The late Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, was a master magician. Coming to power in 1999, by the time he died of cancer in 2013, he had successfully transformed a prosperous democratic nation, fueled by plentiful oil reserves, into a poor socialist state suffering untold human misery under his dominant one-party rule. The Venezuelan people failed to keep their eyes on what was really happening in their country and now are paying the price for it.
Today, Democratic lawmakers here in the U.S. are on track to do the same thing. Legislation that will effectively create one-party rule for the foreseeable future has passed the House and been sent on to the Senate. It is H.R. 1, which, deceivingly, is called the “For the People Act” – codewords for institutionalizing Democratic Party control forever by implementing a voting system stripped of practically all accountability.
The first 20 years of the 21st century have borne witness to two chaotic U.S. presidential elections – the 2000 election between Republican nominee George W. Bush and Democratic nominee Al Gore and the 2020 election between Republican incumbent Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.
The results of the 2000 election turned on the vote in one state – Florida. They were decided in Bush’s favor several weeks afterward, only after the U.S. Supreme Court found Florida’s Supreme Court decision ordering a recount unconstitutional. That chaos led to a private, bipartisan effort to identify the problems arising during the 2000 election and the issuance of a report in 2005 on how to avoid them in the future. Few, if any, of those recommendations were implemented afterward, some of which would have eliminated problems arising 20 years later.
The 2020 election triggered numerous lawsuits and claims of voting fraud. Since all the cases to date have been dismissed, Democrats see no evil, despite the fact no case has yet been heard on the fraud evidence but were decided on procedural grounds.
The 2020 presidential election, due to the numerous substantive discrepancies Democratic leaders ignore, has shaken voter confidence to the core (39%) – not only among Republicans but Democrats as well. This should cause responsible legislators to investigate what happened in order to fix and re-instill voter confidence in the system.
With Democratic majorities in the House and Senate and their party holding the Oval Office as well, it would be fairly easy to launch such an effort. But this will not happen as evidenced by the course of action Democrats have embarked upon in the form of H.R. 1. In a nutshell, what this bill does is, among other things, memorialize the chaos that brought Democrats victory in 2020, reflected by the strict party-line vote the bill received in the House. Unbelievably, it is all being done without fully understanding what may have gone wrong in 2020.
Civil justice authority Hans von Spakovsky holds back no punches on how H.R. 1 imperils free and fair elections, summarizing the “800-page monstrosity” as follows:
“It is without doubt the most dangerous and irresponsible election bill I have ever seen. If it becomes law, it will interfere with the ability of states and their residents to determine the qualifications and eligibility of voters, to ensure the accuracy and validity of voter registration rolls, to secure the integrity of elections, and to participate and speak freely in the political arena. H.R. 1 … would usurp the role of the states. It would not only eliminate basic safety protocols, but mandate new, reckless rules and procedures.”
A Heritage Foundation summary also underscores damage a Senate-approved H.R. 1 would cause:
“H.R. 1 would federalize and micromanage the election process administered by the states, imposing unnecessary, unwise, and unconstitutional mandates on the states and reversing the decentralization of the American election process – which is essential to the protection of our liberty and freedom. It would implement nationwide the worst changes in election rules that occurred during the 2020 election and go even further in eroding and eliminating basic security protocols that states have in place.
“The bill would interfere with the ability of states and their citizens to determine the qualifications and eligibility of voters, to ensure the accuracy of voter registration rolls, to secure the fairness and integrity of elections, to participate and speak freely in the political process, and to determine the district boundary lines for electing their representatives.”
An organization focusing on state-based efforts to strengthen voting laws and integrity – the Honest Elections Project – to restore public confidence in elections identifies several areas which, when abused, become a mother lode for fraud and, therefore, need “critical reform.”
One is protecting the absentee-ballot process about which H.R. 1, unsurprisingly, seems clueless.
And Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, leaves no doubt as to his position on H.R. 1, declaring it was “written in hell by the devil himself.”
Voters should be wary of what Democrats will do next to further assure themselves a permanent one-party Senate majority and to further limit Republican influence. Initiatives will be undertaken to make both Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., states to gain additional Democratic congressional representation and to end the filibuster by which Republicans might exercise any influence.
For most of the 20th century, Mexico suffered under dominant one-party rule as Venezuela has suffered in the 21st century. Such rule in those countries has served their people poorly, finally causing Mexico to embrace an opposition party in 2000. Eventually, Venezuela may take the necessary steps to reclaim a democracy lost. The model for democratic activists in those countries has always been the U.S. Sadly, Democrats here are now promoting a bill that would have us embrace a one-party system already proven to have brought our southern neighbors hardship. We must recognize this is because H.R. 1 in no way is a “For the People Act” – it is an act seeking to satiate Democrats’ lust for power.
With H.R. 1, Democrats are doing the ghost of Hugo Chavez proud!
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This article was originally published by the WND News Center.
