Dear editor,
“We are rounding the turn (on coronavirus). We are rounding the corner.” Donald Trump, Oct. 22, 2020
“Swing States that have found massive VOTER FRAUD, which is all of them, CANNOT LEGALLY CERTIFY these votes as complete & correct without committing a severely punishable crime. Everybody knows that dead people, below age people, illegal immigrants, fake signatures, prisoners, and many others voted illegally. Also, machine “glitches” (another word for FRAUD), ballot harvesting, non-resident voters, fake ballots, “stuffing the ballot box”, votes for pay, roughed up Republican Poll Watchers, and sometimes even more votes than people voting, …”
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Dec. 13 2020
Both of these statements are, as my plain-spoken father would say: Lies. They bear false witness. While the policies that represent the former has killed tens of thousands, perhaps a hundred thousand of our citizens needlessly, the latter is the more dangerous of the two.
Despite dozens of Trump lawsuits, not one judge in the country, including Trump appointees, have found evidence of election fraud. That’s because: There is no evidence. It’s a fiction Trump has argued in the court of public opinion. It’s designed to undermine the public’s trust in our institutions, the rule of law and, our most sacred right, the right to vote. His objective is to reverse the will of “We the People,” it’s the hallmark of a would-be monarch or king and there’s nothing “conservative,” about it. It’s both radical and seditious.
The fact that so many citizens believe what Donald Trump says is a testament to his skill as a con man. He has misled tens of millions of people. But, he could not do it alone. He is aided by sycophantic politicians who, sensing political advantage, defend him, rather than the Constitution they swore an oath to defend.
Congressman Tom Tiffany is just such a man.
When a Texas Attorney General filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme Court against Wisconsin, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan – states that Trump lost to President-elect Joe Biden – that would invalidate ballots cast by millions of voters, including Wisconsinites, Representative Tiffany was the sole Wisconsin member of Congress to publicly support it. The suit asked the court to flip the electoral votes in four states where President Donald Trump narrowly lost. The Supreme Court unanimously rejected that request to undermine democracy and the principle of state’s rights. In response to this Supreme Court suit, U.S. Rep. Paul Mitchell, a conservative Republican from Michigan, announced he was leaving the GOP and wrote:
“It is unacceptable for political candidates to treat our election system as though we are a third-world nation and incite distrust of something so basic as the sanctity of our vote, further, it is unacceptable for the president to attack the Supreme Court of the United States because its judges, both liberal and conservative, did not rule with his side or that ‘the Court failed him.’ It was our Founding Fathers’ objective to insulate the Supreme Court from such blatant political motivations.”
Those are the words of a conservative patriot.
Unlike, Rep. Mitchell, Tom Tiffany is no patriot, nor is he a conservative. He is a political opportunist. Tiffany knows that his district voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump and, was willing to violate his oath to abet Trump in his quest to usurp democracy. There is nothing conservative about it, he did this for his own political benefit. It’s disgraceful.
In response to Tiffany’s contempt for the rule of law, the conservative blog RIGHTWisconsin withdrew its endorsement of Representative Tiffany and wrote:
“A ‘conservative’ political leader would understand that Paxton’s lawsuit is not conservative. It is a naked attempt at preserving power for a president that lost the November 3 election (even as Tiffany won re-election in his district). Fortunately, Tiffany is the only Wisconsin Republican to endorse the Texas lawsuit.”
The English philosopher John Stuart Mill wrote, “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.”
Fellow patriots, let’s not ” look on and do nothing.” Congressman Tiffany comes up for re-election in 2022, let’s make sure that he cannot continue to rend the fabric of democracy, and put his own self-interest above his sworn oath to the Constitution. Let’s vote him out of office.
It’s up to us, “We the People.”
Rick Plonsky of Harshaw
Editor’s note: Wausau Pilot & Review gladly publishes commentary from readers, residents and candidates for local offices. The views of readers and columnists are independent of this newspaper and do not necessarily reflect the views of Wausau Pilot & Review. To submit, email [email protected] or mail to 500 N. Third St., Suite 208-8, Wausau, Wis. 54403.
