RUTHFULLY YOURS

Restoration of trust in due process is the central goal of the statement issued by Sen. Ted Cruz on election integrity. He and the 11 other senators who signed it understand something that few officials and pundits—particularly many self-described conservatives—are willing to admit: to certify electors without a comprehensive investigation into thousands of allegations of fraud in the 2020 election would be a betrayal of Americans’ trust as well as an egregious violation of their oath to protect the Constitution.

Whether or not you agree there was massive electoral fraud in the 2020 presidential election does not really matter at this point. Every American should be deeply concerned if nearly half of all voters are convinced that large-scale fraud handed the election to the Biden-Harris ticket. Some may hope the conviction will fade with time, but more likely the distrust will deepen, especially since it comes despite non-stop denials and censorship about fraud by both Big Tech and Big Media.

Rasmussen’s poll indicates that 47 percent of voters believe fraud swayed the election (and 75 percent of Republicans). Some dismiss Rasmussen as leaning to the right. But even standard left-leaning pollsters such as Quinnipiac and Reuters consistently claim that half of Republicans believe there was massive fraud.

Reuters even noted that 16 percent of Democrats and 33 percent of independents agreed. And Quinnipiac has a sizable percentage of all registered voters—34 percent—not believing the Biden-Harris ticket won legitimately. Some expect these millions of Americans to “come around.” But it’s more likely their uneasiness will fester as more facts about fraud ooze through the cracks in the media machinery in the months to come.

Any way you slice it, the numbers are disturbing. And we all feel in our gut that November’s election was the weirdest in America’s history. You needn’t be a Trump voter to be disturbed by obvious peculiarities. Then there’s the lack of ability to publicly audit voting machines, the lack of transparency during counting processes, and more.

While Trump’s legal team may not have had the time to investigate, bring, or win many non-procedural arguments, these concerns still matter to the public and deserve investigation. For a thorough run-down of the many glaring anomalies generating public concern, see the 36-page report by Peter Navarro, director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy. Or Willis Krumholz’s well-researched piece at The Federalist or this tongue-in-cheek Twitter thread.

The more invested Big Media and Big Tech are in driving their preferred narratives into our brains, the more reason we have to distrust them. Their immediate labeling as “disputed” of any fraud reporting feels like they doth protest too much.

Their constant claim that election fraud is “extremely rare” is as laughable as claiming that human beings would never in a million years cheat when the prize is power. Spare us. The crisis of trust in America feels deeper than ever before.

Obvious Contempt for Conservative Americans

The essence of conservatism is to conserve principles of due process and the rule of law. Those values are essential for avoiding chaos and tyranny. So why would anyone identifying as conservative ignore the innumerable oddities revealed since November 3?

Even the editorial board of the supposedly conservative New York Post in telling President Trump to “give it up” would not squarely address the central concern: auditability of votes and transparency. Its ad hominem argumentation included the Pravda-esque line “Sidney Powell is a crazy person.”

We already know that Big Tech and the propaganda media are invested in fraud denial and in shutting up anybody who asks about abnormalities by comparing them to Holocaust deniers. Sadly, that’s no puzzle. Nor need we question why Democrats don’t care if their win is perceived as grand theft by scores of millions of Americans. They just don’t care how they’re perceived as long as they can control every aspect of what they view as your sad and unworthy little life.

So the more vexing question—and the rude awakening—is this: Why do so many self-identified conservatives play along with a media machine that is already 95 percent in the Democrats’ corner? The list is long, and includes many big-name Republican officials who have taken a particularly hostile stance against any real investigation into voter fraud, including Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, and scores of other supposedly conservative members of Congress.

As Federalist editor Mollie Hemingway recently pointed out, there is “a big disconnect between most of ‘conservative’ blue checkmark Twitter and the bulk of average Americans on the right” regarding the existence of election fraud. No question about that.

In addition to GOP officials, lots of self-identified conservative pundits have rejected concerns about voter fraud in this most bizarre of elections. Popular American Conservative writer Rod Dreher, among others, has mocked those who challenge the election results.

