This election will not heal wounds or build bridges. The half of the country that does not want socialism and refuses to surrender its fundamental rights will be subjected to increasing oppression and restrictions by the ascendant Democrats nationally and on the state level. That is how socialism always deals with dissent.
I write this as it appears that Joe Biden will be our next President. The numbers may change, but he looks to be headed to the White House. I pray that I am wrong and all that follows is wrong.
With Biden and the openly totalitarian Kamala Harris in control it won’t just be restrictions on isolated aspects of gun ownership that we’ll see, something marketable to a broad audience. There will be an outright effort to prevent citizens from owning guns. That has always been the goal. Confiscation is around the corner. Criminals won’t comply, of course. It will be law-abiding citizens who lose their ability to defend themselves, not just from those outlaws who retain their arms, but from a government coming after their other freedoms.
The assaults on freedom will turn to speech, worship, and private property. Censorship to suffocate dissenting viewpoints and deprive citizens of information will accelerate, with Big Tech in bed with the Democrat majority it helped produce. The acceptance of censorship will be intellectualized and spread by Left leaning institutions. The Left leaning media itself will impose censorship on outlets that depart from the party-approved line. We are already seeing this happening and it will get worse because it benefits Democrats.
The assault on freedom of worship will strike at the heart of religious liberty. We are already seeing the COVID restrictions used to shut down worship, or determine how it is done. It used to be that the worship hour was a period of complete liberty but that is going to change. Not only will freedom of worship be limited to worship days–you can believe what you want on Sunday, but don’t live those beliefs the rest of the week–government will seek to eliminate certain beliefs and practices altogether through claims it is addressing discrimination.
The freedom of assembly is in for a rough time. That is because the party that has won power does not value the principle of dissent when that dissent challenges its control. Engaging in activism through the Internet will be more tightly regulated. “Fact checking” and “preventing dissemination of misleading information” will be the claims that excuse sharing of information and organizing on social media. It is already happening–even Mail Chimp is now prohibiting broadcasting information to which it has objection. In-person organizing–out on the streets and in public squares–is already under attack. We saw the Attorney General of Minnesota threatening venues offering to hold rallies for President Trump, even though he ignored marches and gatherings that promoted his political viewpoints. Jay Inslee ordered law enforcement to turn an I-5 bridge over to Black Lives Matter at the same time he was shutting down businesses and churches. And when dissenters step out into the public, they can expect more and more to be met with the physical violence of Democrats’ street thugs. As Seattle and Portland and Kenosha show, those who go to the streets for the Left’s causes and destroy property and injure others are treated leniently, while those who defend property and life against the Left’s mobs are quickly subjected to the full weight of the state’s coercive powers.
Private property will come under more attacks. It won’t be the billionaires who get hurt the most. They sit at the table with the powerful. Even in the old Soviet Union there was an upper class that lived well. It will be those who own businesses and farms, who don’t make their living in a virtual world, who will be told that “you didn’t build that” with all its implications. Under the guise of protecting the environment or battling “climate change” private property will be rendered a meaningless constitutional principle.
This election was never about actually getting anything done that made America a better, stronger nation. President Trump’s record of economic prosperity that spread to Blacks and Hispanics with historic improvements was not the issue. His renegotiating unfair trade treaties that crushed America factories was not the point of contention. His wars–exactly, what wars? He is the first President in forty years not to get us into a new war or military intervention.
His accomplishments were never much debated because at a more profound level the election was about turning this country towards socialism with its inevitable slide into totalitarianism. There is no reversing that course by the democratic processes socialists eviscerate in order to entrench their power. They don’t believe in the virtues of dissent, debate and democracy when their control would be challenged.
We can no longer say, “We all want the same thing, but just disagree on how to get there.” No, we don’t agree even on what America means any more. That makes for a much deeper divide than we have faced since our first civil war. We can acquiesce or surrender to the destruction of our liberties and freedoms, or we can fight at every point of conflict, with everything we have. The totalitarian Left has already made that choice. The question is whether the other half of the country gives up. The alternative is an America of nightmares.
