Agreed – if only it could be thus, again – but sadly, those days are behind us. The reality is that the Democrats cheat to win, and we (with Republicans as our proxy) are losing because Republicans are "fighting" with one hand tied behind their back, and hopping on one leg.
I don't like it, either – but the alternative is to be content to lose with "honour." That it is the conservative "brand" that Kristol, the editorial and writing staff of NRO, The Heritage Foundation, Club for Growth, and the American Enterprise Institute want to preserve, and control the Republican Party. It's the party of Cocaine M(Obama's b)itch "The Turtle" McConnell.
The Republican Party of Donald Trump fights back, and it fights to win. It will use the Democrat Party's tactics against it.
In sports, if you're not cheating, you're not trying.
I'm comfortable cheating to win, if that's the field on which we're playing, now – and it looks like that's the case.
What is an exception? My point is that counting paper ballots by hand does not eliminate election fraud In Palm Beach County, there were more than 1/2 million ballots cast by mail. How many people would it take to count those ballots and have results in less than a week?
As it is, I would think that more than 90% of the Poll Workers who are employed by the government Supervisor of Elections are Democrats so Democrats would be counting ballots. How does that yield a better result?
Most of the polling places do NOT have volunteer Republican Poll Watchers. If Republicans thought election integrity were so important, then you would think there would be many volunteers. Lots of gnashing of teeth but no one wants do to anything.
Sorry I am very involved and machine counting is necessary and here to stay.
Ballot Harvesting must be eliminated and Vote by Mail must go ONLY to qualified people who have a proven need, not to everyone on demand which was a Democratic stratagem enabled by Covid scare. I would also think random hand count of paper ballot would be a statistically feasible way to check the machines.
No exceptions to mail in voting. If one is too sick or frail to go vote then that's too bad. Perhaps those in nursing homes SHOULDN'T have a say in a future America they will be long gone to see. Allow absentee balloting only by showing up to the local DOE with a valid excuse and vote there.
A right to vote is not in the Constitution, the right to bear arms is. It should be harder to vote than to get a gun
Highly unlikely that more than a few would support total eliminationg of absentee mail in ballots. Most would support what is being called Qualified Mail in Ballot, that is, the voter has to show a reason for that ballot.
Bring back election DAY! Maybe expand it to election weekend. Everyone votes at the same time which ends the ballot harvesting problem. If millions of people can get to Walmart and the welfare office they can to the polling station
Counting paper ballots is NOT feasible. And, please look at history of Tammany Hall, Democrats know how to steal paper ballots, too.
Poll Watchers(party volunteers) and Poll Workers (employed by county supervisors of elections) are what is needed. Impractical solutions to a very real problem will not solve the problem.
Nothing is full proof when fighting fraud and corruption but paper does leave a trail, a paper trail. Voting machines can be easily programmed and leaves little that can be traced, especially when access to the machines is controlled by the companies and the crooked election officials.
You knocked it out of the park, Don. Agree 110% with everything in your column. If we the readers and you the writer can figure this out, what the hell is wrong with most of the Republican leadership? Don't answer that. You'll have to put it in another column. I remember you talking about ballot harvesting over the last three or four years ago. Maybe longer. I don't remember. I am glad that Trump is finally getting on that. It's not about turning out the vote on election day anymore. If the Republicans want to win, they will have to adapt and overcome. (I think that's a Marine thing, but it applies.) Overall, what you are proposing is just common sense. For god's sake, I hope someone is listening to you other than us folks on the blog. Regarding Salena Zito, she's a real reporter, old school, and I read her religiously. And yes to listening to and visiting Appalachia and courting their vote. They are definitely Trump country. (I just watched the series Justified set in Harlan County in eastern Kentucky. Fantastic and learned a lot about the area. Learned I was pronouncing it incorrectly!) Bravo, Don. Now to the Republicans -- get busy and get 'er done.
That's really interesting, Mr. L. I didn't know you were in that area. It makes sense that it is Trump Country. Do you pronounce Appalachia with a hard "ch" or as "sh." I always pronounced it with "sh" because there aren't a lot of hard "ch" sounds in French. Even in English, I revert to how it would be pronounced in French if I am not sure. It sounds better! Trivia for you: Justified writer and exec producer Graham Yost is a Canuck. I grew up watching his father, Elwy, host Saturday Night at the Movies on TV. There is going to be a reboot of Justified.
