They say waiting is the hardest part. But they were wrong. Waiting is much worse when the messaging is controlled by a radical media with no interest in a fair outcome.
Since the Nov. 3 election, Americans have been glued to their televisions anxiously hoping for accurate updates on this nailbiter of a presidential race. What they’ve gotten instead is a torrent of commentary about the ridiculousness of President Trump questioning the results or laying claim to contested ballots. Worse, some outlets -- like the AP -- are calling anyone who draws attention to the irregularities liars. If you believe in transparency, you’re a “conspiracy theorist.” If you think there are anomalies to investigate, you’re in denial. And yet the media -- who’s gotten everything dead wrong for five years -- still thinks we should trust their judgment? No thank you.
Our country is swimming in a sea of unknowns right now -- and maybe by the end of it, Joe Biden will lay claim to our highest office. But we’re a long way from knowing that with certainty -- and certainty is what Americans, with so much at stake, deserve.
As Ken Blackwell reminded everyone on the “Washington Watch” radio broadcast, “One of the brilliant aspects of our two-party system and our constitutional republic is that elections work best and have the confidence of the people when there is transparency and bipartisan oversight. When there is a lack of transparency, and partisanship in the administration of an election -- not bipartisanship, but partisanship -- you undercut not only the authenticity of the result, you undercut the buy-in to the result by those who are governed.”
In other words, it’s to the benefit of everyone -- including Joe Biden and his supporters -- that these questions are answered, and that voters are reassured that this election was done by the book. Maybe we won’t like the result, but we need to be able to trust the outcome.
Instead, the media -- who’s spent the last five years doing everything they can to undermine and vilify Donald Trump -- wants to give fuel to another false narrative that there’s nothing in this election to dispute. Of course, they have plenty of selfish reasons for doing so. Not only does it help take the attention away from the “smoking ruins of their credibility” in predicting this election, but it also helps to accomplish their longtime extremist agenda. They’re so invested in the far-Left, they’ll do anything to stop Trump’s re-election -- even if it means sowing seeds on any legitimate claim to the presidency.
To be clear, I’m not suggesting the results we’re seeing are fraudulent. Do I think there’s cause for suspicion in certain areas? Yes, and that’s where I think both sides have an interest in reassuring Americans that the outcome is accurate and the process is impartial.
In states like North Carolina and Georgia, liberal leaders aren’t helping that cause by postponing the counting or refusing to certify Trump votes. That not only keeps the country in limbo, it leads to more uncertainty and mistrust about what state officials are up to. It also gives the media more time to pound home this narrative that Joe Biden won, and Donald Trump is trying to steal the election.
If Trump is criticized for fighting his country and taking a deeper look into the “workings of these Big Democrat Machines in cities like Detroit, Atlanta, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia,” so be it. Maybe that’s what the Left and their megaphones in the press are worried about. The longer this goes on, the greater likelihood more inconsistencies will be exposed. Even now, as Joy Pullman spells out in The Federalist, a lot of this just doesn’t add up.
“We’re supposed to believe the GOP had a great night except for the president?” Pullman said. “It would be mystifying if Republicans won more seats in the House, retained the Senate and picked up state legislative seats, all while the same voters voted against Trump. Trump has solidified his support among Republican voters and enjoys a massive approval rating from them he didn’t have in 2016 and expanded his coalition to more working-class and minority voters this year ...
“Yet we are supposed to believe the same media-Democrat complex that fed us wildly erroneous polls all year, and runs false information operations on us about coronavirus, the Russia hoax and everything else they can use to steal power, that this blue wave’s evaporation did not at all affect the top of the ticket?”
No one can blame conservatives for being cynical. That’s what years of marginalization, fabrication and deprecation from the media have wrought.
“Show me an American who trusts politicians, polls, news organizations and social media [moguls] who fancy themselves our new masters, and I’ll show you a fool,” Michael Goodwin insisted.
At the end of the day, our call is not for upending the process. Our call is for integrity in the process. And if the shoe were on the other foot, I guarantee: we wouldn’t be the only ones making that call.
TONY PERKINS is the president of Family Research Council. His Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC Action senior writers.
