Or, ‘How to Hot-wire a Stagecoach’
When I was in grade school back in the early 1970s, my teacher took us on a little field trip. We were brought into the school’s gymnasium to see what voting machines looked like. Must have been an election year and my school was a polling station. So it was an excellent opportunity to show kids how the process worked.
After looking one over for a few minutes, I can clearly remember thinking one thing almost immediately; THESE ARE ANCIENT! Like artifacts you’d see in a museum. I had never seen such old contraptions before! The memory remained vivid in my mind because I was honestly shocked by what I was looking at. This was what our precious Democracy relied on to count votes? It seemed impossible!
Image my surprise over a decade later when I was 18, voting for the first time and walked into one of the exact same voting machines! After I voted I was POSITIVE my vote was lost! I even asked for help because I was sure this decrepit machine could not have registered my ballot correctly. The machine looked like it had last been used when Lincoln ran for Congress!
Over the years I’ve heard many, many complaints on the state of voting machines and proposed solutions. The most common one is why not switch to something electronic? We have the technology capable of performing such a task. If we have ATMs managing millions of bank transactions a day why can’t we have machines that can count votes electronically the same way?
The primary argument against this is the possibility of such machines being vulnerable to computer hacking by nefarious sources. A plausible concern but one I’m sure could be safeguarded against. Either way, the idea has NEVER been pursued.
Imagine my surprise when I was told the 2016 Presidential Election had been “Hacked” by Russian operatives to ensure victory for Donald Trump.
Hacked? Hacked what? The technology needed for this to be true was never developed and deployed. What were the accusers of this so-called ‘Russian Plot’ talking about?
To say our election was, “Hacked” implies computer-related shenanigans. And just what was it that was “hacked?” Our voting machines? But how do you “hack” a machine that has no hard drive, no operating system software, no connection to the internet (or any LAN system for that matter), no Ethernet port and as far as I can tell, isn’t even plugged into an electrical outlet! In some countries in the USA people still vote by paper ballot! Others vote my mail! Computers can hack other computers. They cannot hack paper envelopes! This conspiracy theory has a gap in it the size of Barack Obama’s ego.
It would be as if a friend came up to me and said, “Hey! I know how to Hot-wire a Stagecoach!”
At which point my reaction would be; “Uh? But you can’t hot-wire a stagecoach. It has no combustion engine — no ignition system. It isn’t even a self-powered vehicle in any way. There’s nothing to hot-wire.”
Friend: “You’re wrong. Yes, you can. I hot-wired one.”
Me: “OK, how?”
Friend: “I just told you.”
Me: “No, I mean what was the process? Explain the mechanics behind it.”
Friend: “I told you, I hot-wired a stagecoach.”
Me: “Yes but how? Explain the steps.”
Friend: “By hot-wiring it!”
Me: “How? There’s NO ENGINE!”
Friend: “You know what? You’re a complete asshole! I’m tired of talking to you! You just don’t get things because you’re not as smart as me!”
(Ladies and Gentlemen; every conversation I’ve ever had with a Democrat)
I know people furious Trump won and positive the Russians were behind it, but when I ask them for details, all I get are blank stares. “Were votes added? Were votes taken away? What exactly was done? How was this accomplished?”
It’s deer in the headlights time!
A coworker gave me an explanation she read, “It was Facebook ads. The Russians bought a ton of Facebook ads promoting white culture and superiority over non-white culture. The ads stated if you want to keep America white then you must vote for Trump.”
This is a fascinating explanation mainly because last time I checked Hillary Clinton is white. So both candidates were white. I’m not sure how a racial aspect would play into this and if what she is saying is true wouldn’t this strategy have been more effective the two times Barack Obama ran for President?
And what did the Russians gain from putting Trump in the White House? This has never been made clear.
The other thing is this, of all the adults I know, I am one of the only ones who use Facebook for anything. Most people I’m aquatinted with really hate it and don’t have an account. So Facebook’s reach is not as broad as one would think. Another aspect of this claim that doesn’t hold water is this; in the age of the Internet, we are all bombarded with ads on an hourly basis. Anyone who uses the web at all has developed a subconscious filter for merely ignoring them. I don’t pay attention to about 98% of ads I see online. This indeed goes for Facebook ads. After my coworker told me this, I had to open my Facebook page and physically look for where the ads are situated because I could not recall from memory. They are pretty much background noise.
This argument is also pretty weak when you consider how shallow it is. People are not braindead lumps of flesh staggering around all day without a single thought in their heads. The sheer arrogance of implying someone would look at a tiny ad on Facebook and be influenced enough to change their position on a host of issues is beyond absurd, not to mention condescending. Most of the population would have to have an IQ in the high single digits for this to work. It would be as if a lifelong N.Y. Yankees fan suddenly switched to being a Red Sox’s fan upon seeing a Facebook add urging him or her to do so. As if there’s nothing more to an individual’s loyalty than the same impulse an amoeba gets to procreate. If this were possible wouldn’t the Pro-Life Lobby buy millions of Facebook ads urging their political opposition to change their position on abortion and VOILA! Overnight there’d be no Pro-Abortion Lobby in America!
It’s yet another shining example of Left-Wing arrogance. “If you didn’t vote for the same person I did you must be a drooling, slack-jawed Cro-Magnon incapable of any independent thought.”
Using this logic, all the Democrats have to do to win the next Presidential Election is merely buy more Facebook ads than the Republicans. Problem solved! It’s that simple!
It also seems very unlikely there were political ads placed anywhere on the web pushing a racial agenda when voting for one specific candidate. Would this have not been noticed by the public at large? Would the News media not have jumped on the story and been enraged by such ads? What about the NAACP? Has anyone ever seen an ad telling white people to vote for a candidate because they are white? In this day and age, such a thing would be attacked and condemned instantly. How is it in two years of campaigning and election coverage I never once saw an ad which remotely resembled anything like what she described?
Does the fact Hillary Clinton was a completely lousy candidate ever factor into this? Her acceptance speech the final night of the DNC Convention was one of the worst I have ever seen! You are talking about someone who’s had her own personal hate club since the early 1990s. I’m not a historian, but I honestly don’t know of any other Presidential Candidate who inspired so much animus consistently over a 25 year period then tried to win the White House.
It has been over two years since this “Russian meddling” in our election was supposed to happen. At this date, no one has ever explained to me just how it was executed. What were the steps involved on the Russians part? How did they go about accomplishing their goals? What were the mechanics behind the crime?
But now Stacey Abrams is blaming “voter suppression” for her loss in the Georgia Governor’s race. Voter Suppression, this year’s latest political Boogie Man. According to polls, her opponent, Brian Kemp received 50.2% of the vote while she got 48.8%. A clear victory for the Republican. Unless of course, you’re a Democrat, then you don’t lose elections ever. There’s no such thing as voters rejecting them. That’s completely impossible.
And you can scream, “Voter Suppression!” as much as you want without ever providing proof of these allegations. If there are indeed people legally eligible to vote who were denied that right somehow why is it I’ve never seen one interviewed by any News outlet or Journalist? Shouldn’t this be a HUGE story someone would want to investigate? And yet the victims (who must number in the tens of thousands) are silent.
What’s the lesson here? If you’re a Democrat and lose, there’s nothing a good conspiracy theory can’t solve. Keep whining like a four-year-old because that’s the kind of leadership we’ve come to expect from them.
I’ve often noticed two of the main ingredients needed for being a Leftist are cluelessness and narcissism. And of course, a decent amount of arrogance coupled with immaturity doesn’t hurt.