Established in 1911 at St. Lawrence University
Established in 1911 at St. Lawrence University

2020 Elections: Who Do We Think We Are?

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The title of the 1973 Deep Purple album brings many necessary questions. It’s the question that Congress is trying to ask itself, but it’s warranted for the very constituency it serves as well. 

The Chief Operating Officer for the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, Gabriel Sterling. You might remember his brief, yet crucial press conference on Dec. 1, 2020 when he felt morally obligated to address the issues that plagued the Georgia recount. The most important thing he said was arguably the following: 

“Mr. President, it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia. We’re investigating. There’s always a possibility, I get it, and you have the right to go through the courts. What you don’t have the ability to do and you need to step up and say this is stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone’s going to get hurt. Someone’s going to get shot. Someone’s going to get killed. And it’s not right.” Just over five weeks later, the last four sentences came true over that very tion through an example of our immigration laws we ultimately self-defeating” for Americans to think a legitimately conducted and executed election was stolen, and then pretend that national integrity and composure is not being abused. 

America has functioned on elections since its inception and some of the tightest races in our history have opponents present the most honorable of concessions and words of support. Violence and encouraging governmental dysfunction after losing is not how our system is meant to work, and should never aspire to function that way. The 2020 election may have had the highest turn- out in our history, yet it still contained noticeably large margins. To put things further in perspective, Biden’s victory margin was larger than the population of 35 states on their own. We must do more to protect the following election cycles such as the Electoral Count Act that now sits before the Senate. Normalcy can only defeat the extremes, if the constituency allows it. Do not let the people who already permanently tarnished America’s reputation to itself and the international stage get away with doing so again. election. It wasn’t right, yet it happened. 

Equally important is what Sterling said moments before: “Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language. Senators, you have not condemned this language or these actions. This has to stop. We need you to step up. And if you take a position of leadership, show some.”  Note that David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler were senators at the time. To her credit, Loeffler would go on to certify the election after the January 6th attack in the name of “good conscience.”

In a recent 60 Minutes interview, former Congressman Denver Riggleman of Virginia and technical advisor to the Jan. 6 Committee said he got to investigate all the drama from the election to the attack on the Capitol, finding extremely questionable connections between Trump administration leadership and the other perpetrators of the attack. 

He discovered that the administration’s order of operations for Jan. 6 were already underway a mere two days after the 2020 election. Perhaps a concept exploration through an example would be useful. Take the straightforward eloquence of Bill Clinton’s 1995 State of the Union Address when discussing immigration: “We are a antion of immigrants. But we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it.” 

Whether you believe in Clinton’s notions for immigration in the present state of affairs is one thing, but replace the notion of immigration with elections, and the same logic faithfully applies. It is in fact “wrong and ulitimatley self-defeating” for Americans to think a legitimately conducted and executed election was stolen, and then pretend that national integrity and composure is not being abused.

America has functioned on elections since its inception and some of the tightest races in our history have opponents present the most honorable of concessions and words of support. Violence and encouraging governmental dysfunction after losing is not how our system is meant to work, and should never aspire to function that way.

The 2020 election may have had the highest turnout in our history, yet it still contained noticeably large margins. To put things further in perspective, Biden’s victory margin was larger than the population of 35 states on their own. We must do more to protect the following election cycles such as the Electoral Count Act that now sits before the Senate. Normalcy can only defeat the extremes, if the constituency allows it. Do not let the people who already permanently tarnished America’s reputation to itself and the international stage get away with doing so again.

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