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How Much Cheating Is Enough?

The recent Republican victory in the Virginia gubernatorial race is the best thing that could possibly have happened for Democrats. Yes, we have a Republican governor in a state that was being rapidly dismantled by leftist insanity. But the election also undermines any sense of strategic unity for future election cycles. 

If the Democrats had succeeded in stealing the Virginia election, there could have been no faith in any future election. No reason to continue playing the game that Democrats are so busy fixing (often with Republican cooperation). Instead, a Republican victory makes for useful propaganda. It allows RINOs to argue that what America wants is less Trump and more traditional, middle-of-the-road politicians—the sort of people who play the Washington game and who sacrifice your freedom and spend your money so that they can remain in power. 

The Youngkin victory also becomes a weapon in the hands of both Democrats and corrupt Republicans who wish to undermine the 2020 fraud story. And it will encourage those with legitimate concerns about election integrity to think that the situation is under control, and that we can all relax again. Nothing could be further from the truth.  

Virginia was a case of the Democrats cheating, just not quite enough. New Jersey was a case of the Democrats cheating just enough. Every election, especially an off-year election, is a practice session for Democrats to fine-tune their vote-stealing strategy in preparation for the main event. It is a complex balance: Expectations have to be set correctly with the help of sympathetic pollsters. True results have to be projected in order to understand how many fraudulent votes will be required. (This is one of the main reasons election fraud relies on voting centers staying open late and counting operations being arbitrarily suspended—so that the required votes can be requested and delivered.) 

Stealing an election isn’t easy, but 2020 showed all those involved that, as long as they work out the mechanics of getting enough phony votes to the right places, the government will back them up: Neither the Justice Department nor the U.S. Supreme Court will force states to abide by their own laws. And there is no redress for a candidate who is cheated out of victory. This has been the case in America at least since the 2010 Connecticut gubernatorial election, and probably for longer than that. 

Democrats are going to spend the remaining years until 2024 destroying America just as fast as possible, ignoring the law where it suits them, and using the law as a political weapon where they can. They’ll look for a 2024 candidate who is just barely plausible, the same way Biden was just barely plausible in 2020. Since Democratic candidates are mere figureheads of a totalitarian bureaucracy, it doesn’t matter who the individual in office is—all that matters is holding the office. 

At the moment, the only thing holding America together is the deep belief most Americans have in it—in its fundamental stability and trustworthiness, and the integrity of our institutions. Or, I should say, the deep belief Americans had. The 2020 election knocked out nearly all the pegs holding up our belief in these systems.  

But, as in every great epoch of American history, a final, catalytic event would be necessary to knock out that last peg. The Democrats’ accidental failure in Virginia (I do not believe they intended to lose) will serve as a stabilizing influence. But it is a misleading, illusory stability, if it leads Americans to believe that our elections can be trusted. And the disappointment the next time we play for presidential stakes will be even greater. 

I don’t believe in civil war—not in the “traditional” sense. I do believe we are approaching a fundamental reassertion of states’ rights. That may involve secession, itself a right which was guaranteed by many state constitutions. It would not mean a breakup of America—it would be more of a reorganization: States finally tired of the federal government’s failure to uphold the Constitution would withdraw from the union and form a new union.

The federal government would try economic and perhaps military pressure, but General Milley’s fully vaccinated army will never match itself against the rest of the nation. The northern states could withdraw from their leftist cities, leaving these artificial enclaves all alone: The remaining “United States” would ultimately consist of Washington, D.C., New York, Chicago, Seattle, and San Francisco, and the like. Finally, these cities would have to petition for readmission into the union, and the United States would find itself glued back together with a radically different center of power.

That, at least, is how a true reset might happen without also bringing along utter destruction. There are plenty of worse outcomes. It depends on how much America is willing to let anti-American politicians and bureaucrats get away with. At what point do we shout “enough!” and what will bring that about? Time will tell.

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About Dan Gelernter

Dan Gelernter is a columnist for American Greatness living in Florida.

Photo: iStock/Getty Images

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