Election fraud in Philadelphia could determine who is the next President. That’s what we’re hearing from analysts war gaming the Electoral College and concluding that the White House could go to the person who wins the Keystone State’s 20 electoral votes. Donald Trump won that state by less than 45,000 votes in 2016, and current polls show the race again being very tight.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ordered extraordinary measures that may favor Joe Biden if the Pennsylvania Democrat Party engages in election fraud, of which it has a very long history. They have prohibited election judges from comparing signatures on absentee ballots with the signatures on voter registration cards. They are requiring that absentee ballots received three days after election day be counted, even without proof they were mailed.
The Trump campaign has raised fears that the election could be stolen in Philadelphia. We saw in Obama’s first election Republican poll watchers being thrown out of polling places that reported hardly any Republican votes, despite contrary voter registration numbers in those precincts. Poll watchers are again being thrown out of polling places in Philly and being prevented from standing close enough to the counting tables to see what is going on.
These events are transpiring far from Port Townsend, but they may have an historic impact on us and our nation. So I thought I would share a memory of election day in the City of Brotherly Love.
Tommy Foglietta
I worked there as an Assistant District Attorney after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. In 1980 I volunteered for the campaign of Tom Foglietta, who was running for South Philly’s Congressional seat. These are the neighborhoods of Sylvester Stallone’s morning runs in the Rocky films. It was then very much controlled by they Mafia and a powerful Democrat machine. It once elected a dead man on orders from Democrat bosses.
The Italian Mob has lost some of its grip on South Philly as demographics have changed, but it is still in the hands of the Democrat machine.
Michael “Ozzie” Myers
Foglietta’s race was seen as historic. His family had been Republican for generations. He was clean as a whistle. To have any chance of winning he ran as an independent. He was challenging Michael “Ozzie” Myers, the incumbent and the machine’s handpicked man who had been convicted in the Abscam bribery and racketeering sting. Myers was captured on undercover tapes accepting a $50,000 bribe and saying, “Money talks and bullshit walks.”
He was still on the ballot, though he had been kicked out of the U.S. House of Representatives in October while charges were pending. He was eventually convicted. Congressman Myers was a real sweet guy: he had also beaten up a security guard and cashier earlier that year.
I was part of Foglietta’s election integrity team on election day. We got word our poll watchers had been kicked out of a polling station near the water front. I took a bus there in my 3-piece suit with proof of my authorization to enter and observe. I was blocked at the door by some no-neck guys. I made a fuss and told them I would not leave. In a few minutes about six black cars rolled up and out piled Jimmy Tayoun, a big time South Philly restauranteur and bar owner friendly with the Mafia. Tayoun later went to prison for racketeering.
Jimmy Tayoun
With him was Fat Matt Cianciulli and a bunch of other big Italian guys in track suits. Fat Matt had been a Democrat State Representative who had recently done federal time for voter fraud. He was enormous and it took only one hand for him to push me against a wall.
Fat Matt Cianciulli
Tayoun pressed his face close to mine and gave me one minute before they came after me. So in my Brooks Brother suit I ran as fast as I could towards South Street. A single black car tailed me for a while. Foglietta was crushed in that precinct, but went on to serve in Congress. I got bloody blisters from running in stiff wingtip shoes.
Forty years later it looks like this is still going on. Let’s hope that voter fraud in Philadelphia does not lead to very serious problems for our entire nation. We don’t want these people having any kind of power over us.
2020 saw young conservatives emerging as activists in Jefferson County. They had not previously been involved in politics of any kind. They are fearless, motivated and already making a mark on their community. They have deep roots here, all of them having grown up in Jefferson County. These are people to watch.
The year started with Josh Peacock being pulled over by police in Port Townsend. Two 911 calls had come in of a young man flying a big Trump flag off the bed of his pickup. In defiance of the sometimes oppressive political local monoculture, Peacock had established a routine of driving a circuit around Uptown and Downtown with a flag pole on the back of his truck. On one of these days, a police cruiser followed him and its lights came on. The officer told him about the 911 calls. He had been watching Peacock but couldn’t see him doing anything wrong. He apologized, wished him a good day and complimented Peacock on his good driving skills.
Word of what happened to Peacock sparked other public displays of support for President Trump during the following year. Those 911 calls backfired.
Peacock and his friends later marched in the January Women’s March–or Womxn’s March, whatever it is. They brought up the rear flying Trump banners and a huge American flag. For blocks they shouted, “Four more years!” to the consternation of people in odd pink hats who looked back over their shoulders at the boisterous crew at their heels.
