In 2020 I had resided in McIntosh County Georgia for 18 years. I voted for Joe Biden in the election there that November. I felt considerable pride for my adopted state as that election count was finished. The Democratic Party succeeded in seating two new Senators, and won 16 electoral votes for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Democracy is exhilarating when you earn a positive outcome honestly.
On January 2nd, 2021, out-going Trump placed an hour-long phone call to the Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which he pressured the Secretary to “find 11,780 votes” to overturn the election.
This wasn’t Trump’s first phone call pressuring the Secretary’s office. On December 23, 2020, Trump called the chief investigator at the secretary’s office, who was then conducting a ballot audit. Raffensperger had ordered the audit in response to Trump’s allegations of fraud. Trump asked her to scrutinize the ballots and said she would find “dishonesty”. She didn’t. No significant fraud was found.
Four years have passed.
Trump is now indicted under both federal law and in the state of Georgia for his criminal attempt to defraud voters and steal the 2020 election. And it wasn’t only those two phone calls, but the fraud involved a coordinated effort by numerous individuals to present and count false electoral ballots from seven different states.
The conspiracy’s success hinged on fomenting utter chaos at the Capitol. Trump’s surrogates summoned armed and violent right wing posses. They moved according to a plan under the cover of the other demonstrators. Capitol policemen defending the building suffered serious injuries. Some died. One civilian was shot dead.
Slates of false electoral ballots were created in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Republican party workers labored to put those fraudulent ballots on the floor of the House on January 6th, where they hoped the pressure of the rioting mob might force their acceptance.
And the plan almost succeeded. The House and Senate chambers were evacuated. Tear gas was discharged in the Rotunda. Windows and doors, interior and exterior, were shattered. The counting of electoral ballots could not take place.
The certification of my chosen candidate was delayed until late that evening, after the rioters withdrew, the building had been cleared and deemed secure, and the legislators and Vice President Pence had returned.
Chaos didn’t succeed that day. But chaos hasn’t given up. Trump recently said that there would be “bedlam” here if he was not re-elected. It’s pretty clear to me and others that’s a call to his violent supporters to engage in armed insurrection again on his behalf.
If you are uncomfortable with the idea of living with ongoing chaos and division, if you’d prefer living with peace and the order of law, then you shouldn’t support Trump, or any faction that supports him.
They tried to steal my vote. It’s personal…