The state machinery. Several years ago, They demolished a tea party candidate who beat Thad Cochran in the primary. He didn’t have over 50% of the vote so there was a runoff. They got democrats who had not voted in the initial election to vote as republicans in the runoff (perfectly legal) and kept comotose Thad in office. When he died, a RINO was named to replace him. The machine keeps her and the others in power.
W’s ‘tax cuts’: Yeeeaaahhh, all that idiot did was shift the two bottom tax rates up into the middle class.
Entitlements: Trump’s goal was to grow the economy which would increase the funding of entitlements, at least SSN. Your plans are a great start.
China: I would add that Trump’s first-point-of-sale-in-Asia tariffs were brilliant and highly successful. So much so that Xi had to release the propaganda about a flu virus that our own communists used to seize power.
Do not write off blacks, follow the Trump model to skim more and more…
Great point on Appalachia, although I respectfully suggest the western border on your map should move all the way to the eastern border of Coloraydo. I live 40 miles from Criminalapolis, MN and I feel completely Appalachian; you folk are my folk.
It is my divine hope that Trump wins the primary and DeSantis signs on for VP – it will be a completely ballot-proof ticket.
Don Surber is NOT past his prime. Each column is better than the last and this subscription is one of the best investments I have made in years. "With a strong hand..." do what you are doing.
There will not be election reform until the Republicans use the same techniques as the Democrats. Those are: Ballot harvest, change votes electronically from other countries, have electronic machines break down in counties that are highly Democrat, destroy paper ballots going to counting facilities from Democrat areas, and printing and counting of fraudulent ballots (including deceased ones) for Republican candidates. Unless Republicans learn these tricks fast... then say Hi to President M Obama in 24
Absent paper ballots and a finger dipped in ink upon voting, we must play the current voting game better than the enemy does. Unless we play the voting game better, the enemy wins and America looses.
I'd make one simple suggestion: Listen to Harding. He took office at a similar time, when Americans were dead tired of Wilson's tyranny, unnecessary wars, and epidemics.
Ignore what we "learned" about him in school. Read his actual speeches. He was a serious and deep thinker, and he managed to knock down quite a bit of Wilson's imperial monstrosity.
1. Russia is not a rug on the floor. Russia hates American Politicians. And, in that, the American People should have some understanding and empathy for what Russia must face on her own borders as a result of a select few Americans (in name only) that get rich by spilling the blood of others. Hello, Mitch, can you hear?
2. China is an American failed experiment. Corrupt, American-in-name-only Corporations killed American factories, jobs, families and communities by "outsourcing" them to China. Now China is impossible to deal with, aside from a hot war. Of which the end game is decidedly not certain. So much for the lie that as China's economy grew, so would democracy. The Chinese Totalitarian Communist Party succeeded beyond their wildest dreams by encouraging weak American Politicians to smother American democracy instead.
3. To keep the illusion of a real U.S. economy, uncontrolled Debt, dangerously low interest rates and incessant Prison Camp Media messages assuaged the guilty parties that their wondrous "Service economy" was the future. Now the future is here. And soon they will claim they overlooked Services require activities to service, to create the value-added industries fundamental to a tax base.
4. Carbon is bad ? Yet the worst carcinogens on planet were burned while the White House and the EPA stood silent as the particles from a criminally controlled fire spewed particles all over many states. And not 1 protest from Greta, et al.
While this list is one of the more refreshing things I’ve seen or read in a long time!
1. Totally Concur: End the the Ukraine War by ending the funding: no $$, no winnee. Force peace talks: enough already.
2. No matter what we do if we don’t win elections, it’s all just hot air. We’ve gotta do something - and drastically so. Ballot harvesting and a million Scott Presslers may be our only chance, though I confess it disturbs me. But these are desperate times requiring desperate measures. (* I would also offer a reward, amnesty, their own island in the Caribbean- whatever, to any whistleblowers who come forward with evidence that results in prosecution of ballot rigging in the 2020 election).
3. In addition to closing the border come down hard and heavy on Mexico and every country sending people here: no more Aid, no more $$, until you knock it off and tighten your own borders! And put Tariffs in place across the board!
