Well, it’s been decided. The powers that be have declared that Joe Biden is the next president of the United States, signaling an end of discussion for all right-thinking members of polite society. The election is over, Biden won, and it was legitimate. They’re sure of it. And no, they’re not taking any questions.
Everyone of goodwill in the country is now supposed to accept on faith that those overseeing the election process are reasonable and honorable people, bound by morality and our nation’s venerable norms. The political environment of this election has led elites to plot coups in the case of a Donald Trump victory, call for dissidents’ executions, and systematically suppress the distribution of evidence indicating blatant Biden family corruption.
Now, Democratic operatives are building watch lists and promising retribution in perpetuity for those who dared to support Trump. Nevertheless, we are supposed to believe that, in this climate, there would exist no motivation on the left for drastic measures to oust the supposed fascist.
We are also supposed to believe that election fraud has already been proven to be impossible, and that allegations of it therefore deserve little to no investigation. Social scientists declare ex cathedra that since election fraud has rarely been caught in other elections, it is impossible that any occurred in this one. The media additionally points out that there are a number of ballot-integrity measures in place, most of which they oppose, and many of which were done away with, which nevertheless ensure that it is impossible to conduct election fraud on anything but a negligible scale.
Forgive us for insisting that they prove it. With credible allegations of fraud compounding by the day, the American people deserve a special counsel investigation to set the record straight. That’s because, as of now, there are plenty of reasons for concern.
Governments threw ballots out into the ether en masse since it would be too dangerous to go to the polls, creating a situation uniquely ripe for fraud, before turning around and urging voters to go to their polling locations even if they were currently infected with COVID-19. Courts and commissions also threw out many ballot-integrity measures that were in place.
Voter rolls were not maintained, ballots were accepted without postmarks, signatures were not checked against records, and poll-watchers were denied the ability (sometimes, it seems, through trickery) to observe ballot counting—except, perhaps, from far enough away that they couldn’t see what was going on. For public health reasons, of course. Of the safeguards that remained, we now have many dozens, if not hundreds, of sworn affidavits alleging that not even these measures were followed.
Everyone agrees, or at least claims to agree, that this is a dire situation for the health of our republic. All agree that trust in the integrity of the vote is necessary for our country’s long-term stability and well-being. It would seem to follow, then, that appearances of electoral fraud and wrongdoing require transparent investigation and resolution. They require public argument and evidence, with a full and open discussion.
This is what the Trump campaign has called for, taking the issue to court and laying out their evidence. U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr has ordered investigations. Trump and his surrogates are airing their findings and conclusions publicly, at least to the (decreasing) extent that the media and major tech corporations allow them to do so.
Meanwhile, elite institutions are spending their time loudly declaring that such questions are by their very nature illegitimate and evil. When evidence is presented, the media cuts away. When the arguments are posted online, they are blocked or editorialized, and their distribution is reduced.
It’s hard to imagine a response more harmful to public trust in the vote, but they continue anyway. To question any element of the way the election was conducted, they say, is tantamount to an attack on democracy itself. Just shut up and submit already.
The left’s hypocrisy on the issue is almost too obvious to even mention. These are, after all, the same people who spent the past four years insisting that the 2016 election was somehow illegitimate. These are the same institutions that used to publicly declare until just last week that our democratic processes are structurally unjust, even racist, and in need of a radical overhaul. But now, Biden is ahead, and even basic questions of fact regarding whether the laws were followed is a dangerous assault on the American system itself.
The elites, left and right, have made it clear that they do not believe Trump supporters deserve answers on these, or any, questions. The power, they believe, is back on the side of the swamp, and they’re more than happy not to have to put up with the deplorables any longer. Serious questions and allegations can be safely ignored if they come from unfashionable people. It would seem that this, more than anything, is what is meant by a Biden presidency’s “return to normal.”
Trump rose to the presidency precisely by reaching out to these people forgotten and dismissed by the elites of both sides, by championing the so-called “deplorables” and addressing their concerns. It is what he has continued to do throughout his presidency. Now his administration can do so again by appointing a special counsel to investigate allegations of voter fraud in the election and give a full and transparent account of the findings to the American people.
We were told that a special counsel investigation into the allegations of the Russia hoax was necessary to restore public trust in our elected officials. How much more crucial is it to restore public trust in elections?
The investigation into the Russia hoax was based on far flimsier evidence than that which currently indicates potential voter fraud. Even so, members of the Trump administration acceded to the demands of their opponents, endlessly amplified through the media, and appointed a special counsel anyway.
We can be sure that a Biden-Harris administration would never extend the same courtesy. But President Trump still has the power to do so, before, as seems increasingly possible, Biden takes charge.
The Trump administration ought to appoint a special counsel without delay in order to ensure an ongoing and independent investigation into what seems to be Democratic election tampering. If the left is unwilling to accept the notion of an independent investigation into the election’s integrity, that would, at the very least, be clarifying.
More importantly, the American people deserve to have confidence that our elections are truly free and truly fair. That kind of confidence can only come through public discussion of the facts and an open and transparent investigation of the allegations.
The ruling class, of which Biden is now the figurehead, has made it clear that they are not willing to allow either. Even if the elites ultimately end up retaking power, the Trump administration needs to do everything they can, while they can, to ensure that the American people get the investigation, and the answers, they deserve.
