Transcript for Podcast: "I Feel Snitty," Episode 86: "A Worldwide Laxative" is now available!

Podcast: I Feel Snitty

Episode 86: A Worldwide Laxative

Premiere Date: 11/10/20

Length: 6:11 (1,031 words)

Link: https://ifeelsnitty.podbean.com/e/a-worldwide-laxative/

Transcript: 

Welcome to I Feel Snitty, episode 86, entitled, “A Worldwide Laxative.” I’m your host, Craig Rozniecki.

 

Ding-dong, the Donald wasn’t re-elected. With Joe Biden taking Pennsylvania, he went to 273 electoral votes, and with that, will become the 46^th President of the United States.

 

If people asked me, “In one word, how would you describe your mood at the moment?,” I wouldn’t respond with “happy,” “excited,” or even “hopeful;” I’d say “relieved.”

 

Let’s face it: 2020 has not been a good year. It’s like we’ve been living in a hybrid of the films “Outbreak” and “Idiocracy,” as almost 240,000 Americans have died from a virus and half of America doesn’t seem to think said virus exists. Due to the virus and said ignorance of half the country, we’ve basically been on lockdown for 8 months – unable to travel; limited on entertainment options; hesitant on dating; and wondering when in the hell Netflix will come out with new shows, because you’ve taken the phrase “Netflix-and-chillin” to a whole new level, and in a literal sense. For as awful as the year has been, however, when Joe Biden was announced as the winner on Saturday morning, everything, even if just for a moment, seemed a little brighter. Accumulating sensations of guilt, embarrassment, pessimism, and depression were lifted, and it became okay to feel good about our country and smile again.

 

Having said all this, though, we have a lot of work to do. Over 70 million people voted for Donald Trump in this election; he’s actively trying to stop the counting of votes; have courts and electors reverse the outcome; and through all this, is labeling the election as “stolen.” The lame-duck “president” of the United States is following through with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s wish of sowing doubt in democracy. I don’t think many realize the potential massive implications of this. It’s common knowledge that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, so it’s reasonable to question the legitimacy of the results. In 2020, however, Donald Trump is claiming that the counting of mail-in ballots is fraudulent and proves the election was stolen from him.

 

Let’s get something straight here: mail-in ballots aren’t a new thing. They’ve been around since the Civil War, largely put in place for soldiers. Secondly, we’ve been struggling through a pandemic, which has resulted in nearly 240,000 deaths, so common sense would dictate mail-in ballots would increase quite substantially this year, for fear of standing in line and potentially exposing oneself to COVID. Lastly, the reason why mail-in ballots were counted last in states like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, was because Republican-led legislatures passed said process into law. Democrats have been overwhelmingly more proactive about containing Coronavirus and concerned about the ramifications of not effectively dealing with it than Republicans. So, naturally, they were more prone to voting by mail than in person. In states like Ohio and Florida, since mail-in votes were tallied first, Joe Biden tended to enjoy an early lead, but once in-person votes started getting counted, Donald Trump made up ground and eventually surpassed Biden in both states. The opposite was true in the three before-mentioned rust belt states, in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, as in-person votes were tallied first – resulting in Trump starting with a lead. Once mail-in ballots started being counted, however, Biden began making up ground, and eventually overtook Trump in all three states. This isn’t voter fraud or election-stealing. It’s vote-counting. I voted early, by mail, probably earlier than most anyone in the state did in person. Does this then mean, if my vote isn’t counted until after those later in-person votes, it shouldn’t count at all? No, of course not. We can’t even pretend to call ourselves a democracy if we don’t believe in voting and the counting of every vote.

 

This is what we’re dealing with now, though. Donald Trump has essentially sown the doubt in our institutions among 40% in this country and it’s going to take a long ass time to restore faith in them. Unless he does the most unlikely thing of his presidency and graciously concedes, millions will forever believe that this election was stolen. Hell, even if he does concede, it’s highly likely some will still believe it was stolen. …and what is a democracy if 40% of a country doesn’t believe it exists?

 

Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and their cronies have proven how gullible 40% of Americans are; how willing they are to dismiss the democratic ideals of this nation in favor of an autocracy; and came this close to making that horrific transition a reality. At least this time, though, they fell short, and for that, we should be proud.

 

Think about it. Donald Trump bribed a foreign ally, in Ukraine, to dig up dirt on his, at that time, likely opponent in the 2020 presidential election – Joe Biden, and was impeached for it. He and his administration, during a pandemic, spread vicious lies about the legitimacy of mail-in voting. They sabotaged the United States Postal Service. They decreased the number of drop-off boxes. They passed tighter restrictions on voter identification. They rejected proposals to begin counting mail-in ballots before the election. They’ve sent robocalls, which provided false information on the date of the election and the location at which an individual was to vote. They’ve spent countless dollars on false ads. They fought to stop the counting of mail-in ballots the day of the election and beyond. They’ve sought to have the Supreme Court overturn the election results. They’ve attempted to put in place electors which would go against their state’s vote and re-elect Donald Trump as president. As sad as it is to say, the Republican Party threw at us every voter-suppression tactic at their disposal to try and undermine democracy in this election. They tried to silence our votes, and with that, our voices, but at the end of the day, the people spoke. Now it’s time to get to work…

 

That’s it for today’s episode. I’ll see you again next week. Until then, you can check me out on Podbean, Twitter, Amazon, and Blogger. This has been I Feel Snitty, with Craig Rozniecki. Take care.