Some thoughts on… Stealing an Election

The House of Representatives sent articles of impeachment to the Senate a second time for Donald Trump with the charge of “incitement of insurrection”.  Politicians are debating whether citizen Trump can still be impeached even if out of office.  Constitutional scholars will weigh in.

A more important question for me is why elected officials allowed a sitting President to tell a series of falsehoods accumulating into a grand lie on the result of the 2020 election that led to the incitement of insurrection.  In the organizations for which I have worked, this deceitful behavior could not have lasted four years. Other organizational leaders, employees, customers, or the Board would have checked the conduct as detrimental to the goals of the organization.

The President should be questioned by other branches of government (legislative, judicial), State leaders, members of the Administration, citizens and the Press.  Over the past few years, the latter two bodies were quite active in bringing him to task.  Although the press did amplify his tweets and pronouncement, it was Congressional leaders, State Governors and Administration officials who fell short on their responsibility of balancing power.

The falsehoods seemed to pass through three levels.  

At the first level, when Trump started telling falsehoods, individuals chose not to push back as the lies seemed harmless, and “politicians exaggerate the truth all the time”.  Examples of the untruths are:

• Claiming more people attended the 2016 inauguration than Obama’s (photos by the National Park Service prove otherwise)
• Claiming the trade deficit with China was over $500B for several years before his Presidency (it actually maxed at $410 B in 2018 under Trump).

At the next level, the lies got bigger and had financial or legal impacts.  In these cases, Administration officials instead of pushing back, actually kicked into action to support the propagation of the lies.  Examples of the untruths include:

• Claiming Hurricane Dorian in 2019 would hit Alabama even though it was not supposed to get past Florida.  The declaration and repeated support by the Administration led to confusion and waste of resources as states unnecessarily prepared for a hurricane.   An independent investigation showed that Agency leaders at the urging of the White House violated Scientific Integrity.
• Claiming Trump was unaware of $130,000 payments to Stormy Daniels, a prostitute, even though he personally reimbursed his lawyer.  The campaign contribution is illegal because they weren’t recorded in campaign finance reports and exceeded the maximum amount allowed. 

At the top level, the lies were so big that lives were lost to violence and inaction.  In these cases, both the administration, Governors, Senators and Congressmen supported and propagated the lies further.  Examples include:

• Claiming the Covid-19 virus is under control and the loss in life could be contained.  Recently, the CDC predicted over 500,000 domestic deaths from Covid-19 in one year – more than the number of Americans who died in battle in WW1, WW2, Korean War and Vietnam war combined.
• Claiming the 2020 election was rigged and that Trump actually won. This resulted in a mob descending on the Capitol leading to deaths of police officers, looting and theft.

In addition to Trump, I believe we need to hold accountable the people that allowed these lies to grow and that propagated the “big lie” that the November election was stolen due to massive fraud implying the Electoral College results were not valid.   

The Congressman for our district, Lee Zeldin, is one of these individuals, and I have written the below letter to him.  He voted to overturn the electoral count even after the violence occurred at the Capitol.   You can find your Congressional representative, and see how they voted on approval of the Electoral College.   If you approve or don’t approve, send a note to them on their website (they all have one), and feel free to use any or all the text below.

The irony of the “big lie” is that the 6 Senators and 121 Congressmen who voted to overturn the Electoral College results, were the ones that actually tried to steal an election.

 

==

Congressman Zeldin,

I am writing to express my disapproval of your objection to the Electoral College results on Wednesday, Jan 6.  You may think you were representing your Congressional District, but you were not representing me or my community.

What is most surprising is that you chose to overturn the Electoral College results, even after you witnessed the violence that was occurring on Capitol Hill which left several people including police officers injured or dead.  This act of sedition was spurred on by Donald Trump, and you along with him, are responsible to contributing to the mob’s actions.

