BY JOYCE ANDERSON
Los Alamos
Dear Editor:
During this election cycle the issue of accepting the outcome of past elections keeps being brought up by our Democratic candidates and their surrogates. It’s almost become a defacto litmus test which determines a candidate’s fitness for office. But are Republicans the only ones guilty of denying elections? The past tells us no they are not.
In regard to the 2016 election, Democrat politicians stated:
“You can run the best campaign. You can even become the nominee, and you can have the election stolen from you.” Hillary Clinton
“Trump didn’t actually win the election in 2016. He lost the election and was put into office because the Russians interfered.” Former US President, Jimmy Carter
“Although legally elected [Trump] is not legitimate.” Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-NY
“I don’t see this president-elect as a legitimate president.” Rep John Lewis, D-MD
“The one thing that Trump is fearful of when it comes to him being president is that finally we will see how illegitimate his victory actually was.” Hillary Clinton
“Stolen emails, stolen drone, stolen election…welcome to the world of #unpresidented Trump”, Karien Jean-Pierre, White House Press Secretary
“He knows he’s an illegitimate president, so of course he’s obsessed with me. And I believe it’s a guilty conscience” Hillary Clinton.
In regard to the 2000 presidential election:
“We actually won the last presidential election folks. They stole the last presidential election” Terry McCauliffe, former DNC Chair.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that Al Gore was elected president” Jimmy Carter.
“What I observed as a voter, as a citizen of Illinois four years ago, was troubling evidence of the fact that not every vote was being counted.” then Sen Barack Obama, D-IL Obama.
“After the election, when you stole the election you came back here and say get over it. No, we’re not getting over it!” Rep Corrien Brown, D-FL
In regard to the 2004 election:
“The 2004 presidential election in Ohio was riddled with unnecessary problems.” Sen Sherrod Brown, D-OH
“The question obviously is how many instances were not caught? That we don’t know about? Number one, we’ve seen a lot of what I’ll call honest glitches where it didn’t just work right but also that these machines are hackable. That a dishonest employee of the vendor or dishonest employee of a local board of elections, or simply someone who knows electronics, and has a computer at home could hack into these machines, and put a secret instruction to disregard every 20th Democratic vote, or add 10% of the Kerry vote to the Bush vote, and you might not even know it.” Rep Jerry Nadler, D-NY
“One of the most significant problems in Ohio and in many other states was the lack of measures to ensure the integrity of electronic voting machines.” Sen Harry Reid, D-NV.
Both sides like to blame the other when they lose. I think it might be hardwired into our DNA as Americans at this point to deny elections. If you have twelve minutes, I suggest you take a look at this video of people denying the results of past presidential elections. https://youtu.be/XX2Ejqjz6TA
Focusing on the election at hand, the 2022 election is a referendum on the Biden presidency, which has seen the economy fall into a recession, unemployment, crippling high inflation, record high gas prices, record high interest rates, and a proxy war being fought with Russia in Ukraine.
President Biden has gone cap in hand to the OPEC nations asking them to drill more oil, while American oil and gas companies have their leases and permits taken away. We’re being told that we must transition to a “green economy” and yet the infrastructure for such a thing is years away and would be heavily dependent on government subsidies to make it work, if it could work at all. Are you better off today under Pres. Biden’s leadership? I know I’m not.
Here in New Mexico the 2022 will be an accounting for the governorship of Michelle Lujan-Grisham. New Mexico is one of the only states with a still active Covid-19 public health order in place, WHY? New Mexico schools were closed for over a year, while schools in Arizona, Texas, and Utah were back in person and mask free by the fall of 2020. Our kids are still suffering the consequences of these prolonged and unnecessary school closures.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released data that showed New Mexico’s 4th and 8th graders are at the bottom of the nation when it comes to math and reading proficiency. We know from PED’s own scores that proficiency in core subjects over all grades is in the 30-20% range for most grades.
During 2020, Governor Lujan-Grisham deemed many small businesses “non-essential” but left Walmart, Kroger, and many other national big-box stores open. The Governor also limited store capacity to 75 people at a time, or closed stores all together. Right before Thanksgiving 2020, there were lines of people winding through the parking lots at Smiths and other large stores waiting to get in to shop. On MLG’s watch we’ve lost 40% of small businesses and over 1000 restaurants in our state. Many of those businesses were locally owned, multi generation businesses. We’re also plagued with high unemployment, high crime, homelessness in our big cities, and killer drugs like fentanyl pouring across our unsecured southern border.
We all have seen the many letters written to the local papers complaining about how the County Council does not listen to the citizens of Los Alamos County. That helplessness cuts across party lines. As a community we are still wrestling with finalizing the nuisance code, rising utility rates, and lack of housing to name a few things. There are four open seats on the Council this election cycle, with candidates waiting to fill those seats.
Let’s get back to focusing on the issues at hand and the things we can do as a community for the next two years to the 2024 election – where I’m sure we can deny, deny, deny if our guy loses.