Like any good recurring sideshow, some liberals always seem to get into a frenzy every time we get close to the end of an election year.
We hear clamoring for an end to the Electoral College, which has nothing to do with the fact that it would give the coastal cities total control of the country, which was precisely what the Framers wanted to prevent. We hear that results may not be legitimate, we hear not so subtle intonations that the election system is “broken,” despite the fact it’s been working for over 250 years.
This is now happening every four years in the modern age.
Richard Nixon’s landslide in 1972 over George McGovern was illegitimate because of Watergate. Reagan’s landslide win over Jimmy Carter in 1980 was illegitimate because of the so-called October Surprise. George H. W. Bush’s landslide win over Michael Dukakis was illegitimate because of Willie Horton.
This sort of dribble increased a hundred-fold thanks to the election of Donald Trump, and the left’s fervor to win no matter what in 2020 has reached a new zenith. Trump must be stopped, no matter the cost. This Trump Derangement Syndrome, coupled with COVID-19’s effect on in-person voting, has cranked up the liberals’ determination to steal the 2020 election to a level many didn’t think was possible.
And of course, the legitimate concerns being voiced by conservatives and moderates on the potential for voter fraud thanks to COVID-19 are being callously dismissed by the left’s allies in the media. Anyone who says the words “voter fraud” suddenly becomes a bigoted buffoon who hates minorities.
Like I said, it’s a circus, and these are tried and true tactics for the left.
In 1864, the anti-war Democrats in the North — also known as Copperheads — wanted to end the Civil War early and abandon the abolition of slavery as national policy. An elaborate system had been devised to allow Union troops in the field to vote, though these votes needed the verification of four people to be counted — including the recipient of the vote, the actual voting soldier, a military witness and his commanding officer before it was mailed back to be counted.
But dozens of Copperheads officials had been recruited in Washington, New York and Baltimore to forge tens of thousands of soldiers’ ballots. All of the forged ballots were for the Democratic nominee, General George McClellan, who ironically had been relieved of his command of the Union Army of the Potomac by Abraham Lincoln in 1862 for having, as Lincoln said, “the slows.” Fraudulent votes were made out from the names of “active enlisted men, wounded and dead soldiers and officers who never existed, “ according to one account. The plot was massive. But the scheme was fortunately uncovered just before the election of 1864 and Lincoln went on to a landslide electoral win over McClellan, 221 to 21 Electoral College votes. The two main Copperhead conspirators were sentenced to life in prison.
Remember 1960? John Kennedy won Illinois thanks to the corrupt political machine of the infamous Democratic Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. Earl Mazo, investigating for the New York Herald-Tribune found, among other discrepancies, a cemetery where names on tombstones were registered to vote. Eventually, three precinct workers served jail time over what happened in 1960. Of course, JFK’s running mate, Lyndon Johnson was an old hand at vote stealing in Texas, and the Democratic machine there stuffed ballot boxes in 1960, ensuring a win for the Democratic ticket.
Who can forget the legendary Box 13 scandal that helped catapult Johnson to a senatorial victory in 1948? Johnson was on the verge of defeat in the Senate runoff that year, and all signs were that he was in for a wringer. Then suddenly, after days of recounts that still showed Coke Stevenson in the lead, an innocuous box with 200 votes for Johnson suddenly appeared, making him the winner. Some friendly judges, including FDR Supreme Court Appointee Hugo Black, made sure Johnson stayed the winner. LBJ historian Robert Caro documented this vote theft in his landmark book about the Texan, Means of Assent.
I would be remiss if I left out the controversy over the results of the 2000 presidential election. I’ve written extensively on this in the past, how Al Gore and his team went to town to delegitimize the already flummoxed and confused voting process in Florida. Incidentally, Gore’s team included Bill Daley, the son of the aforementioned Richard Daley, proving the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. While Team Gore went to work launching a full-pronged assault on Florida’s election process, Gore’s allies in the media pumped print and the airwaves with salvo after salvo about the inequities of the Electoral College and the systemic racism prevalent in our country. Thankfully, this time around cooler heads prevailed on the Supreme Court. I guess that’s what happens when you don’t appoint secret members of the Ku Klux Klan to be a Supreme Court Justice.
As long there are Machiavellian lunatics obsessed with keeping power, some liberals will always have new recruits to take up the cause of trying to poison the Republic’s election process. Don’t let the bleating about mail-in voting fool you. Few liberals care about helping out the little guy (they never have). No, it’s just the latest round they’ve thumbed into the chamber as they take aim at the proverbial head of our country’s carefully laid out system of checks and balances.
Craig Shirley (@CraigSBPA) is the founder and chairman of the public affairs firm Shirley & McVicker. He is the author of four books on Ronald Reagan, the New York Times bestselling “December, 1941” and the critically praised “Citizen Newt,” the only authorized biography of Newt Gingrich. His definitive biography, “Mary Ball Washington, The Untold Story Of George Washington Mother,” was published in 2019 to crucial acclaim. He is now working on “April, 1945” and several more books on Ronald Reagan.