As the all-important midterm elections of 2022 get closer, it’s more pressing than ever for the GOP to prepare for whatever shenanigans-laden curveballs the Dems are sure to throw at them. One would hope that the Republicans are finally aware that it’s always a matter of “when” and not “if” the Democrats will try to underhandedly game an election, especially after the debacle of 2020.
During the Obama years, I used to say that any GOP candidate had to make sure that he or she was “outside the margin of ACORN.” I’ve updated that to “outside the margin of magic mail-in ballots.”
I will never back away from my contention that vote-by-mail is a fraud-fest. The fact that the Democrats keep trying to make it universal and not based on preference or need is all the proof any sane person should require to come to that conclusion.
Democrats used to say that there was “no voter fraud.” They’ve recently begun saying that there is no “widespread voter fraud.” I’m old-fashioned; I’d prefer there be no voter fraud at all.
They also love to say that it’s never been proven that vote-by-mail is rife with fraud. Well, it was never proven that Al Capone ordered hits on people or killed anyone himself.
And the Clintons have never been indicted for anything.
I could go on.
There is so much that could go wrong with a mail-in ballot from the very beginning of the process until the end. It’s beyond naive to believe that it never does.
This isn’t really just about mail-in ballots, though. It’s about all the tricks the Democrats like to play. We’re already seeing them desperately trying to amp up the Bat Flu panic, hoping they can recreate some of their 2020 dark magic. This will probably only affect the bluest of blue places and not change much, but we can never rule out the prospect of some GOP squishes rolling over for a false narrative.
The Democrats are desperate for some electoral sleight-of-hand that will take the voters’ eyes away from President LOLEightyonemillion’s havoc. It’s a gargantuan task, to be sure, but we can never dismiss the Dems’ skill for election skulduggery.
Based on my decades of activist experience, I see a few potential ways that what should be a slam-dunk for the GOP can get blocked.
The first is if the party elites take the victory for granted. There is blood in the political water right now, and the GOP candidates need to be sharks, not goldfish that are going to die before election day.
Those in the party tasked with getting people elected (the NRSC and NRCC) need to make sure the candidates and everyone around them remain in shark mode. Longtime GOP voters are fond of saying, “Never underestimate the ability of the Republican Party to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.” If they manage to do that with the overwhelming advantage they have this year, the party is toast.
The real danger for the Republicans is that their voters might stay home on election day. There are two reasons this might happen.
The first is that reliable Republican voters might get caught up in the hype and believe that the Republican advantage is so overwhelming that they don’t need to vote.
The second and more likely scenario involves Republican lawmakers alienating voters who may not be reliable from election to election but are quite set on voting for GOP candidates this year because “Let’s Go Brandon.” One more piece of legislation like the execrable gun bill that Squishy McMittens and his ilk helped get passed, and these people will be voting with their middle fingers in November. The GOP can’t keep getting saved by Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema only to then be shivved in the back by the Romney wing of the party.
Lately, I’ve written a couple of times that all the GOP really needs to do right now is get out of its own way. Yes, the Democrats will try to pull something, but there may not be as many of them to make it happen this year. There’s a lot of chatter about progressives and even some less progressive (can’t really call any Democrats “moderate” anymore) Dems being so disheartened by Biden and his inability to allow them to kill babies without restriction that they may sit this election out.
There you have it, GOP ivory-tower types: don’t get complacent, and don’t trip over your past mistakes.
I promise you, dear readers, that I’m not drunk.
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