4. Kill DEI, CRT, SEL and All Transgender Anything in their bed! DOA. Let them scream and gnash their teeth. Make them do the heavy (impossible) lifting to PROVE they add value (which they cannot) in a court of Law. Til then, don’t let the door hit ya on the way OUT.
5. Don’t just rein in the EPA, or the Dept of Education, or a whole bunch of other bureaucracies we don’t need who exist just to make our life hell: DEFUND em all! Let the States sort it out.
6. Do NOT hire Frank Luntz or any of those grifters or let ‘em anywhere near the tent: expose them, mock them, shame them for the corrupt-o-crats they are.
But the single most POWERFUL message, that cuts across every socio-economic, political, religious whatever divide is: SAVE OUR KIDS. They are now prisoners being held captive in indoctrination centers (otherwise referred to as schools), by these demonic excuses for teachers and administrators, literally torturing their tiny souls with their evil filth. Go after them with the vengeance of the Almighty and in one fell swoop you’ll have sown the country together and crushed the Leviathan.
Kill the Machines! In person, Voter ID, Paper Ballots.
Agreed – if only it could be thus, again – but sadly, those days are behind us. The reality is that the Democrats cheat to win, and we (with Republicans as our proxy) are losing because Republicans are "fighting" with one hand tied behind their back, and hopping on one leg.
I don't like it, either – but the alternative is to be content to lose with "honour." That it is the conservative "brand" that Kristol, the editorial and writing staff of NRO, The Heritage Foundation, Club for Growth, and the American Enterprise Institute want to preserve, and control the Republican Party. It's the party of Cocaine M(Obama's b)itch "The Turtle" McConnell.
The Republican Party of Donald Trump fights back, and it fights to win. It will use the Democrat Party's tactics against it.
In sports, if you're not cheating, you're not trying.
I'm comfortable cheating to win, if that's the field on which we're playing, now – and it looks like that's the case.
I agree but the way things work today is Democrats can lie, steal, and cheat without consequence. If a Republican jaywalks they see jail time.
Yes, yes and yes. And the election to being only one day!
Early voting is convenient for many working people. Here in Palm Beach County, we have a reliable vote counting system.
Sure, but it's not how to run an election. It's an exception not the norm and should be treated as such.
What is an exception? My point is that counting paper ballots by hand does not eliminate election fraud In Palm Beach County, there were more than 1/2 million ballots cast by mail. How many people would it take to count those ballots and have results in less than a week?
As it is, I would think that more than 90% of the Poll Workers who are employed by the government Supervisor of Elections are Democrats so Democrats would be counting ballots. How does that yield a better result?
Most of the polling places do NOT have volunteer Republican Poll Watchers. If Republicans thought election integrity were so important, then you would think there would be many volunteers. Lots of gnashing of teeth but no one wants do to anything.
Sorry I am very involved and machine counting is necessary and here to stay.
Ballot Harvesting must be eliminated and Vote by Mail must go ONLY to qualified people who have a proven need, not to everyone on demand which was a Democratic stratagem enabled by Covid scare. I would also think random hand count of paper ballot would be a statistically feasible way to check the machines.
Thanks for the comment. You motivated me.
No exceptions to mail in voting. If one is too sick or frail to go vote then that's too bad. Perhaps those in nursing homes SHOULDN'T have a say in a future America they will be long gone to see. Allow absentee balloting only by showing up to the local DOE with a valid excuse and vote there.
A right to vote is not in the Constitution, the right to bear arms is. It should be harder to vote than to get a gun
Highly unlikely that more than a few would support total eliminationg of absentee mail in ballots. Most would support what is being called Qualified Mail in Ballot, that is, the voter has to show a reason for that ballot.
Would you include military ballots in your ban?
Sounds good! Get busy then! End of my motivational efforts.
Bring back election DAY! Maybe expand it to election weekend. Everyone votes at the same time which ends the ballot harvesting problem. If millions of people can get to Walmart and the welfare office they can to the polling station
Good idea
Yes!
Counting paper ballots is NOT feasible. And, please look at history of Tammany Hall, Democrats know how to steal paper ballots, too.
Poll Watchers(party volunteers) and Poll Workers (employed by county supervisors of elections) are what is needed. Impractical solutions to a very real problem will not solve the problem.
