Amidst the hullabaloo about the “stolen election” that wasn’t stolen, two legislators have stepped forward to shine a piercing light on a dark farce that is being perpetuated by the supporters of the world’s biggest loser.
Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming and daughter of a former vice president, is standing tall against members of her own party who keep telling the Big Lie and trying to excuse the unpatriotic assault by former President Trump’s supporters during the January 6 riot at the Capitol.
Many of her fellow Republicans fail to recognize that she is not only trying to save the country from an anti-democratic lurch to the extreme right, she is also trying to save her party from a Trumpian comic opera that should have been terminated months ago.
A farce is a situation that is so ludicrous that it becomes dark humor. That’s where we are at the state level as well as the national. Fortunately another female leader stepped forward in Wisconsin to call for an end to an almost laughable mash-up.
State Sen. Kathleen Bernier, a Lake Hallie Republican and head of the Senate Elections Committee, has said during a recent panel discussion at the Capitol, “This is a charade. There’s a simple explanation for almost everything that people accuse election officials of doing.” She was referring to the “review” initiated by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos into the 2020 presidential election.
She added, “These made-up things that people do to jazz up the base is just despicable, and I don’t think any elected legislator should ever play that game.”
Bernier, who served as a local election clerk for 12 years and knows the warp and woof of voting rules and regulations, doesn’t appreciate the professed ignorance and arrogance of former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman on how elections work. Vos appointed Gableman to do yet one more analysis of the results of the Wisconsin 2020 election. The move appeases the right-wing base of the Republican Party, but it is too little, too late, and he is the wrong guy.
Gableman has shown extreme bias by his statements about a faulty election and by chumming with and hiring pro-Trump advocates. He has not engaged election objective experts like Bernier. Hence, there can be little doubt that he will cook up a report that justifies Trump’s delusion that the election was rigged.
About a month ago I asked State Sen. Tim Ramthun, who is trying to throw out the Wisconsin election, to show me a single fraudulent vote from his district. He has shown me none.
His staff responded by alleging irregularities in the bipartisan Wisconsin Election Commission. That’s not what I asked Ramthun to do. That same question needs to be put to any state legislator who carries water for Trump.
It’s time to put this farce to bed. Gableman’s original contract was to end in December. Well, it’s December.
The election year 2022 is almost upon us. Election “Keystone Kops” should spend their energy by trying to pass legislation to improve the election process wherever it could be improved. And to convince a majority of voters of the righteousness of their cause.
There has been a heavy layer of bullying of local election officials. That has to stop immediately. Elected officials like Ramthun could do something constructive like toughening the laws to protect election officials against un-American threats.
Some Republicans think they have a winning election issue by attacking the country’s electoral processes. They don’t. Indeed, it’s more likely that Republicans who have been convinced to become distrustful of those processes may stay home instead of going to the polls.
How does that help the Republican Party or the nation?
