Editorials December 2020
Editorials
MY READING LIST DURING THE 2020 PANDEMIC
By Deborah Lambert
As the pandemic intensified during America’s economic shutdown from March 15 to May 3, 2020, so many opinions about this policy started swirling around that I finally picked up a book by a presidential historian to see if it could help fill in the blanks about the mindset of our president. After reading Inside Trump’s White House: The Real Story of his Presidency by Doug Wead, I felt as if I had gained a great deal of valuable information about his decision-making capability and strength of character.
As the year progressed, most of the additions to my reading list focused on random selections of interesting stories that had nothing to do with current events.
However, if one book by a talented author caught my attention, I made it a point to read every book written by that person. In one case, sticking to this decision turned into a massive endeavor when I realized that Mary Higgins Clark, the bestselling author of 56 suspense novels, had become one of my favorites. Others that ranked high on my list included Pat Conroy, author of The Great Santini, Prince of Tides, and The Lords of Discipline, Anthony Doerr, John Irving and the elegant prose of the great David McCullough, whose books I have read and re-read several times during my adult life.
In addition to devouring online news sites in 2020, I suddenly developed a habit of reading of The New York Post. EVERY DAY. And since reading the online edition wasn’t enough, I actually had to start making trips to the grocery store every day to pick it up in person. If I made this trip late at night, I initially became concerned that the current issue of the Post would be sold out. This was quickly followed by the following thought: “Are you kidding? This is Washington, D.C. – Not exactly prime territory for NY Post readers.”
Of course, there’s much more to this quirky tabloid than its off-the-wall “Headless Body in Topless Bar” headlines. Not only does it have the 4th highest distribution rate of any daily newspaper, but it provides a much-needed perspective from the Right, and occasionally its readership soars.
The fact is that the Post has always been a voice for strong opinions ever since Alexander Hamilton founded it as a Federalist Party spokesman in 1801, the same year that John Marshall was appointed Chief Justice of the United States and Thomas Jefferson became our third president. It is currently the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the United States.
Not surprisingly, a readership spike occurred in late October, 2020 after the Post published revelations about Hunter Biden’s financial dealings in the midst of this country’s contentious presidential election campaign. In fact, the Hunter Biden story generated 2.59 million interactions (likes, comments and shares) on Twitter and Facebook before it was censored by the social media giants.
In addition to my other personal reading choices, I noticed a great deal of online commentary in 2020 by psychiatrists and psychologists who suggested that another way of dealing with the prospect of fearful situations was apparently to plunge headlong into scary or thrilling movies or books that offered a safe space which people could work through and let go of fears, in much the same way that a a roller-coaster ride can be exhilarating and scary at the same time.
Although my personal attitude concerning this watershed year falls more or less into the category of “Keep Calm and Carry On,” I’m sure I’m not the only person who believes it will be a challenge for the long term political ramifications of this time period to be included in America’s history books, that is, if history books survive.
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Deborah Lambert is editor of the MCGOP Newsletter and member of the Montgomery County Republican Party Central Committee.
THE WAR
By Bill Richbourg
By now it is fairly obvious, even to conservatives, that we are in a war. Common belief has it that this conflict began almost fifty years ago when the revolutionaries of the sixties, the “hippie generation,” the “sex, drugs, and rock and roll, free love, hell no we won’t go generation,” joined the Democrat Party. Their immediate goals were to help the Communists win the war in Vietnam, but they stayed on, expanding their influence in the Democrat Party and creating the radical force that confronts us today. The war they are engaged in is a war against us, against individual freedom, against our Constitutional order, and against capitalism, the engine of our prosperity.
These Democrat radicals know exactly what they want and where they are going to get it. But patriotic Americans are just beginning to face the harsh realization that they are years behind, tactically and organizationally and thus, only starting to wake up to the fact that they are in a war they are woefully unprepared for.
