The historical record notes that George Washington used to include ample supplies of whisky to distribute to voters and campaign workers in the elections of the 1790s, so the subject of election integrity is perfect for this week’s one-off Whisky Shot casts.
Lucretia and I review what is gradually coming into sharper focus: the very targeted intervention of nearly $500 million from Mark Zuckerberg decisively swung the election to Joe Biden. Changes in voting rules because of COVID helped, but without the supercharged efforts funded by Zuckerberg through left-wing groups maximizing turnout in key Democratic urban strongholds it is more likely than not that Trump would have been re-elected. (Read more about this story here.)
Remember when liberals claimed that “big money” (and especially “dark money”) were threats to democracy? Yeah, you can expect that claim to begin receding on the left any moment now, just as the left’s advocacy for public financing for presidential campaigns fell silent when Obama blew up the presidential public financing system in 2008. The left is nothing if not expert on situational ethics.
From here we go on to talk about how to restore election integrity, going beyond common sense measures such as voter ID, and settling on ending early voting—not so much as a fraud-prevention measure, but because the early voting we have in place today actually diminishes election day as a clear statement of the people’s will at a point in time.
Finally, we begin discussion of the outrageous proposal of Democrat super-lawyer Mark Elias to disqualify Republicans from holding office, based on a novel reading of a clause in the 14th Amendment that was written to apply to Democrats who backed the Confederacy in the 1860s. Look for this preposterous idea to catch on with the left, with a hundred law review articles from Lawrence Tribe arguing for its constitutionality.
Exit music this week, chosen for its topical lyrics, is “2nd Self” from Umphrey’s McGee, which includes in part:
No matter how you break
You shouldn’t be the one to take
Your own opinions as they twist in their own way. . .All she wants is to be spared
From voting for a candidate who doesn’t care
You know what to do now: listen here, or send your absentee podcast request to our hosts at Ricochet.
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