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Election Integrity Is All That Matters. And Democrats Know It.
Ron DeSantis was born in Jacksonville, FL, and was raised in Dunedin (near Tampa). His mother was a nurse, and his father installed Nielsen TV boxes. He went to Yale, where he was captain of their varsity baseball team, leading the team in batting average as a senior. He worked his way through school, taking jobs as an electrician’s assistant, youth baseball coach, and others. He graduated from Yale with a degree in history, magna cum laude. He then got his law degree at Harvard, cum laude. After law school, he volunteered for the Navy, where he won the Bronze Star, among many other accolades. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives at the age of 34, and then decided to run for governor in Florida in 2018. His opponent in the gubernatorial election was Democrat Andrew Gillum.
Andrew Gillum was born in Miami and raised in Gainesville, FL. His father worked construction and his mother drove a school bus. He went to the historically black Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) in Tallahassee, earning a degree in political science. His grades were not released. While still attending college, he was elected to the Tallahassee City Commission at the age of 23. He served on the City Commission for 10 years until winning the mayoral election in Tallahassee in 2014. His term as mayor was marred by several corruption scandals involving misuse of funds, conflicts of interest, bribery, etc. After several years of scandals, he decided to run for governor of Florida in 2018.
When Mr. DeSantis won the election, Mr. Gillum conceded the race that night. It might not surprise you to learn that a recount was started soon thereafter, and Mr. Gillum withdrew his concession: “I am replacing my words of concession with an uncompromised and unapologetic call that we count every single vote.” Right. Remarkably enough, somehow they could not “find” enough “votes” to “count” in Mr. Gillum’s favor, and Mr. DeSantis ended up winning anyway, by 0.4%.
This is how we ended up with Ron DeSantis as governor of Florida. Mr. superstar athlete, hardworking brilliant student, Harvard-Yale educated lawyer, Bronze Star winning military veteran – that guy beats Mr. Corrupt Empty Suit. And he beats him by 0.4%.
Mr. Gillum’s problems with the law have continued. In March 2020, he was found, unconscious and naked, on the floor of a hotel room in Miami Beach with an overdosed unconscious male sex worker and bags of crystal meth and other drugs. Presumably his wife was unamused, but no arrests were made. And then in June 2022, Mr. Gillum was indicted on 21 felony counts, including wire fraud, conspiracy, and making false statements. Mr. Gillum has declared his innocence, and calls his various corruption investigations “political in nature.”
Remember, Mr. Gillum very nearly beat the most qualified candidate in history for governor just a few years ago. And he was an unimpressive student at an unimpressive school who has never had a job outside of government, and has been under investigation for corruption for most of his career. He’s been discussed as the future of the Democratic Party, and has been considered as a possible Vice Presidential candidate.
What if he is the future of the Democratic Party? Think of who the young stars are on their side. Where do they find these people?
So Ron DeSantis may run for President. I hope he does. I think he would do a good job.
But can he win? Can any Republican win, against any Democrat? What if the Democrats manage to find a candidate more qualified than Mr. Corrupt Empty Suit? Someone that voters might actually choose to vote for?
If our elections are as compromised as they appear to be, it may not matter who the Republicans run. It already doesn’t matter who the Democrats run. Obviously.
Immigration matters. So does the war in Ukraine, and climate laws, and abortion, and lots of other stuff. But really, nothing really matters other than figuring out how to hold honest elections in this country. Which is why the Democrat power structure (news media, social media, FBI, Justice Dept, etc.) won’t even let us talk about it. Any mention of election irregularities is “fact-checked” as “mis-information.” They won’t let us talk about election integrity because they know how important it is.
So polite Republicans politely look away. Like they’re supposed to. After all, they’re nice. Not like those other Republicans, you see.
I don’t know how our elections can be fixed. They are broken in many, many ways.
But we’ve got to fix them. That’s all that matters.
Some Republicans sort of understand that. Democrats most certainly understand that, and are using their resources accordingly.
Election integrity is the only way Republicans have any chance at all. Conversely, continued lack of election integrity is the only way that Democrats have any chance at all. And they know it.
Republicans should be devoting similar resources toward regaining election integrity as Democrats are devoting to destroying it.
It’s all that matters.
Just ask Ron DeSantis, the star athlete / decorated military veteran / brilliant scholar / Harvard-Yale lawyer, who darn near lost an election to Mr. Corrupt Empty Suit. (In this particular case, I refer to Mr. Gillum, not Mr. Biden.)
Heck, ask Mr. Corrupt Empty Suit himself. Either one of them. They understand, too.
Election integrity is all that matters.
We can’t fix any of our other problems until we fix that.
Published in General
I’m watching the Fetterman race with amazement. WTH? Who would even consider voting for that guy? If he wins, I will not believe the vote was free and fair. No way.
I happened to buy a newspaper the other day, and this woman columnist wrote about the PA race for US Senator.
Fetterman himself was rather ignored. It was simply a long list of worthy items proving how a Fetterman victory could assure all voters that the state of Pennsylvania would then start to tackle important causes. The usual issues: Global Warming, LGBT equity, diversity, right to abortion and reproductive care.
Also a long list of questionable things that Dr Oz has done, or comments that he has made, over the past decades. And recent insensitive comments the guy has made about the health issues that Fetterman is valiantly dealing with.
She also made the remark that on election day there might only be one candidate involved. (I assume that she was implying Fetterman might not win his valiant battle against onerous health conditions.)