It is feasible. It manages to work in the wacky countries of Canada, France and the U.K. The election is one day.
It worked here too.
Nothing is full proof when fighting fraud and corruption but paper does leave a trail, a paper trail. Voting machines can be easily programmed and leaves little that can be traced, especially when access to the machines is controlled by the companies and the crooked election officials.
Paper ballots are retained. There is a trail. Random counting of ballots can be used test machines. All the ballots do not have to be counted.
You knocked it out of the park, Don. Agree 110% with everything in your column. If we the readers and you the writer can figure this out, what the hell is wrong with most of the Republican leadership? Don't answer that. You'll have to put it in another column. I remember you talking about ballot harvesting over the last three or four years ago. Maybe longer. I don't remember. I am glad that Trump is finally getting on that. It's not about turning out the vote on election day anymore. If the Republicans want to win, they will have to adapt and overcome. (I think that's a Marine thing, but it applies.) Overall, what you are proposing is just common sense. For god's sake, I hope someone is listening to you other than us folks on the blog. Regarding Salena Zito, she's a real reporter, old school, and I read her religiously. And yes to listening to and visiting Appalachia and courting their vote. They are definitely Trump country. (I just watched the series Justified set in Harlan County in eastern Kentucky. Fantastic and learned a lot about the area. Learned I was pronouncing it incorrectly!) Bravo, Don. Now to the Republicans -- get busy and get 'er done.
Justified was a fun series. One of the very few I’ve watched in the last 25 years.
I live in a distressed county (according to the Appalachian Regional Commission - headed by Joe Manchin’s wife). Trump Country.
That's really interesting, Mr. L. I didn't know you were in that area. It makes sense that it is Trump Country. Do you pronounce Appalachia with a hard "ch" or as "sh." I always pronounced it with "sh" because there aren't a lot of hard "ch" sounds in French. Even in English, I revert to how it would be pronounced in French if I am not sure. It sounds better! Trivia for you: Justified writer and exec producer Graham Yost is a Canuck. I grew up watching his father, Elwy, host Saturday Night at the Movies on TV. There is going to be a reboot of Justified.
Ch.
In Mississippi. With RINO senators and a RINO congressman.
It begs the question of how do Red states with a conservative electorate get RINO senators and congress critters? That seems to be a dangerous trend.
The state machinery. Several years ago, They demolished a tea party candidate who beat Thad Cochran in the primary. He didn’t have over 50% of the vote so there was a runoff. They got democrats who had not voted in the initial election to vote as republicans in the runoff (perfectly legal) and kept comotose Thad in office. When he died, a RINO was named to replace him. The machine keeps her and the others in power.
So yet again, the politicians do not represent their voters. A global trend in western liberal democracies. Hmmm.
Great piece like usual, Donny Boy!
W’s ‘tax cuts’: Yeeeaaahhh, all that idiot did was shift the two bottom tax rates up into the middle class.
Entitlements: Trump’s goal was to grow the economy which would increase the funding of entitlements, at least SSN. Your plans are a great start.
China: I would add that Trump’s first-point-of-sale-in-Asia tariffs were brilliant and highly successful. So much so that Xi had to release the propaganda about a flu virus that our own communists used to seize power.
Do not write off blacks, follow the Trump model to skim more and more…
Great point on Appalachia, although I respectfully suggest the western border on your map should move all the way to the eastern border of Coloraydo. I live 40 miles from Criminalapolis, MN and I feel completely Appalachian; you folk are my folk.
It is my divine hope that Trump wins the primary and DeSantis signs on for VP – it will be a completely ballot-proof ticket.
This is the most concisely brilliant piece that I have read in years.
Don Surber is NOT past his prime. Each column is better than the last and this subscription is one of the best investments I have made in years. "With a strong hand..." do what you are doing.
There will not be election reform until the Republicans use the same techniques as the Democrats. Those are: Ballot harvest, change votes electronically from other countries, have electronic machines break down in counties that are highly Democrat, destroy paper ballots going to counting facilities from Democrat areas, and printing and counting of fraudulent ballots (including deceased ones) for Republican candidates. Unless Republicans learn these tricks fast... then say Hi to President M Obama in 24
Absent paper ballots and a finger dipped in ink upon voting, we must play the current voting game better than the enemy does. Unless we play the voting game better, the enemy wins and America looses.
