The second impeachment trial of Donald Trump is over. His bid for a second term in 2020 is over. He didn't win the election, and he didn't drain the swamp as promised, but he was right about one thing. Mr. Trump — after spending four years Tweeting with the emotional maturity of a 14-year-old Valley Girl — told the truth. But it was grossly misapplied.
The former president said the election was rigged. He was correct, but not because he lost. The 2020 election was rigged the same way others have been rigged for decades.
Democrats and Republicans together rig the presidential election to ensure only their candidates have a chance to win. It doesn't matter that there are other candidates on the ballots in all 50 states. They do this by using the Commission on Presidential Debates.
That commission is bipartisan. What does that mean? It means that Democrats and Republicans control the commission and make insufferable rules for candidates from other parties to get into the debates, regardless of how many state ballots on which those other candidates appear. For the past three presidential elections, Libertarian and Green party candidates have been on enough state ballots to have a mathematical chance of winning the 276 electoral votes to become president.
Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson was on the ballot in 47 states in 2012 and on all 50 state ballots in 2016. Jo Jorgensen, the LP candidate in 2020, was also on all 50 ballots in 2020. But they weren't allowed into the debates. Why? Because the commission's rule is that a candidate must score at least 15 percent on five different polls, polls that the commission chooses. But the commission only uses polls that exclude candidates that aren't Republican and Democrat. This effectively prevents the vast majority of voters from knowing about other possible choices, positions other than what the two old, too old parties say.
Change is not possible while those two old parties continue their monopolistic control of the government, something that's been growing for 160 years. What has happened since then? The country is weakening from within.
Fiscally unprincipled Democrats did not put the country into an almost $28 trillion debt without help from Republicans. Republicans did not put us onto the road of never-ending, immoral, and unconstitutional wars without Democrats giving a thumbs up and a willingness to foot the bill. Let's not forget domestic spying, indefinite detention without charges that both parties said was OK, and a Democratic Party president who ordered the U.S. military to kill an American citizen with no charges brought, no Miranda warnings, no due process whatsoever. And the Republicans went right along with that absolute violation of the U.S. Constitution.
And then came COVID. Governors decreed who may work and who may not. Governors decided to put sick people into nursing homes, causing many more deaths from the virus than would have occurred otherwise.
Such is the swamp. Those two parties are the swamp. Their politicians thrive in the swamp. Marie Antoinette supposedly said of the people, "Let them eat cake." Americans today are forced to drink swamp water. That swamp will never be drained as long as Republicans and Democrats guard the drain plug.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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