The plan to steal the 2020 election was born years ago when Democrats launched their first attacks on Voter IDs, along with every other measure designed to secure the integrity of the electoral system.
Those successful attacks, along with the devious use of the pandemic, led to the all- out assault on Election Day 2020 with a flood of 92 million mail-in ballots, hundreds of thousands delivered in the middle of the night to be counted behind the backs of Republican observers, after Election Day had passed.
So how is all this going to turn out? There are several possible directions we can take.
- We can fail to stop the culmination of this four-year-long coup attempt and allow the provably corrupt and fraudulent current election to stand. This is most likely to be the result of our failure to convince corrupt leftist judges to even hear the evidence or to believe that the scope of this fraud is insufficient to change the results. This decision would mark the end of the cornerstone of our Republic via free and fair elections. By getting away with this fraud, the Left would be likely to use fraudulent elections in the future as the “easiest” method of controlling the population and maintaining their power.
- We could win with a result in the courts. This would require the elimination of clearly fraudulent ballots, those submitted by illegal aliens, those submitted by “dead” people, those submitted by non-residents of the state, clearly fraudulent ballots submitted by John Doe and Mary Smith, all with a birthday of 1/1/1900. The winner of the remaining legal ballots would be declared President-elect.
- The courts could require that the entire election be thrown out and redone, using the same methodology and machinery to take and record the votes, with possible modifications in the use of “mail-in” ballots. Unfortunately, we are at a point where we cannot trust the corrupt political class, and unfortunately the courts have not proven that they can act fairly and within the confines of the law.
- We could demand a NEW and fair national vote, the results of which all Americans could trust and live by, regardless of the winner! Without a fair vote, I believe the threat of a shooting civil war may be imminent, given the fact that it appears that legislators, the courts, and/or Congress are reluctant to do their duty under the 12th Amendment.
- Therefore, the president could declare a limited form of martial law and temporarily suspend civilian control of the federal election, for the sole purpose of having the military oversee a national re-vote. This would likely be the only way to assure a fair election in every jurisdiction; Federal candidates only; paper ballots, no computers, hand counted with both parties watching every vote, and Photo ID to prove residence. I think this is the only way that the winning candidate can be accepted as legitimate by a true majority.
So, where do we go from here? This war will continue until patriotic Americans summon the courage to call out Democrat/Socialists as corrupt totalitarians and refuse to give up our exclusive right to elect our representatives. We must not stand for it!
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Bill Richbourg is a member of the Montgomery Country Republican Party Central Committee.
WHAT I LEARNED BY VOLUNTEERING AT THE MCGOP HQ DURING THE FALL 2020 ELECTION SEASON?
By Brad Botwin
With my April, 2020 retirement complete, I decided to volunteer a significant block of time to the recent GOP 2020 election effort this fall. It was something I wanted to do in order to show my support for President Trump’s reelection in very blue Montgomery County. So, I offered to “manage” the MCGOP HQ Office in Rockville, whatever that entailed.
After Dennis Melby, Anne Koutsoutis and I jazzed up the MCGOP HQ lobby with Trump campaign swag and other materials, I began by spending just a few days and hours a week at HQ in late August. As excitement for the president started to build, GOP members, along with some Democrats, discovered our HQ and the time I spent there quickly ramped up to five, six and finally seven days per week during the last few weeks before Election Day. I also volunteered for the morning and late evening shifts at the Bohrer Park voting site before/after my HQ hours.
My Trump centric plans quickly changed as I became immersed with the volunteers for the three Congressional races (especially the Neil Parrott team), the 4 Judges, and the 9 Districts ballot question.
But that was a sideline compared to the hundreds of visitors that I greeted and conversed with at length at the MCGOP office, many of them first timers. Added to that were the constant phone calls (and an untold number of messages forwarded by Lorraine Kuchmy) from fellow Montgomery County Republicans who, like me, wanted to voice their support for the president. I am thankful that my lovely wife Sharon fully understood on many an evening, my request for silence (or at least no heavy conversation) when I arrived home!
