• Home
  • Blog
  • Contact
The Screaming Moderate

It isn't rigged

9/17/2020

2 Comments

 

  I’m seeing and hearing a lot of angst lately about Joe Biden.
  • He’s not active enough on the campaign trail.
  • His surrogates aren’t being seen enough.
  • He’s not as strong on Issue A or B as I’d like.
I have something for those folks to think about: 

Who do you want in the Oval Office? A man with experience, common sense, and empathy? Or Donald Trump?

It truly is that phrase that’s become trite: “a binary choice.” It’s one or the other. Aren’t getting everything you want from Biden? He’s not “progressive” enough? He’s too old? Then vote for Donald Trump, if that’s what you want.

I have a Facebook friend who posted the other day, “Defeating Donald Trump is the most important political objective of my lifetime. Yet Joe Biden looks like he may not be up to the job.” He then solicited suggestions by saying: “Substantive strategies to ensure that Biden beats Trump and secures the presidency?”

I responded, “Vote.”

That’s it. Just vote. Once.

To my Trump-supporting friends, I hear you. I don’t get it but I hear you. You think he’s kept his promises. That he’s good at speaking his mind. That he’s giving the middle finger to the establishment. That he is doing something about those people who have been taking your jobs away. I understand all that.

We just disagree.

And you know something? That’s okay. That’s what this country is all about.  I’m just hoping there are more of me than you. Just as you're hoping the opposite.

Is the election rigged? No, it isn’t. The President can say it every day from now to November 3, and I expect he will, but it isn’t rigged. It wasn’t rigged four years ago when he won, and it isn’t being rigged now.

People who believe in democracy don’t rig elections.

I not only don’t like most of the policies the President has adopted (and they are adopted, he doesn’t truly agree with them), I really don’t like a lot of the people in his Administration.

Forget about the Cabinet members, they sold their souls a long time ago or they got out of the Cabinet. Even the staff people. And this is personal to a degree, I’ll admit. Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, said this yesterday to a reporter asking a legitimate question which was something like: what’s the status of the health plan the President’s been promising and who’s working on it?

McEnany’s answer: “I’m not going to give you a readout of what our health care plan looks like and who’s working on it. If you want to know, come work here at the White House.”

I know it’s trite to say, but the taxpayers pay her salary. She is the spokesman for the White House, not Donald Trump the man, but Donald Trump the President.

I know, it’s a subtle line to walk. But I can speak from some experience because I’ve walked that line. Her answer was arrogant and total BS. She either has an audience of one she’s playing to or she’s auditioning for her own show on a friendly cable network.

That, though, is not the answer to the reporter’s question. There are many other ways to say it, if she is going to even come close to telling the truth. Her problem is the truth isn’t available to her because there is no big Administration health plan being drafted or already drafted, as the President has said. (And, if there were, it needs to be passed into law.) And if there is, that Miller guy is probably drafting it along with that new coronavirus advisor who is feeding Trump his lines.

Another way to answer the question, “We have some of the world’s leading experts in our Administration and departments. They are working on it under the leadership of (and here she can make one of two choices -– an appropriate Cabinet member or, less believable in any Administration, the President).” Bingo. Answered.

But, it’s more important as a Trump re-election strategy to point the finger at the media. Simple as that. No need to sweat the details. No need to have any specifics. Just say to a reporter as McEnany did yesterday, “If you want to know, come work here at the White House.” (A three year old’s “na-na-na-na” is optional.)

Or, when she said “come work here at the White House,” the reporter maybe should have said “OK, I’ll do that. Point me to the HR department.”

The electorate is plenty locked in on who it’s voting for at the moment. We are truly a blue/red country. The undecideds vary depending on the poll you read but it’s safe to say that fewer than 10 percent are undecided at this juncture and it’s more likely half of that. Those are the voters being fought over basically.

They skew, from the polls I’ve seen, more women than men, more people who think the country’s off track than on track. But, as the old song goes, “but that was yesterday and yesterday’s gone.” That poll is no longer operative now.

No one knows who’s going to win this election. Biden’s the betting favorite but, as we saw reinforced four years ago, it’s the Electoral College, stupid. And Trump is betting heavy on Republican states and pushing away Democratic states with his claiming the GOP did a better job than Democrats on the coronavirus. I’ll resist a snarky – “well, except for one Republican we all know who lives in the White House.” But I’ll resist.

If you watch the news, Secretaries of the State, the ultimate state official responsible for elections, whether Democrat or Republican, say their state isn’t rigged and you can tell they truly mean it.

Election officials tend to be more straightforward than other “political” people in my experience. They also usually have clearer laws and legal guidance to work from.

This election will not be rigged. I’m not sure how one would rig it, honestly.

The media and the politicians should be preparing the voters on why it isn’t rigged. The time for that education is now. We have always trusted our elections and now is no time to change that.

The President is laying out that “rigged” marker to either try to steal the election after Election Day (unlikely) or to set up an excuse as to why losing wasn’t his fault.

 

 

 

2 Comments
Naomi Kochen
9/17/2020 02:26:06 pm

As always, your comments are right on target! To me, the choice is so clear! Everyone needs to stop complaining and realize that Joe Biden is the answer for a return to our democracy!

Reply
Bob Ricci
9/20/2020 05:42:39 pm

The way they rig elections in red states is to have inadequate polling sites in blue districts. Voters can’t find a functioning site or they can’t wait hours to vote. It’s voter suppression

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

     
    Follow @bjaycooper

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013

    B. Jay Cooper

    B. Jay is a former deputy White House press secretary to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also headed the communications offices at the Republican National Committee, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Yale University. He is a former reporter and is the retired deputy managing director of APCO Worldwide's Washington, D.C., office.
    He is the father of three daughters and grandfather of five boys and one girl. He lives in Marion, Mass.

powered by bjaycooper.com