Opinion: ‘What, me worry?’ Yes, if you’re paying attention to threats surrounding the midterm election.
By Mark McCormick
Special to the Kansas Reflector
As the November midterm elections draw near, much of the nation seemingly has channeled Mad Magazine’s smiling, redheaded, gap-toothed mascot Alfred E. Neuman and his catchphrase: “What, me worry?” But the nation has plenty to worry about.
Here’s what the current administration has done in the months leading up to November’s white-knuckle vote.
This administration has purged “disloyal” federal workers and pardoned convicted Jan. 6, 2021, rioters who attacked police at the U.S. Capitol. Trump has dumped billions of dollars into beefing up the ranks of heavily armed, masked loyalists now roaming American cities.
His Supreme Court has gutted the Voting Rights Act, which led some formerly Confederate states into racial gerrymanders disguised as partisan gerrymanders. It also has expanded the power of the presidency and weakened our system of checks and balances.
Trump encouraged a mid-decade redistricting push intended to give Republicans an electoral advantage. Redistricting typically occurs every 10 years.
For the first time in more than two decades, the United State has blocked international election observers from monitoring our elections. Amid claims of widespread voter fraud (nearly nonexistent in reality), the president plans to blanket polling places with a network of federal election monitors.
Trump fired the leaders of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission in July, leaving the EAC without any sitting commissioners. A Supreme Court decision expanded the president’s authority to fire members of independent agencies. Commissioners had resisted his push for proof of U.S. citizenship in voter registration. The bipartisan commission certified voting systems, distributed federal election grants and maintained the national mail-in voter form.
He also has continued his claims that voting machines remain vulnerable to manipulation and that his political opponents stole the 2020 election. Fears linger about armed ICE agents appearing in and around polling places. He has until recently discouraged mail-in voting.
This administration has imprisoned people in El Salvador and bombed boats suspected of drug smuggling without due process.
The president’s party has abdicated its role as a check on the power of the executive branch.
Trump sent Tulsi Gabbard into a Georgia election office and confiscated ballots. This after calling that state’s election official and asking the man to “find” more than 11,000 votes.
Recent national elections have run so close that a campaign only would need to nudge the needle 2 or 3 percentage points to swing the election.
Despite all this, an eerie silence on what this behavior portends has settled over the nation. Few if any people seem alarmed.
The president has said unless he wins, the elections are rigged.
Alfred E. Neuman would not be smiling. He’d be worried.
Here in Kansas, civic rights organizations have begun ramping up voting integrity efforts in preparation for these threats.
“We have definitely stepped up our election protection work and have the largest, most robust program we’ve ever had — covering more polling places with more volunteers and prepared for more scenarios,” said Micah Kubic, executive director of the ACLU of Kansas. “We are still recruiting, so I wouldn’t want to commit to numbers yet — but in August, we doubled the size of the program over prior years and anticipate doing the same for November.”
Boots on the Ground Midwest, a nonpartisan, volunteer-led organization, has a packed calendar of events. The League of Women Voters, also nonpartisan, will send subscribers action alerts as well as provide contact information for elected officials.
These groups seem to understand the stakes and continue to work to meet the moment.
But the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once said the nation has a two-week memory. It looks worse now.
Everyone should remember former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s congressional testimony. She said that Trump didn’t want metal detectors at his pre-riot rally on Jan. 6, 2021.
According to Business Insider, Hutchinson said back in 2022 that “the advance team had relayed to him that the mags were free flowing,” referring to metal detectors used by the Secret Service. Apparently, Trump was “concerned about the shot” of the area not being full of people.
“He was angry that we weren’t letting people through the mags with weapons,” Hutchinson said. “When we were in the offstage tent, I was in the vicinity of a conversation where I overheard the president say something to the effect of, ‘I don’t effing care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the effing mags away. Let my people in; they can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the effing mags away.”
Does anyone believe that if the Republicans lose big in the midterms that the president would graciously concede?
Within the past few weeks, Hutchinson has become the focus of a grand jury investigation. The Department of Justice is accusing her of lying to Congress.
Oh, yeah. Alfred E. Neuman, once considered “The Original Optimist,” would be worried. In actuality, we should be way past worried.
We should be hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.
Mark McCormick is a journalist and a nonprofit executive. He’s also the author of four books including “Barry Sanders: Now You See Him” (a New York Timesbestseller), “Some Were Paupers. Some Were Kings: Dispatches from Kansas,” and his latest, “Kansas Matters: America’s Social Faultlines.” Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.
This article was republished with permission from the Kansas Reflector. The Kansas Reflector is a non-profit online news organization serving Kansas. For more information on the organization, go to its website at www.kansasreflector.com.
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