Rand Paul on a rampage
The new year is but a few hours old, and fortunately, none of Donald Trump鈥檚 minions have stormed the U.S. Capitol.
So far, so good.
I can鈥檛 assure you there won鈥檛 be 鈥淚nsurrection 2022.鈥�
Those folks are still convinced Joe Biden thrust himself into the Oval Office by less than legal means.
(I鈥檇 curse here. But I have standards.)
Did you know that there鈥檚 a lot of polling that indicates Republicans are still clinging fast to the notion that Trump was the rightful winner of the 2020 presidential election?
I kid you not. (I use that phrase instead of cussing, sometimes.)
One recent poll reveals that 59% of GOP voters say that believing Trump won the election is 鈥渋mportant鈥� to being a Republican.
I kid you not, AGAIN.
Nowadays, believing a lie (that Trump won, and Biden lost), is the standard for being a Republican?
That might seem to be preposterous until you take a look at what鈥檚 happening in statehouses controlled by Republicans across the nation.
For some Republicans, it鈥檚 never too late to fix problems (when the wrong people voted) that exist at the ballot box.
To date, there鈥檝e been 33 laws passed in 19 states that鈥檒l make it harder for some Americans to vote.
Republicans in 15 states have decided they don鈥檛 like how votes are being counted.
They鈥檝e passed laws that take vote-counting out of the hands of non-elected boards of election. They鈥檝e given it to legislative (read partisan) bodies.
It doesn鈥檛 matter that there were dozens of failed attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
(The official counts of election litigation vary. From 69 cases, down to 36 cases. None of them were successful.)
All of this has taken place, while the loser of the 2020 presidential election froths at the mouth about getting cheated every chance he gets.
Nobody cheated.
He froths freely, anyway.
I kid you not.
Enter, Rand Paul.
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. Pittsburgh native, and inhabitant of a headspace, yet to be fully understood.
He has a rather exotic take on things.
Senator Paul enjoys being the lone wolf.
Like in March of 2020, when the entire U.S. Senate passed the much-needed, $900 billion COVID-19 relief package.
The vote was 96-1. Guess who that one vote was? Rand Paul.
Or, when the U.S. House passed something called the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, by a 410-4 vote, and the Senate gained 99 votes 鈥� who do you suppose blocked passage of that bill? Rand Paul.
Mr. Paul seemed to have been at variance with the notion that lynching should be considered a federal hate crime.
I kid you not.
These days, Sen. Paul has outdone himself.
He鈥檚 launched some sort of philosophical argument about the supposed dishonesty of Democrats and their desires to win elections.
Paul recently tweeted, 鈥淗ow to steal an election: Seeding an area heavy with potential Democratic votes with as many absentee ballots as possible, targeting, and convincing potential voters to complete them in a legally valid way, and then harvesting and counting the results.鈥�
If you took the time to read that closely, you may have concluded that Sen. Paul has gone 鈥檙ound the bend of logical thought.
Simply, everything contained in that tweet is completely legal. Especially the part where he wrote, 鈥渁nd convincing potential voters to complete them in a legally valid way.鈥�
That鈥檚 what politicians and political organizations do to win elections 鈥� fair and square (as they say).
The response from around the country about that tweet was immediate.
鈥淪aying the quiet part extremely loud, over a bullhorn,鈥� one person tweeted.
Another observer tweeted, 鈥淭his is what we call 鈥� wait for it 鈥� voting.鈥�
This all aligns with the fact that Republicans are increasingly more concerned about, what they feel, is all of the 鈥渨rong鈥� people voting.
After elections, challenge the votes.
If that doesn鈥檛 work, change the laws that help enable certain people to vote.
If those things don鈥檛 work, imply that legal voting procedures are illegal.
I kid you not!
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter, and anchor for Entertainment Tonight, and 40-year TV news and newspaper veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.