When I saw the email from Donald Trump just before 4 PM Pacific Monday announcing that Mar-a-Lago was under siege by federal agents, my very first response was shock, but that only lasted a few seconds. The shock was quickly replaced by rage. As I tweeted immediately, the raid was a despicable politicization of federal law enforcement, and the intended effect wasn’t to obtain documents from Donald Trump or anyone else at Mar-a-Lago. The intended effect was to send a message to Trump’s associates, his allies, his supporters, and everyone who dared question the Biden Administration: You better watch out and stay in line.
This tyrannical raid isn’t what the United States of America was founded on. In fact, it’s the polar opposite of the principles the Founding Fathers held dear.
Well, I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take it anymore.
While it feels good to say that, it doesn’t change anything. So how can I, or you, or any of us, actually change something? Biden’s not going to remove Merrick Garland or Christopher Wray. Congress is not going to take any action to remove bad actors at the DOJ or the FBI, and neither will the federal courts, at least not in Washington, D.C.
Now, it’s possible that at some point Trump can file a federal lawsuit asserting that his civil rights were violated, but any possible remedy from that is years away. We don’t have years to course correct.
This is not going to be popular, but our path to course correction runs through the ballot box. Stay with me for a minute, and I’ll explain why.
I’ll agree with you that yes, election fraud exists — and it always has. Especially as a California resident, I fully believe that mail-in ballots, outdated voter rolls, ballot harvesting, motor voter statutes, and more have led to an even higher incidence of election fraud. (I’ve even written pieces with policy reform suggestions.)
I also know that when Republicans don’t fully turn out, we lose seats we could have otherwise held or gained. As I wrote in 2019 regarding California (but applies across the country):
An in-depth look at the voting habits of Republican and No Party Preference voters in [California] published in a confidential white paper in 2018 revealed that had just a portion of the state’s conservative “sometime” voters (those who vote in 2 or 3 of every 5 general elections) turned out in 2014, seven of the Congressional districts that went Democrat would have gone Republican. Those voters aren’t traditionally courted – which is a huge mistake, because those are the voters who turn out when they feel needed or feel a connection to a candidate.
With those caveats, and knowing that there is a massive amount of litigation and legislative work to be done to fix the voter rolls and ensure that only legal votes are cast, here’s the plan.
1. We need to ensure that there are conservative candidates for every office on the ballot. Make the progressives fight for every seat. If the filing period has closed in your state, determine if it’s possible to run a write-in candidate. There’s still time to file for many local/regional offices like school board, City Council, water board, etc. (Side benefit: You could end up as a delegate to your state GOP, and even be able to appoint more delegates and effect change from within.)
2. VOTE. Get as many people as you can out to vote with you. Of course, people who are going to vote conservative. Help educate them. If you have early in-person voting, take advantage of it. Make it a social gathering – everyone vote, then hit happy hour. Or a movie. Or the beach. Or lunch. Whatever. Just get the voting done. As Dan Bongino said, “If there was ever a clarion call to remove your ass from the seat and go vote in 2022, this [Mar-a-Lago raid] is it.”
"If there was ever a clarion call to remove your ass from the seat and go vote in 2022 this is it…" pic.twitter.com/utDtTQT3EA
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 8, 2022
3. If possible, get a job with your county elections board. Many counties hire temporary workers to run the polling places or as IT help. That’s a great way to not only earn some extra money but to have a front-row seat to watch how things are done and to make sure the law is followed.
4. Become a volunteer poll watcher/election observer. State laws vary on how to go about this and the training required if any, so I don’t have specific information. Contact your state or county Republican party, as many are having training sessions as we speak.
5. Volunteer for a campaign. Even if you can’t walk precincts, you can make calls or put together walk packets. If you live in a solidly red area, consider volunteering to call/text for candidates in battleground districts. My current Congressman, Rep. Mike Garcia, won in 2020 by just 333-ish votes. He is going to need all hands on deck to retain that seat since redistricting took a chunk of solidly red voters out of the district. Anyone in the country can make calls or text for his campaign. He’s obviously not the only one, but he’s the first one who comes to mind for me, obviously.
6. Write letters to the editor. These are still surprisingly effective, especially if done from the perspective of providing facts to distinguish between candidates.
Now, I can’t guarantee a red wave in November if we follow these steps, but I know what will happen if we don’t. We must do all that we can to save our country from this tyranny.
