Alan Steinberg and Phil Murphy: Do you support Dead People voting?

By Rubashov

No reasonable person can claim that the 2020 “long count” election is a goal worth aspiring to again. Not unless you wish your “democracy” to become a permanent laughing stock among the democratic nations of the world. Every reasonable person who is familiar with the election process in America knows that elections are no different than computers, banks, or credit cards. They need constant tweaks and upgrades to ensure their integrity and security because there are corrupt people who are always looking to take advantage of an opening.

This story is as old as the Republic itself. Election integrity was once a concern of folks who called themselves “progressives”. They even formed a Progressive Party that put forward reformers like Robert LaFollette who authored the primary election process – a reform that gave party members power at the expense of political bosses. Americans for Democratic Action led the way in the reform of election processes in cities across the United States – breaking the hold held on them by corrupt urban regimes.

Many of today’s so-called progressives are just a techno-version of Tammany Hall. Like Tammany, they support “outcomes-based” elections. To them, a system is good if it produces the “right” outcome. This is bad news for outsiders, insurgency groups, reformers, taxpayers, consumers, and workers – because the “right” outcome is the outcome favored by the corporate Establishment machine.

Alan Steinberg is not a reasonable person. He writes for a blog that is wholly controlled by an insurance vendor who sells to governments and their agencies. In an era bereft of local news coverage, providing critical coverage of those you might be selling a product to is just a bit unethical, don’t you think?

In his latest missive, Steinberg attacks New Jersey Republicans Jack Ciattarelli, Mike Lavery, and Bill Palatucci – as well as every Republican legislative candidate in New Jersey. He attacks them for a law passed by the Georgia Legislature and signed into law by the Governor of Georgia.

Steinberg wants Republicans in New Jersey to involve themselves in the election process of the State of Georgia at a time when New Jersey has the distinction of having the most corrupt election practice in the United States: The County Party Line. Heck, the United Nations wouldn’t certify an election that employed a practice like the County Party Line.

Reformers on both the Left and the Right oppose the Line.  Those on the Left have even filed suit against it (and those on the Right should join them).  But Alan Steinberg would have us look to Georgia – to lecture and reform Georgia – while New Jersey has, enshrined as the centerpiece of its election process, a carbuncle that places a thumb on the electoral scales – year in, year out.
 
Of course, Alan Steinberg says nothing of it.  For him, the corruption of the Line is just business as usual.  The blog and its vendors want him to say nothing, because it is outcomes that matter and they have trousered quite a bit of money off those who are maintained in power by this corrupt established process.       
Steinberg has replaced “right and wrong” and “fair and honest” with the buzzwords of “racism” and “extremism”.  It is now “extremist” and “racist” to suggest that the deceased be removed from the voting rolls.  No kidding.  This is who we are now…

Steinberg has replaced “right and wrong” and “fair and honest” with the buzzwords of “racism” and “extremism”. 

Elections are like computers, banks, and credit cards. They are constantly in need of scrutiny, upgrades, and tweaks to ensure their integrity. Once upon a time, the reformers passed legislation to close bars and taprooms on election day, because they were being used to harvest votes. Machine politicians would buy rounds and then lead the occupants to the polls to vote. How would that be handled today?

Let’s not have another election like the last one. You can’t have a working democracy without a process that everyone agrees on. Just like you can’t have a baseball game.

Democracy is all about process. About agreeing to the rules of the game, playing the game, and then accepting the game’s outcome. Scrambling the rules at the last minute (for whatever excuse) and labeling every suggestion that disagrees with yours as “racist” or “extremist” or “white supremacist” or “systemically racist” isn’t going to achieve mutual agreement.

Now we are not suggesting that all the legislation offered to reform the process will be crafted from pure intentions. Both political parties drink from the same trough and both are capable of the same corruptions, which is part of being human, but there must be some among us who can place aside self-interest long enough to find the common good. And by common good, we mean that which serves most everyone – not everyone, because that is impossible.

There is today this worship of the outlier – the idea that all action must cease if it disturbs even the most infinitesimal. The snail darter trumps the dam and so a city drowns. The Social Security Administration isn’t perfect, there is the possibility that its death notice is mistaken, that someone might be struck from the voting list incorrectly, so let’s not strike any dead people from the voting list, reform is impossible. As if being struck from the voting list would be the utmost concern facing someone whose Social Security checks have been stopped.

This excuse for inaction must stop if our nation is to continue as a going concern. The Alan Steinbergs – who freeze progress with their cries of “racism” and “extremism” – need to come round to the new normal, that America is not quite the top dog that it was, that we are in that shadow-line marking one sea from another. If he is still capable of altruism – as we once knew him to be (personally, knew him to be) – he will see human beings as the souls they are and not for the color of their husks. He will offer solutions, that strive to be as fair as can be in an imperfect world, to create a process that strives for universal confidence but that accepts that “the great majority” will be enough.

Otherwise, this experiment is over. And, if it is so, we advise Alan and John F.X. and Michael and Ryan and Max and Pete and Fred and all John F.X.’s grandchildren… to learn Mandarin. And to do so in a hurry.

"One goes on recognizing the landmarks of the predecessors… Yes. One goes on. And the time, too, goes on—till one perceives ahead a shadow-line warning one that this region, too, must be left behind.”

Joseph Conrad

N.B. We welcome a conversation on this and all topics raised on this website. Jersey Conservative is entirely open to your ideas and opinions. To submit a column for publication, please contact Marianna at Marianna@JerseyConservative.org.