"The real election fraud", Letter to the editor, Tom Denton

 Imagine you are the President of the United States with all the powers the office gives you.  Looking ahead to the November 3 election, would you: 

1. Denounce the election’s results, before votes were even cast, claiming they would be fraudulent and unacceptable?
   
   
2. Appoint a crony as Postmaster General, who promptly and systematically shredded the Post Office’s ability to process the many millions of expected mail-in ballots?
   
   
3. Use the threat of this shredding as a bargaining chip to negotiate the dollars of government COVID relief precipitously downward?
   
   
4. Promise to the nation your commitment to protect the legitimacy of our democracy’s sacramental rite and respond to any challenge or obstacle?  Assure Americans afraid of out-of-home voting that they’d be able to vote safely at home with COVID 19 as the ever-present threat?  Announce with congressional leaders of both parties the release of whatever funds were necessary to assure secure and reliable mailed-in ballots, ample sites for early voting, and well-equipped stations and workers on Nov. 3?                        

The right answer, of course, is 4) because you took the oath to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution,” and, by extension, the American people.  But if you believed you’d lose a free and fair vote, you’d choose 1), 2), and 3), like the tinpot dictators of other nations we criticize when they undermine their own countries’ elections.  Bad Belarus.  Nasty Russia.

Donald Trump.  Wannabe dictator. Loser.  Americans who want to keep their republic must demand that Congress appropriate funds to support the Post Office for its November 3 responsibilities and beyond.  Otherwise, prepare for the dissolution of the country we thought we had.

Publishing history

Daily Freeman     8/21/20     Shawangunk Journal     8/20/20, Hudson Valley One   8/19/20