Stacey Abrams – * Failed Pols

I do not fault stupid people for making the stupid decision to elect Donald Trump in 2016.

I do fault smart people for making stupid decisions. These include:

1. Senators who voted to acquit Donald Trump in his no-witnesses-allowed impeachment trial, including primarily Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell:

* Impeachment of Donald Trump (2020-02-05)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_of_Donald_Trump#Acquittal

* Mitch McConnell (2020-02-05)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_McConnell#Impeachment_trial

2. Members of the GOP who voted to disenfranchise voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin – before, during, and AFTER the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol – including Paul Gosar (AZ-04), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Jody Hice (R–GA-10), Mo Brooks (R–AL-05), Scott Perry (R–PA-10), Josh Hawley (R–MO), and Louie Gohmert (R–TX-01).

* 2021 Storming Of The United States Capitol (2021-01-06)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_storming_of_the_United_States_Capitol

* 2020 United States Presidential Election Electoral College Count (2021-01-06 – 2021-01-07)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidential_election_Electoral_College_count

3. Donald Trump’s cabinet, who could have invoked the 25th Amendment to remove POTUS at any time:

* Cabinet Of Donald Trump (2017-01-21 – PRESENT)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_of_Donald_Trump

4. Social media, including especially Facebook and Twitter, for allowing their social networks to be used as platforms for hate speech.

* Donald Trump On Social Media (2017-01-21 – PRESENT)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_on_social_media#2021

5. Mainstream media, including especially CNN (on the left) and Fox News (on the right) for not doing their jobs – asking questions until they get answers – and allowing POTUS to lie unchecked.

* Veracity Of Statements By Donald Trump (2017-01-21 – PRESENT)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veracity_of_statements_by_Donald_Trump

6. Lawmakers at all levels, for failing to fix bad laws and for failing to enact good laws. Changes that must be made going forward include:

Limiting POTUS power:

Executive order power must be limited.
All cabinet members (acting/interim/actual) must be confirmed by Senate.
Treaties and tariffs must be the role of Congress so that POTUS cannot engage in trade wars.
War Powers Act must be updated to limit POTUS power to deploy the military.
Special Counsel Act must be updated to make clear that POTUS cannot fire special counsel.

Writing better and new laws:

Impeachment Act of 2021, to define how impeachment is conducted, including the requirement to have witnesses.
Follow the lead of The Restatements Of The Law project (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restatements_of_the_Law) and codify major SCOTUS cases, including especially Roe v. Wade.
Fix the Census.
Fix immigration.
Fix SCOTUS processes, such as limiting appointments to 2 per POTUS with the number of SCOTUS justices fixed at the number of Federal Circuits (currently 13).
Election reform, including who is qualified to run for POTUS and that tax forms must be disclosed to do so.

Just to name a few.

Stupid people, bad laws, and lies got us into this mess.

Smart people, good laws, and the truth can get us out of this mess.

LAW >> MAN.

#FailedPols
https://www.failblog.com/

Stacey Abrams believes that not only was there mismanagement in the 2018 Georgia elections, there was deliberate interference. Though she acknowledges that in the current process, her opponent, former secretary of state Brian Kemp, had enough votes to win the election for Georgia’s governor, Stacey Abrams’ fight to end voter suppression in Georgia has only just begun.

“The law as it stands says that he (Kemp) received an adequate number of votes to become the governor of Georgia,” Abrams said. “And I acknowledge the law as it stands…But we know sometimes the law does not do what it should, and that something being legal does not make it right. This is someone who has compromised our Democratic systems, and that is not appropriate.”

Stacey Abrams was referring to the fact that Kemp, as Georgia’s secretary of state, oversaw crucial elements of his own election, and in the time leading up to the election, Kemp and his office worked to delay the processing of new voter registrations, deny many other registrations, and purge voting rolls.

Even though, technically, Kemp was within the law in his efforts to purge voter rolls of names of people who hadn’t voted in years, he has systematically been setting up a system to make voting inaccessible to large groups of people, many of them minorities.

“…I believe it began eight years ago with the systematic disenfranchisement of more than a million voters,” Stacey Abrams said. “It continued with the underfunding and disinvestment in polling places, in training, and in the management of the county delivery of services, and I think it had its pinnacle in this race.”

Brian Kemp, in a massive voter-purge effort, issued a policy that required voter registrations to be an exact signature match to personal identifications. He also changed the status of more than 50,000 voter registrations (90 percent of which belonged to minorities) to “pending.” Though the court enjoined this action before the election, voting was still hindered by events such as underprepared precincts, excessively long voter lines, and voting machine malfunctions.

Though Stacey Abrams lost the gubernatorial election to Brian Kemp, she has vowed to help repair the system in Georgia that allowed “Eight years of systemic disenfranchisement, disinvestment, and incompetence (to have) its desired effect on the electoral process…” Stacey Abrams is confident that those systems can be defeated.

Stacey Abrams: ‘Democracy failed’ in Georgia governor race | CNN [2018-11-18]

Stacey Abrams speaks to supporters | Fox News [2018-11-16]

Category: Stacey Abrams

* Erik’s Editorial: The Guilty Parties Who Put American Democracy At Risk In The Name Of Donald Trump

Stacey Abrams Vows to Defeat Voter Disenfranchisement