Georgia Voting Machines and the Anger of the Mob
Focus was hard to find in the past two of weeks. Ukraine, Uvalde, Michael Sussman, January 6th Commission, the Federal Reserve were all subjects reaching for attention.
I was working on a piece on the Georgia Voting Machines and the recent vulnerability warning by Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency. A bunch of populist writers were attempting to use the CISA warning (e.g. Emerald Robinson, ‘The Federal Government Admits: Voting Machines Can Be Hacked!) as a justification for challenging the 2020 election results in Georgia. Her article is filled with rhetoric and obfuscation of the details of the vulnerability warning and misapplication of its meaning.
The State of Georgia was directed to replaced its old-style direct recording voting machines by Federal order in 2019. The machines GA chose are ballot marking machines which as a system are significantly more secure than their previous direct recording machines. Ballot marking machines provide a paper audit trail, which allows the voter to physically check that their votes have been accurately recorded. A later post by Emerald Robinson (‘Bombshell: Georgia Election Fraud Revealed In Democrat Primary Race!’) was in fact an example of auditing success in the election process.
I spent several hours reviewing Georgia voting machines and the CISA warning. The information was readily available, and the article refuting her claims is easy to write. However, the more I considered the subject, the more I became concerned that I was missing the real problem - Why were Emerald Robinson and her ilk so successful at marketing such bad information? It was an easy subject with lots of validated references. Why were they and their audience so convinced that this was an example of the fraud that led to a ‘stolen election’.
And then the Michael Sussman verdict was issued, and I read this review by Kimberly Strassel.
I am not a Trump fan; I believe he is a narcissist. This is becoming increasingly evident as one reviews the January 6th findings. It now appears he received credible information that he lost the election and that he had no institutional support for his claims. Only a narcissist would spin up such a mob into such a violent frenzy without any support or hope of accomplishing anything but destruction. He spun up a crowd to throw a temper tantrum on his behalf. This is not the act of a leader.
But I understand the frustration and anger that Trump voters have with the current political process. The abuse of the FBI by the Clinton campaign is an example of the corruption that may not be illegal, but it is certainly wrong. I believe John Durham has done this country a service at attempting the prosecution of Michael Sussman, if for no other reason than to shine a light on how politicians, Washington insiders, leaders of agencies, and the press can collude to frame a competitor.
Yet when I mention this to left-leaning friends, it is met with a shrug and sometimes a smirk, like ‘Yeah, they got caught, hehe’. And I find that I am now angry. I am angry because I recognize that this is just the tip of the iceberg. For such a thing to have happened and exposed, means that it has happened many times in the past. The pathways to such a corruption must be well worn for such a thing to happen with such ease.
And I begin to get it, the anger.
Oh, I won’t fall prey to the populist rhetoric. That stuff is frequently ridiculous. But I get it. When people see no path of change, and a continued abuse of the political system (e.g., read this review of the structure of the January 6th committee), they feel dismissed and discarded. It only serves to heighten their vulnerability to populist rhetoric and melding into a mob mentality.
And therein lies the danger.
I am not worried about Trump. Trump is just the first guy to coalesce the simmering anger of millions of people at the political class (and their enablers in the general public and press) in Washington, DC. I believe Trump will burn himself out in his quest for adoration. But the anger will remain.
No, my real worry is the next person who learns from Trump’s failures and mobilizes this mob. Because we have not changed the drivers of their anger.
And we’re about to turn up the heat with some significant economic uncertainty and pain. What do you imagine will happen to those malleable in the center when they begin feeling financial stress and look to blame inaction in Washington as the source of their problems? Who do you think they will turn to for help?
Anger is a horrible emotion, and frequently leads to poor decisions. When left-leaning centrists can look at the abuses of power and just kind of giggle or pass it off as business-as-usual, they are courting a lack of trust in the system that can metastasize. They are enabling and feeding the creation of the mob that will eventually back the totalitarian horror they fear.
The loss of societal trust leads to tribal activities – us versus them. The larger problem here appears to be one of a lack of faith and trust in the greater ‘We The People’ us. Each abuse on either side appears to pull more people from the center into the walled camps of polarization.
I don’t believe we are destined to become a nation of Hatfield’s and McCoy’s. However, to stop this descent, the center is going to have to fight back to rebuild trust.
The center is going to have to call out and expose bad behaviors on either side of their divide.
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