The deplorables aren’t “over it” yet, and nor will they be.
by Steve Cortes December 14, 2021
As the new year beckons and the crucial 2022 mid-term elections loom large, it becomes increasingly evident that the smoke has still not cleared from the 2020 presidential election and the controversy over the accuracy of the official results.
If anything, recent polling data and the latest 2022 campaign dynamics suggest that the real energy of the Republican Party lies among highly-informed, keenly-motivated citizens who maintain that the November 3rd, 2020 vote was badly marred by irregularities and constitutional violations that anointed Joe Biden as an illegitimate president.
Even CNN acknowledges this reality, as expressed by their senior number cruncher Harry Enten in an article titled “Voters Who Think Trump Won Are the Most Enthusiastic to Vote in 2022.”
The polling from the leftist cable network reveals an astounding finding: of Americans who are enthusiastic to vote in 2022, citizens are split almost exactly in half on the question of whether or not Biden legitimately won the White House. Their survey shows that energized voters convey only a slight 52-47 percent belief that Biden was legally elected. Even the overall margin, not adjusted for voter enthusiasm, shows almost 40 percent of all voters reporting that Biden win was invalid.
Not surprisingly, the numbers are far starker for Biden among Republican voters. Among highly enthusiastic Republicans, those most likely to vote in primaries, a stunning 86 percent believe Biden took office illegitimately. This fervor combines with the latest CNBC survey detailing a double-digit lead for Republicans on a generic national ballot for Congress, the widest such margin in the history of CNBC and NBC polling.
The stage is set, therefore, for voters to rally to the right kind of America First candidates who are brave enough to buck the establishment – of both parties – and address head-on the problems of the 2020 vote as part of a winning platform for 2022 and 2024 plebiscites. I have long argued that the most serious offenses that polluted the 2020 presidential vote revolve around Equal Protection and systemic violations of the 14th Amendment safeguards in contested states.
Put plainly, game-day Trump voters were subjected to far tighter (and correct) scrutiny than were mass mail-in ballots which faced almost no filters in many cases. Such unequal treatment of ballots is highly unconstitutional, and the disparate treatment of voters represented a 2020 version of Bush v. Gore, on steroids.
Candidates seeking the support of these highly motivated deplorables must embrace election integrity as a foundational issue and endorse a return to practices that will again inspire confidence in the veracity of the vote. Specifically, candidates should support three simple principles: required universal voter identification, in-person voting except for valid excuses, and a return to paper ballots.
Unfortunately, the chasm widens in our country regarding the 2020 election.
On one side, the credentialed ruling-class of corporate media and Big Tech deigns any skepticism regarding 2020 as tantamount to flat-earth lunacy. But among gritty, working-class citizens, an informed cynicism persists and even accelerates. The deplorables are not “over it.”
In response, the grandees of the American establishment effort mightily to concoct a narrative about election skepticism that transforms January 6th into some quasi-revolutionary crucible, which the republic barely survived. In reality, the facts reveal a low-level, unarmed, afternoon melee that resulted in a total of one violent death, that of Trump supporter and Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt who was gunned down by Capitol Police.
But Pelosi and her allies in corporate media nevertheless cling desperately to a myth that January 6th was a moment of maximum peril. Why? Because they need that fake narrative to try to stymie a serious national evaluation of the problems of the 2020 vote and the election integrity reforms needed to prevent a repeat.
For this reason, the kangaroo court of the January 6th Congressional Commission engages in a political witch hunt to intimidate and punish the leaders of the November 3rd movement who insisted on full examination of the official returns. For example, former senior White House counselor Steve Bannon was charged criminally for a failure to obey the commission, even though precedence demands that such compliance issues be adjudicated through civil proceedings.
Such desperate, heavy-handed tactics are a tell.
It is not actual compliance the Democrats seek, but rather last-resort intimidation. Thankfully, the undaunted Bannon employs legal tactics to turn those prosecutorial guns around to fire political volleys at the very charlatans who disparage him. For example, journalist Julie Kelly of American Greatness observed that the Department of Justice “case against Bannon is gonna be a doozy related to DOJ’s overuse of protective orders on evidence for January 6 cases.” She also approved of Bannon’s PR and legal strategy as “someone fighting back on DOJ nonstop attempts to conceal evidence.” The Hill also posted a headline warning that “Democrats May Rue the Pursuit of Bannon.”
Thankfully, such underhanded tactics cannot dampen the determination of America First adherents. From the leadership level to everyday citizens, the movement grows in enthusiasm and resolve. We deplorables are rightly troubled by 2020, but undeterred and galvanized toward the task of 2022 and 2024.