The interest in Trump signage (over 1,000 signs were handed out), our sample ballot/voting site info sheets, making generous donations to the MCGOP and inquiring about volunteer opportunities (polling sites, making calls for the Trump campaign, etc.) were just off the charts! Nearly every visitor to the HQ filled out a contact sheet to join our newsletter list and participate in future MCGOP activities and events, with some even expressing an interest in running for elected office.
The highlight of my HQ time was being given the opportunity to assist many first-time voters (most of them new American citizens) who stopped by to make sure they had filled out their absentee ballots fully and correctly. I was quite humbled and frankly honored to be part of their experience. On the flip side, there was the “interesting” couple who pulled up in a taxi after they failed to get through security at the White House. They were following up on an exceedingly long letter they had sent the president, which they shared with me. Obviously, their next stop after the White House was the MCGOP!
Despite some election setbacks, I envision some great opportunities for the MCGOP going forward. It is hard to describe the kind of contagious energy, commitment and concern for our nation expressed to me by Montgomery County GOP voters from across the spectrum. Black and white, Asian, Indian, and Hispanic, young and old, fellow Jews like me (and my new Hasidic Jewish friends), Catholics, Christians, and Muslims. I am confident that we can and we will bring all these seemingly different, yet quite similar thinking people together under the MCGOP umbrella.
I am thankful for the experience that I had this fall and plan on being one of the architects of this newly expanded interest and momentum for the Montgomery County Republican Party.
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Brad Botwin, Organization Committee Chair, MCGOP
THE ENEMY - PART II
By Bill Richbourg
Finally, I believe that my Republican patriots and conservative friends have recognized that the Democrat Party has become a serious internal threat to our country. However, once in a while, one will hear the Democrats referred to as “liberals,” even though there is clearly nothing liberal about their principles, their ideology, or their methods.
In fact, most modern Democrats have become nothing more than vindictive bigots, who are working to destroy the First Amendment in our schools, particularly the universities, on the Internet, and in our once “free press.” The distinction is stark – Democrats will call out Republicans as racists, bigots and traitors while Republicans will laugh it off, contending that Democrats are just “playing politics!”
However, this is not “playing,” folks. It is war. The Democrats are trying to kill us politically, and we must wake up and fight fire with fire. Although we Republicans must know, or suspect, this is the case, it seems that we are all afraid to respond. This is one of the only ways that a pathological liar and corrupt career political miscreant like Joe Biden could be elected president. Worse than that, it’s the only way that 73 million Americans could be accused of being white supremacists and murderers of over 200,000 coronavirus victims and get away with it without so much as a slap on the wrist from moderates and independents, who should know better.
Do you think this is too harsh? Then, where were the Democrats who were outraged over the four-year Russian collusion hoax; the failed coup; the failed impeachment? All of these goals were pursued relentlessly without a shred of evidence! Where were the Democrats who objected to the disgusting public lynching of Justice Kavanaugh? Where were the Democrats who condemned the destruction of our cities by BLM and Antifa? You know as well as I do that they were nowhere to be seen or heard. In fact, many on the left actually celebrated these disgusting events.
Do not forget or forgive the Democrats for these travesties. Instead, remember that they are totalitarians who are in a war to destroy the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, the Electoral College, the Senate, the Supreme Court, our election system and the idea of non-violent protests in the streets. Their goal is a one-party state that will not tolerate dissent.
They have become racists and totalitarians and the only moral principle they have is an old Bolshevik saying, which proclaims that the “ends justify the means.” They will do and say anything, and I mean anything, legal or illegal, to advance their goal of absolute power.
We conservatives must summon the courage to call Democrats out as racists, liars, character assassins, and aspiring totalitarians and to do so forcefully and directly.
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Bill Richbourg is a member of the Montgomery County Republican Party Central Committee.