.
President Trump was right to warn us all, repeatedly, of the danger of these mail-in ballots. We are now seeing firsthand how a few elites behind closed doors could convince a nation to live in fear, ignore its laws, and circumvent a national election. Foreign interference in our elections cannot hold a candle to the destruction these mail-in ballots have waged on our democracy. The fraud is evident. This election is being stolen by fear.