Your repetition and propagation of the lie that the November election was stolen due to massive fraud and that the Electoral College results were not valid, was believed by millions of Americans and sowed distrust of the election process.  I worked the polls for 17 hours on Election Day in NY 1.  Along with fellow Democrats and Republicans, we tirelessly ensured integrity in the results.  The President’s and your allegations without any proof demeans the work of millions of workers across the US who delivered one of the most secure elections as stated by the White House itself.

In the end, it was you and the other 121 Congressional colleagues that tried to steal this election, and because of that you and your staffers should be held responsible. History and voters will ultimately judge whether your actions over the past few weeks were an act of moral uprightness or cowardice.  I know where I fall on this choice.  

==

 

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Some thoughts on… Sinking Ships

A number of metaphors are attached to sinking ships.  Supposedly “rats are the first to jump from a sinking ship” and “good captains always go down with sinking ships”.  Also, “deck chairs get re-arranged” and “the band plays on” while ships are sinking.  A week into the new year, and we witnessed a President urging a mob to disrupt Congress from voting on Capitol Hill.  The nation and the world were dumbstruck. 

As the White House sees many of these metaphors play out, with less than 2 weeks left of the Administration what will be the legacy of this sinking ship?

 

Reflecting over the past four years, there were a few accomplishments:

 

1.     Establishing multi-lateral relations between Israel and the Arab countries of Dubai, Bahrain and Morocco.  The entrenched politics of the Middle East suddenly opened up, as trade, commerce and international relations started to flow between these countries. 

 

2.     Pushing back on China’s expansionary trade policies. Although risky, placing sanctions on Huawei due to national security reasons was a bold move. 

 

3.     Engaging the US populace into civic action.  The largest percentage of the US voting populace participated in the Nov 2020 elections since 1908. Likely an outcome that the President did not intend to happen, but a consequence of his actions nonetheless.

 

But these accomplishments were burdened by policy set-backs.

 

1.     Separating immigrant children from their parents at the border.  Over 600 of these children have still not been reunited with their parents – a humanitarian nightmare. 

 

2.     Withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement and World Health Organization.  Although not a lasting impact, since these international groups can be rejoined, it sent a strong signal that many are still in denial about the importance of Global Health and Environment maintenance.

 

3.     Encouraging foreign officials to intrude on domestic affairs. By openly calling for Russia, Ukraine and China to interfere, the President undermined the validity of the election process and broke the law.

 

4.     Handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.  With the highest total deaths and excess deaths per 100,000 people, the US leads all other OECD countries in fatalities from COVID-19.  Inconsistent pandemic response on issues like mask wearing, disrupted supplies of PPE to hospitals and minimal Federal contact tracing programs – all contributed.

 

The President’s story before he took office and during his tenure was simple to follow – he portrayed himself as an aggrieved underdog, persecuted by elites, who only wanted a chance to reap the riches to which he is entitled.  

 

This story echoed the voices of tens of millions of American and tapped into their personal stories of jobs, lives and opportunities lost to a global economy that is fostered by the meritocratic elite - a vanished American Dream.

 

A number of legislative policies could potentially have helped American workers:

-       Programs to retrain and teach skills to individuals whose positions have been off-shored 

-       Measures to strengthen workers unions which were handicapped since deregulation started in the 1980’s

-       Major infrastructure initiatives to rebuild roads and bridges that would employ skilled construction workers

 

The Administration did not push through any of these programs to help disaffected Americans.  The crowning legislative achievement was the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act which in the end did not add jobs as expected and according to a Congressional Research Service Report put more money back in the hands of large companies and shareholders through stock buy-backs.

 

Amidst all these policy accomplishments and failures, one overwhelming success was the President’s finances.  During his time in office, he was able to help his family businesses which were virtually bankrupt before the Presidency, earn more than $1.9B in businesses during the first 3 years of his term.

 

History in the end will judge the accomplishments of this ship’s voyage — whether it was an earnest odyssey to reclaim the American dream for millions of individuals, or a self-indulgent pleasure cruise lining the pockets of the individuals close to the White House.

 

Please do forward any interesting articles you are reading.  Previous blogs are at: www.kkwn.org, where you can also sign others up to receive posts.  Look forward to hearing from you.