Beech Tree News Network

Election day has come and gone.  Votes are still being counted.  Tensions are high.  Accusations are flying.  The country is obviously divided.  It looks like former Vice-President Joe Biden is likely to be victorious, despite the appearance of some degree of electoral shenanigans in various states.  But, as of this writing, the race has yet to be called and President Trump is still making his case about the integrity of the election.  I repeatedly made my arguments here as to why I felt like President Donald Trump was clearly the better choice; Butler County and Kentucky agreed with me.  There is some satisfaction there.  

While the election outcome will likely be litigated before it is finally settled, I want to turn my attention now to moving forward.  The best way to do that is to look at what we just experienced as a nation.  There are many profound takeaways from this election process.  This column will focus on three of those - the polls, the media, and the vote.  We’ve got to get better at all three.

The Polls:  The issue of polling has been problematic for  a while now and has been a point of real contention following the fiasco of 2016.  Not only is this an issue at the presidential level, it now seems to be happening at the state level as well (Maine, South Carolina, Iowa, etc.).  The general consensus after 2016 was about the failure of the polls.  That has now changed to the much broader issue of intentionality of certain polling units to reinforce a desired outcome.  Many of the organizations that conduct polls are left-leaning politically (media outlets, universities, think tanks, etc.) and they will still try to make their “margin of error” argument to justify the overall accuracy of their polling.  However, that rings hollow to most Americans who can see what is taking place with their own eyes.  The widespread polling inaccuracies, virtually all that overestimated the support for Democrat candidates and underestimated the support for Republican candidates, suggests a conscious attempt to suppress certain voting groups while building momentum for others.  This further erodes the credibility of these institutions and sows distrust among the electorate.  It needs to be addressed or the polling should be stopped.  If neither happens, then people should join together and pledge not to participate in any poll regardless of who is conducting it.  

The Media (mainstream and social):   Oh, boy...where do we start?  To say that most media outlets have jettisoned any semblance of unbiased independence and replaced it with partisan advocacy is an understatement.  It’s everywhere.  Mainstream.  Social Media.  That distinction makes little difference these days.  Most lean heavily to the left - with the exception of talk radio.  Both sides have their pet networks and outlets to be sure but there is one fundamental difference.  The right-leaning outlets are typically identified as such (Fox, Breitbart, Newsmax, etc.), while the left-leaning ones still enjoy some semblance of objectivity, not the New York Times, of course but probably ABC, CBS, NBC, AP, and many others across the country.  With mainstream media pushing the gas pedal for partisan causes, social media and big tech operations are increasingly throwing on the brakes to stop that which they disagree.  They use fancy terms like “fact check” and “disinformation” but what is really in play is political censorship plain and simple.  What can be done to address this situation?  One step is widespread exposure of the existence of the problem.  Another is by consumers to become more discerning in their viewing/reading habits in the marketplace.  That’s a tall order and unlikely to have much impact.  The best option, in my estimation, is to build a wall and totally separate straight news reporting from opinion (e.g. The Wall Street Journal does this well).  Though my sister and I  lean right politically, we try our best to do that at Beech Tree News.  News is news.  Opinion is opinion.  Many media outlets make no attempt to even try that approach, which used to be much more common across the media landscape.  Others simply are not honest about what they are and what they do and they are counting on you, the news consumer, to not even notice it.  It works sometimes.  Several do a decent job of news reporting but then offer what they describe as “news analysis” or some quotes from the so-called “experts.”   This is bogus.  It’s simply a slick way of offering opinion under the guise of news.  Many mix and match both news and opinion - all inside of one show - sometimes together and sometimes in different segments.  With this bewildering assortment of news and opinion, it’s no wonder people are confused, divided and frustrated.  The media’s abdication of its constitutional responsibility is troubling for our country and for the survival of our fragile democracy.  As a nation, we must change this direction or it will help lead to our demise.  

The Vote:  What we are witnessing now as certain states/cities attempt to count votes is utterly embarrassing.  From allegations of dead people voting, to crazy-high turnout rates, from lack of transparency in vote counting to weird 4 a.m. ballot dumps that always seem to favor one side exclusively - the system is in dire need of reform.  How some states actually conduct their election is equally ridiculous.  Furthermore, the fact that some states do this well and others struggle mightily is also mind boggling.  Sure, each state is unique and has its own challenges but we have got to do a better job with this. The growing lack of confidence in our constitutionally-prescribed electoral system is a clear-and-present danger to the stability of our nation. I am not so naive as to suggest that there haven’t always been election hiccups. Leaving aside the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon race in Chicago, our modern problems are more clearly traced to the hanging/dimpled “chad” Bush-Gore presidential race of 2000.  But, to their credit, Florida finally got its act together and in recent cycles things have run smoothly there.  The vote problems in 2020 have been exacerbated by the disastrous embrace of full-scale mail-in voting in the name of COVID.  To be clear, I am not referring to legitimate absentee voting for folks who are unable to get to the polls.  I’m talking about the wide scale printing and blanket distribution of ballots in some states around the country and in some instances ballots were sent to all registered voters.  This has understandably led to charges of ballot “harvesting” because it is difficult to maintain chain-of-custody in these instances.  Then, it creates a disturbing narrative of results being slow-walked multiple days after an election.  It creates chaos, puts people on edge, and causes doubts about election fairness even among fair-minded reasonable people.  It is absolutely necessary for political leaders in some states and party leaders to work toward some type of solution to ensure election security and integrity. Let’s start with the principles of identification, verification, in-person, and ballot drop-off locations. Continue with mail absentee voting for those who require it, eliminate mail voting altogether, and permanently expand the window for in-person voting.  This isn’t voter suppression.  It isn’t racist.  It is common sense.  Obviously, there is room for compromise but if we choose to stick our heads in the sand and say there is no problem, we do so at our own peril.   

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