Confidence in voting and elections are critical in a democratic republic like ours. 2020 has been a lesson in what not to do. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic legislation was passed to ease rules regarding elections. It was deemed more important that voters not be exposed to Covid at their local polling place than the integrity of the election. Well, hindsight is a funny thing, what seemed a prudent public health policy months before the election clearly became a public confidence crisis after the election.
Public health is important but confidence in the soundness of our elections is also important. Pennsylvania legislators should take this opportunity to fix these issues that left us with 2020 post election chaos. Voting by mail and early voting should be restricted to those unable to vote in person. This group would include military stationed away from home and those physically unable to make it to their local polling place. These ballots should include a signature and a witness signature. Voting in person should require ID, after all we’ve been told over and over how important the vote is and if we can produce ID to board a plane or purchase spray paint we can surely do so to vote. Cheaters will continue to seek ways to scam the system but we should not provide them with ways to make it easy.
Christmas time 1966 while sledding one night at an extended family function an 8 year old boy with two or three cousins on board came to the end of a sledding run against an immovable object. The result was a broken ulna and radius. That same little boy broke that same arm later that spring on the playground at school. That little blonde haired boy was Rodney and Marlene Reese’s oldest son, me.
I remember my mother saying after the second trip to the ER “we just got the last doctor bill payed now there will be another”. Broken bones, stitches and trips to the ER are not uncommon with little boys. What I find remarkable about those events nearly 50 years ago is that Mr. and Mrs Reese had no expectation that someone else would be responsible for that medical bill.
Today, the conversation might be “does my plan cover this”, or “is there a deductable”, or” does their homeowners cover this”, or perhaps “chip or medicaid can pay this medical bill”. In 1966 America, parents understood it was their responsibility to pay for the medical care of their children. Today it is not just medical bills that Americans seek to have someone else pay, it is all kinds of goods and services that in 1966 would seem absurd to ask a fellow American to cover.
In 2014 Congress paid three fourths of one trillion dollars of some Americans money to buy lunch for other Americans. But it is not just food and health care for which people today seek to have others pay the bill. At a township meeting the Supervisors were discussing the pressing need to replace a bridge on a local road. They said if only we could get state funding we could pay for a new bridge, apparently ambivilent that this bridge would benefit almost without exception only township residents, they thought it not only proper but prudent, that other Pennsylvanians pay for their bridge.
We’ve all had conversations with friends when they told of their modern geo-thermal climate control system and how tax breaks paid for $10 or $15 thousand of their fancy, efficient heating and cooling system. I have no problem with efficient heating systems, they’re wonderfull, the question is “why am I asked to help foot the bill for someone else’s system. ”
Politicians comtinue to invent schemes that benefit some Americans at the expense of other Americans. They will continue to do so until voters step up and vote out of office these people who reach into the pocket of their fellow citizens and promise free stuff to other citizens for their votes. That stuff is not free, it is time a leader stood up and said “goods and services shoud be paid for by those who consume them”.
The party that claims to advocate small government and guard individual liberty has an identity crisis and it is costing them at the polls.
Mitt Romney has said he lost because Barak Obama purchased his votes with promises to ethnic and special interest groups like Latinos and gays. What a surprise. This is the Democrat game and if the Republicans
play they will lose. Even when they win, they lose.
During the Bush administration, Republicans brought us expansion of Medicare, No Child Left Behind, and the Department of Homeland Security — expanding government and limiting liberty. After eight years of Bush’s compassionate conservatism, we got hope and change.
There is no reason to believe blacks, latinos, gays, and single women would not respond favorably to a message of increased personal liberty and the opportunity to keep more of what they earn.
Free market capitalism has moved more people from poverty than any centralized planning ever devised by any government. This should be an easy sell for Republicans. They should avoid pandering to traditional democrat constituencies. Democrats will always win in giving away the public treasury. What they need to do is pick off voters in those groups who are attracted to the message of economic liberty.
This is a new blog for Ron Reese. If he has a thought, an opinion, or a link to share – this is where to find it!
Ron Reese 