Why is it so important to these conservatives that every single American aligns with a propaganda machine that is now almost completely anti-thought? At the very least, they should understand the stakes of allowing massive electoral oddities to go unexamined. They should be especially unsettled about the loss of trust in our electoral process rather than joining with the left in dismissing so many concerned citizens as kooks.

In short, why are they so willing to accept abnormalities as normal?

Five Possibilities for Reluctance on the Right

One cannot get directly into the heads and hearts of any self-identified conservative who dismisses the possibility of any significant election fraud in 2020. But we should at least try to figure out this riddle because the future of election integrity—and therefore, freedom—depends on it. Why not investigate? Here are just five possibilities.

Possibility 1: They really believe the election was fair and that any questions about fraud should go unaddressed now and in the future.  I think we can dismiss this one. They probably aren’t that detached from reality. If they were sincere, they would at least want an investigation to alleviate the massive amounts of distrust poisoning society.

They also exhibit a huge double standard by rejecting an immediate follow-up investigation while accepting four solid years of Democrats’ non-stop obstruction of Congress with the “Russian collusion” hoax after the 2016 election.

Possibility 2: They feel that there were indeed abnormalities and insecure voting, but since they don’t see clear proof, they think the election should go unchallenged. I understand concerns about perceptions, about conservatives looking like sore losers going forward. But the stakes are too high. And it’s odd that conservatives must ask no questions after just a few weeks of the craziest election in American history, while Democrats could proceed for four solid years of fake claims of “Russian interference in the 2016 election.”

But this self-inflicted double standard goes far deeper. If we don’t allow the wild abnormalities of 2020 to go without scrutiny, how in the world can we ever have any free and fair elections going forward? The answer is: we cannot because we will have institutionalized the abnormalities by letting them go.

If nothing else, conservatives must all be on board with addressing the disastrous crisis of trust this election has produced. The only way to do that is by conducting a thorough and transparent investigation into every aspect of this election. Why not give this election even 10 percent of the focus and time the Democrats gave the 2016 election?

Possibility 3: They have something to hide. Just ponder the depth of the rot and swamp gas in Washington as well as Communist China’s deep roots there. Covering up something fishy is usually the motive behind the massive denials of fraud and gaslighting that have saturated social media since the election.

We all know in our gut that our institutions have been badly corrupted. Election fraud is a no-brainer for the shameless and the corrupt. So we can’t rule out this possibility.

Possibility 4: They were never conservatives to begin with. Obviously, this is the case with the “Lincoln Project” and its corps of Never Trumpers. They’ve now proven no true allegiance to constitutional principles, and have joined the left in calling for revenge on all Trump supporters.

Campaigning to put your perceived enemies into gulags is not exactly a conservative principle. But we can ask the same question of those who seem less extremist such as former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan: Was he ever a real conservative to begin with? Or he is an opportunist who found a convenient host in the Republican Party?

In any event, it’s pointless not to expect a big disconnect between “conservative” elites and most conservative Americans. After all, the Marxist forces that gained a strong foothold in the Democrat Party since 1968 have made a point of affecting the GOP as well. We’re only just noticing.

Possibility 5: They are saturated with status anxiety or simply feel personal pressure to make nice with a Harris-Biden administration. The most obvious possibility is that they feel career pressure to establish bona fides with the perceived winner. In short, they’re scared.

I think this garden-variety cowardice most likely explains the self-identified conservatives who join in the scapegoating of Trump’s supporters. We can even detect this herd instinct in televangelist Pat Robertson’s claim that Biden won fair and square. Having been the butt of ridicule in the past, perhaps the aging Robertson is aching for a pat on the back from his erstwhile enemies.

No one is immune from that human frailty. There is a yearning to retain a sense of relevance, even in a new and hostile order, while at the same time pretending to espouse one’s adopted principles. Too often, the center can’t hold, and venal interests win out over principles.

In the end, every American of good will should be committed to restoring trust in the election process, if that’s still possible. We should have all been interested in getting an accurate count, no matter who won in the end. That doesn’t mean re-counting votes that could be bogus. It means auditing votes, investigating voting processes, and doing everything possible to restore public trust in elections.

Otherwise, abnormality becomes the “new normal” and self-governance is lost. It’s tragic that so many so-called conservatives have refused to do anything to even try to restore that trust.