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| Grandma, dat boy, & me |
My maternal grandmother was neither an educated nor an erudite woman. She had a knack for saying stuff from far left field. She was great at sage advice, some of which still holds up today...like never believe a butcher when he tells you it's a glatt kosher chicken...there is no such thing. Her best statement outta the blue ever was, "You're gonna marry dat boy." (I did.)
Her own world view came from surviving pogroms in Odessa and young widowhood. She was a practicalist of the first order. Over the years, she imparted some pretty strange and some pretty sage wisdom, and one of the best things she ever told me was something along the lines of never believe what the politicians tell you; they have a secret plan and they're not gonna tell you what it is. They talk out of three sides of their mouths.
The healthy dose of skepticism she instilled in me has served me well, and right now, it's like she handed me the key to understanding the 2022 midterm elections. I'd been dancing around the feeling that I was missing something in the big pictures. Lying in bed before dawn this morning, I was thinking about the arc of the elections and what really mattered. Since the GOP has declared their only goal is to stop anything the Biden administration wants, whether or not it is good for We, the People and the country, what difference is there if Congress is blue or red? Some Democrats act like Republicans anyway, so there's never a winner, only some form of stalemate.
Governors are the same thing. Their legislators are going to play games with any agenda because there is no super-majority to get anything done. This midterm is a waste of money. It doesn't matter who wins or who loses.
Or does it?
There is only one office that will make a difference. In 27 states, the office of Secretary of State is on the ballot. In at least 13 of those states, an avowed election denier is running for office.
These are the only elections that matter at this moment in time.
In case you don't understand this low-level, seemingly insignificant officer, let me explain what the Secretary of State does on the state level: this office serves as the state's Chief Elections Officer; implementing electronic filing and Internet disclosure of campaign and lobbyist financial information. Maintaining business filings.
That means the Secretary of State controls how the election is run. It means the secretary of state has great influence in the matter of how balloting is executed, what ballots are accepted, and how financial information is disclosed to the public.
If the Secretary of State is an election denier, there is a chance they can refuse to certify an election with an outcome that does not jive with their political beliefs.
I don't think we'll ever know precisely what happened. What I can tell you is that Minnesota laws were not followed.
That has repeatedly been proven to be untrue, yet, she still has refused to say whether or not she would accept election outcomes. During a debate with incumbent Steve Simon hosted by CBS affiliate, WCCO Radio, she was asked by moderator Blois Olson if she would accept the results of the election. Her reply was a little terrifying:
I think that's kind of an odd question. We aren't there yet. We're weeks out. And we'll just have to see what happens between now and the certification of the election.
Magnify Kim Crockett with 27 states, and suddenly you have more than half the states in the US with election certifiers who may be unwilling to uphold the law and the Constitution.
The following states are voting for Secretary of State:
Watch these states for the lower level results. Secretary of State is the lynchpin. The other one you want to keep an eye on is Attorney General. Working in concert, those two offices on the state level can change the trajectory of a nation.
The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week
Tomorrow, while you're watching the election results come in,
keep in mind that this may be the last time We, The People,
have anything close to a free and fair election.
The news is depressing. It’s awful that many voters will believe anything they hear or read. It’s worse that many self-serving and cynical politicians will lie and tell these voters anything they think they want to hear, our democracy be damned.
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