Well, the Dems already employ dead people to vote for their candidates.
Having a dead citizen run for office would simply be another step up in allowing for full equity: “We are assuming your Nana is still a registered Democrat? So, if you haven’t killed great granma yet by not wearing a mask, could you let us know when she breathes her last? Then maybe we can use her as a candidate for the office of mayor? All the other women candidates we have considered have gotten arrested for sex trafficking, embezzlement or election fraud…”
My new favorite bumper sticker reads: When I die, don’t let me vote Democrat. I hadn’t considered I might posthumously run for office as one. . .
What a guy, what a guy!! Reminds me a bit of Mayor Marion Barry of DC infamy.
And I know this isn’t aligned with the OP, but is it possible that people vote for the empty suit because they don’t like what De Santis is selling? Despite his many good personal qualities and attributes?
I went from gruesome Newsom in Covidland in 2020 to Ron DeSantis in America. Why I didn’t move earlier is beyond me.
Here I was having a nice Saturday afternoon and a beautiful day watching a very good football game and I popped open the browser on my cell phone to read this post. Well what can a guy do? The good doctor is absolutely correct, no matter how depressing this is. I don’t know all of the inside workings of President Trump’s machine. But what I do know is that he and the RNC , Especially after the 2020 election, should have been spending tens of millions of dollars in every state with all the legal means possible to get our election rolls cleaned up. Unfortunately, I think they have spent more money asking for money and more time and energy sending out texts and emails then they have doing the real hard work to make sure the playing field is even.
You have a partial point, but most of the problem is likely that the election rolls etc are controlled in ways that are largely immune to spending, at least from our side.
And even when courts order Secretaries of State etc to clean them up, they just refuse, and nothing happens.
Lived in South Florida for 11 years: Just like the rest of America, the ignorance of the average voter is only exceeded by their stupidity.
This is the place where I heard “Republicans is welfare for the rich, Democrats is welfare for the poor, and I ain’t rich.” (Spoken by a 30-something.) And where time and again my daughter-in-law was chastised for supporting Republicans because “Black folk can’t vote Republican”.
Policy is a secondary or tertiary issue.
I don’t know how you fix this but Dem “interest groups” spent heavy to sue Dem states to allow unlimited mail-in, extended early voting, relaxed rules for provisional ballots, signature verification, ID requirements, postmark slack – you name the contrived emergency (cheating) measures. Then the Dem AG refuses to go to court to defend state law. And by essentially cooperating with outright Dem partisans, the table is set for shenanigans.
I know some state legislatures have asserted themselves since the 2020 election, but they can always find another pretext (the 8th COVID variant can kill .003% of left-handed podiatrists!) Yes, elections matter. But those elected shouldn’t be able to cement their positions through corruption of election law.
Donald Trump-rejected by a goodly number of traditional Republicans— defeated the most corrupt Democrat to run for the Presidency in my lifetime, and perhaps ever.
It can be done.
Can you prove that Hillary is more corrupt than Joe?
Only once if the Dems continue to cheat with fervor whilst our repuclicant reps look away with fervor.
Tweetle-dee and tweetle-dum.
That really is quite a statement.
But come to think of it, he may be right.
Golly…
No. But I could prove that she’s more competent at being corrupt given a certain volume of words that I won’t expend.
There is stuff going on from the grassroots. They are using the same technique that is used to find Medicare and Medicaid fraud.
It’s why in most states having the Legislature and Secretary of State position so this stuff can be implemented.
Perhaps that was done before the Democrats realized it could be done.
It’s a reasonable response, but I don’t think it gives them (or Hillary’s “team”) enough credit.
From the number of Fetterman yard signs around me, it looks like a landslide for Fetterman. I saw about 50 Oz signs on a traffic island on an intersection. Looks like whoever they hired to put the signs out was too lazy to spread them around so they were dropped in one place.
In the state senate, we don’t even have a Republican running against the Democrat in this part of Allegheny County. The Republican candidate for the other portion of the county did not bother to respond to the pro-lifers who put together the voters’ guide that came to me in the mail.
A co-worker once said that there are a lot of village idiots in this borough.
This.
The elections in Florida are much better managed now than they were in 2000. Funny how when that changed, the state started leaning red.
Mr. Gillum should run for office in California. Here, he would win in a landslide, and then be re-elected time and time again.
Better plan for Election Integrity Priority One: Destroy all voting machines that use any software at all; volunteers at each precinct count ballots by hand, watched by other volunteers, media, webcams, Republican observers, and Democrat observers.
Good plan for Election Integrity Priority One: Take the federal government’s advice and destroy all voting machines that have internal modems.
See “G. K. Chesterton’s Take on Electronic Voting Machines,” an introduction to the need for better security in election technology (available here in a Microsoft Word version).
And, any state/county/district/whatever that doesn’t follow the rules, their votes don’t get counted. Period.
How about paper ballots, hand counted.
Michigan is going to re-elect the corrupt idiots in charge of Michigan. The Michigan republican party is so weak and stupid that I don’t think the democrats need to cheat.
That could be because years/decades of cheating are what made the Republicans basically give up. Might be unfixable now, or it might take a long time and a lot of work, if someone is ever willing to do it.
That’s the Better Plan.
The use of electronic voting machines is pure insanity. How in the world did they become legal? The addition of a network port is even worse.
No one in his right mind will trust election results as long as these machines exist.
GOPinc does not care.