Threats to Democracy

When I started this blog more than 10 years ago, I was afraid I would run out of material but even local news headlines never fail to come through. Here are some from last Friday's CT Post.

Headline: 9/22/23: Primary Crisis affects all of Conn.

Like clockwork, we watch for skullduggery in Bridgeport, at every election, or at least allegations of misdeeds, and more often than not the state’s largest city comes through. Now we’re living through a repeat of the 2019 mayoral primary when a challenger to Mayor Joe Ganim won the machine vote on primary day, then lost the election due to Ganim’s superior performance in absentee ballots, then accused Ganim supporters of wrongdoing. 

Comment: The front-page lead article in last Friday’s CT Post by reporter Dan Haar indicated that election fraud has long been the norm in Bridgeport, Connecticut’s largest city. As the headline indicated Harr ‘s concern was not just with the local Democratic primary but with its potential impact on the whole state. He believed that absentee ballot fraud would just heighten voter suspicion concerning the fairness and validity of all elections in the minds of the electorate. Moreover, he argued that Bridgeport’s absentee ballot accusations might ruin the chances of next year’s proposed referendum to provide unlimited, no-excuse absentee ballot for all.

Despite the misuse of absentee ballots, Democratic reformers just want to expand their usage. They believe that this will lead to greater voter participation and expand democracy. Reformers regard opposition to unlimited absentee voting as a threat to democracy. Bridgeport is Connecticut’s largest city with a population of about 150,000. In the last mayoral election in 2019, less than 15,000 people voted. The Democratic incumbent received 9,500 votes, twice as much as his nearest competitor, another Democrat, received. The Republican candidate got only 1583 votes. Once the incumbent won the Democratic primary, it was all over.

Most of the large cities in Blue-State Connecticut resemble Bridgeport. They are one party cities run by a political machine. If history is any guide, absentee balloting has always worked to increase their stranglehold on government. Unlimited absentee balloting will just play into their hands. Of course, when Democrats complain about election fraud, they are exercising their rights. Newspaper articles support them, and commissions are appointed to investigate. But when Republicans complain about fraud, they are considered to be threats to democracy, and they become the objects of investigation and prosecution.

Actually, the real threat to Democracy in this country can be seen in some other headlines in that same issue of the CT. Post.

 Headline 1: Suspect claims he wasn’t involved in carjacking.

“Freed on bond Thursday, a Berlin man, charged in connection with the carjacking of an Aston Martin from a Westport garage claimed his arrest had been a mistake …. Mcgill was referring to video police released to media showing two masked men, one of whom hits the owner of the luxury sports car, in the garage of the victim’s Bayberry Lane home on Sunday afternoon before driving off with the car.

McGill was arrested Monday at this Berlin home after police said they found the stolen Aston Martin in Mcgill’s garage along with a Porsche Macan GTS reported stolen in Rhode Island, a BMW X4 stolen in Ridgefield, a BMW sedan and a BMW sport utility vehicle stolen in Westport.”

Headline 2: Video shows a Fairfield business owner and customer stop car theft.

“Marc Vitaliani, the owner of the Auto Spa in Fairfield, said he and a customer foiled a brazen daytime car theft attempt last week. Vitaliani was within 10 feet of a red BMW M3, that was being detailed at the Post Road business when four people showed up in a BMW X6 and attempted to steal the vehicle… The male suspect who tried to drive off with the car was wearing a mask …"

Headline 3: 3 Bridgeport men arrested on drug, gun charges during shooting probe.

“Three city men were arrested on Sanford Avenue Tuesday night after being found with drugs and a gun according to police ….

During the interaction, [Police officer] Gilleran said, Tyree Heard, 24, was found to be in possession of illegal narcotics, packaged for sale and a .45 caliber semiautomatic handgun with a high capacity magazine. Gilleran said the firearm also has its serial number altered.”

Headline 4: Bridgeport man, 27, sentenced to over 4 years on gang-related charges.

“A city man was sentenced to over four years in prison for his involvement in a violent street gang, according to officials. …

East end gang members distributed heroin, crack cocaine, marijuana and Percoset pills, used and shared firearms, and committed at least six murders and other acts of violence against rival gang members and other individuals, the release said.”

The rampant crime in our city streets is the real threat to democracy. If unchecked, it will lead to mob rule where whole neighborhoods are terrorized by gang members. Ultimately, mob rule leads to dictatorship of one form or another.

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Voter Suppression 2019

The Squad

Democratic politicians and commentators routinely criticize Republicans for engaging in voter suppression. They claim that their opponents engage in attempts to keep voters away from the polls, especially those who might be likely to vote for Democrats. Here is another instance of the pot calling the kettle black.

In Democratic strongholds election results are so certain, that most Democratic politicians are elected with overwhelming majorities but with only by a small percentage of the voters. For example, if we look at the “Squad”, the name appropriated by the four minority females recently elected to the House of Representatives, we see examples of what might be called reverse voter suppression.

In each case, while they won overwhelming victories in their largely urban districts, only a small percentage of the people actually voted in their districts.  For example, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the now famous AOC, received 110000 votes or 78% of the votes cast in New York’s 14^th Congressional district. However, the population of the district that includes parts of the boroughs of the Bronx and Queens is 691000. So, 16% of the people in the district actually voted for her, and on the basis of those 110000 votes, she calls for sweeping and substantial reforms that would impact the whole country. 

Rachida Tlaib received 165000 votes or 84% of the votes cast in Michigan’s 13^th Congressional district.  The district is carved out of parts of Detroit and its environs and has a population of 705000. So, she was elected by 23% of her constituents. Ayanna Pressley received 212000 votes or an astounding 98% of the votes cast in the 7^th Massachusetts Congressional district. That district surrounding Boston has a population of 806000. She was elected by 27% of her constituents. 

 Ilhan Abdullah Omar was the “Squads” top vote getter. She received 267000 votes or 78% of the total votes cast in Minnesota’s 4^th Congressional district. Largely centered in Minneapolis, that district has a population of 708000. She garnered the votes of 38% of the people in her district, a very impressive total. Despite her radical views, she has more claim to electoral legitimacy than the other members of the Squad. 

Actually, these low urban turnout rates in safe Blue State districts do not seem to be abnormal. James Himes, the incumbent representative from Connecticut’s largely suburban Fairfield County, won an easy victory in 2018 but only 23% of his 735000 constituents voted for him. In the hotly contested 2016 Presidential election 60% of the population did not vote. 

The most striking examples of voter suppression or apathy would appear to occur in American cities. Mayor Bill De Blasio of New York City was reelected in 2018 but his 736000 voters were only 8% of the City’s 8 million plus population. With that underwhelming mandate, he decided to run for President. A couple of years ago, in nearby Bridgeport, Mayor Joseph Ganim gained an easy victory with only 11000 votes, 8% of the voters in Connecticut’s largest city. He took this victory as a mandate to run for Governor in 2018.

Are Democrats in this blue cities and districts suppressing the vote, or is it just a question of voter apathy? I suspect that apathy is the real answer. Voters realize that it is largely futile or irrelevant to vote in Congressional districts that have been so designed or “gerrymandered” that they guarantee re-election for incumbents. The four members of the Squad will never have to worry about Russian interference in their future campaigns. They probably will hold their positions for life unless they decide to go on to bigger and bigger things. 

It is hard to take voting rights advocates seriously when they claim that every vote counts. What does it tell us about democracy in America when someone can get elected with 98% of the votes cast, or when only 8% of a major city’s population is all that is needed to elect a mayor?  

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