Peacock has participated in protests and rallies in Portland and Seattle in support of President Trump and law enforcement. He participated in the peaceful march of thousands of Proud Boys across a bridge and into downtown Portland. He works in security professionally and has provided his services to protect others against the violence of Antifa and Black Lives Matter.
Danielle Rain’s business was declared “non-essential” by Governor Inslee, though it was absolutely essential to her family’s survival and well-being. She was instrumental in launching the Reopen Washington State Facebook group. That resource has connected those forced out of work by the Governor’s “guidance,” business owners ordered to shut down and bleed red ink, local officials seeing their communities ravaged not by a virus but by the Governor’s actions and medical patients denied critical care because the Governor had inserted himself into the doctor-patient relationship. It has served as an organizing tool for rallies across the state. That group now has over 50,000 members.
Rain and other young women organized the first Reopen Jefferson County rally on May 19, 2020. I wrote about that event in “Fear and Loathing in Port Townsend.”
Rebekah White jumped into the County Commission District 1 race against incumbent Kate Dean just weeks before election day. She’s not kidding herself about her chances. She stepped up to make a statement, gain experience and build towards another run for office in the future. She says she had to do something after watching Dean ally herself with Black Lives Matter and push a “systemic racism” declaration through the Board of Health while for four years Dean has done nothing about the county’s suicide, drug addiction, joblessness and affordable housing crises. Dean was instrumental in preventing Sheriff’s deputies from receiving small gift bags for law enforcement appreciation day. White had raised the funds for those tokens of recognition and assembled dozens of the bags. Before a similar complaint made it to the Port Townsend Police, White rushed to the Port Townsend police department and left bags for every officer in the reception area. She is resourceful in that kind of creative, fun, tenacious way, like posing for a campaign shoot in front of Dean’s failed Cherry Street Project. One of her major goals is to get more young people involved in local politics. White is a pediatric medical assistant. Her campaign Facebook page is here at this link.
Leanne Dotson is a powerful woman in many ways. She teaches weight training for women and can dead lift more than most men. She comes from a law enforcement family. Her father was Sheriff and her husband is a deputy. She had seriously considered pursuing a career in law enforcement, but opted against it so that both parents of her children would not be putting their lives at risk every day they stepped out the door.
Watching the political attacks on law enforcement spreading to Jefferson County, in particular the calls to disarm police and leave them defenseless, drove her to say, “Enough!” With other law enforcement wives, Dotson organized several pro-law enforcement demonstrations around the county, culminating in the massive August 30 Back the Blue motorcade. That event drew over 400 vehicles that formed a six-mile line of cars, trucks and motorcycles stretching from H.J. Carroll Park in Chimacum to downtown Port Townsend. Her confident and calm leadership and her wide network of contacts in the community made that such an impactful and successful event. Dotson works as a courtroom administrator and continues to steer her piece of the pro-law enforcement movement in Jefferson County.
If Jefferson County has more Culp for Governor signs per capita than any other county the credit goes to Robyn Middleton. Middleton is the Jefferson County coordinator/field manager for Loren Culp. She has never participated before in any political campaign, let alone been in charge of one. Her efforts have spilled over into neighboring counties. She produced the 1,300 person rally for Culp in Port Angeles in September.
She seems to know or know about everyone in Jefferson County. She is a fighter. She has hunted down sign thieves and relentlessly replaces destroyed Culp signs, working day and night with her husband and the crew of volunteers she has built. She also cares for a seriously ailing father, driving him to medical appointments and taking him hunting. She never says much about her own battle. While working overtime for Culp and her family, Middleton is living on 2/3 of a kidney and waiting for a transplant. How she finds the strength and energy to keep going astounds all around her.
Aside from the stunning proliferation of Culp signs, Middleton has engaged hundreds of people who, like her, have never “been political” about anything. They are the working poor and the old rural families forgotten and ignored by Port Townsend’s political elites. That is the mark of a real leader and an effective activist.
He is only starting out, just getting on his feet in the position, but honorable mention goes to Aronn Wilke, the head of the brand new Jefferson County Young Republicans. You read that correctly: young Republicans. Imagine that.
However this election turns out, it is encouraging to see a desperately needed diversity of voices speaking up and being heard in Jefferson County. Keep your eye on these people in 2021 and beyond.