Wow a second submission and a blockbuster at that!
You are 100% correct. I think PDJT is heading in that direction.
Thanks
This was to go Monday. I hit the wrong button
Oh well. Came up with something better for Monday
Keep hitting the wrong button, Don. We'll happily take more of what you've got.
Gooder and harder
I'd make one simple suggestion: Listen to Harding. He took office at a similar time, when Americans were dead tired of Wilson's tyranny, unnecessary wars, and epidemics.
Ignore what we "learned" about him in school. Read his actual speeches. He was a serious and deep thinker, and he managed to knock down quite a bit of Wilson's imperial monstrosity.
Archive of his speeches:
https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/july-22-1920-high-wages-high-production
1. Russia is not a rug on the floor. Russia hates American Politicians. And, in that, the American People should have some understanding and empathy for what Russia must face on her own borders as a result of a select few Americans (in name only) that get rich by spilling the blood of others. Hello, Mitch, can you hear?
2. China is an American failed experiment. Corrupt, American-in-name-only Corporations killed American factories, jobs, families and communities by "outsourcing" them to China. Now China is impossible to deal with, aside from a hot war. Of which the end game is decidedly not certain. So much for the lie that as China's economy grew, so would democracy. The Chinese Totalitarian Communist Party succeeded beyond their wildest dreams by encouraging weak American Politicians to smother American democracy instead.
3. To keep the illusion of a real U.S. economy, uncontrolled Debt, dangerously low interest rates and incessant Prison Camp Media messages assuaged the guilty parties that their wondrous "Service economy" was the future. Now the future is here. And soon they will claim they overlooked Services require activities to service, to create the value-added industries fundamental to a tax base.
4. Carbon is bad ? Yet the worst carcinogens on planet were burned while the White House and the EPA stood silent as the particles from a criminally controlled fire spewed particles all over many states. And not 1 protest from Greta, et al.
It is a crime that Social Security is taxed twice. We need to embrace populism.
Taxed twice in Canada, too. A cash grab.
I LOOVE A PLAN!
While this list is one of the more refreshing things I’ve seen or read in a long time!
1. Totally Concur: End the the Ukraine War by ending the funding: no $$, no winnee. Force peace talks: enough already.
2. No matter what we do if we don’t win elections, it’s all just hot air. We’ve gotta do something - and drastically so. Ballot harvesting and a million Scott Presslers may be our only chance, though I confess it disturbs me. But these are desperate times requiring desperate measures. (* I would also offer a reward, amnesty, their own island in the Caribbean- whatever, to any whistleblowers who come forward with evidence that results in prosecution of ballot rigging in the 2020 election).
3. In addition to closing the border come down hard and heavy on Mexico and every country sending people here: no more Aid, no more $$, until you knock it off and tighten your own borders! And put Tariffs in place across the board!
4. Kill DEI, CRT, SEL and All Transgender Anything in their bed! DOA. Let them scream and gnash their teeth. Make them do the heavy (impossible) lifting to PROVE they add value (which they cannot) in a court of Law. Til then, don’t let the door hit ya on the way OUT.
5. Don’t just rein in the EPA, or the Dept of Education, or a whole bunch of other bureaucracies we don’t need who exist just to make our life hell: DEFUND em all! Let the States sort it out.
6. Do NOT hire Frank Luntz or any of those grifters or let ‘em anywhere near the tent: expose them, mock them, shame them for the corrupt-o-crats they are.
But the single most POWERFUL message, that cuts across every socio-economic, political, religious whatever divide is: SAVE OUR KIDS. They are now prisoners being held captive in indoctrination centers (otherwise referred to as schools), by these demonic excuses for teachers and administrators, literally torturing their tiny souls with their evil filth. Go after them with the vengeance of the Almighty and in one fell swoop you’ll have sown the country together and crushed the Leviathan.
Sorry: “While” should be WOW!
My predictions: Michelle Obama will be "our" next President, and until we return to only paper ballots, we've seen our last republican administration.
The only person I will vote for if Trump is not the nominee is whoever can be Trump 2.0, The Terminator. Democrats need to be kicked to hell.
all good points, but #10 is more important than all the rest combined.
Oops. I didn’t read the question carefully Subtract my vote