By John F. Di Leo -
US Rep Adam Kinzinger of Rockford, IL has again grabbed some undeserved attention, this time by throwing the Republican Party under the bus, going on national television to attack GOP efforts to put an end to Democratic election fraud. The Kinzinger quote with which the Left is having the most fun is "I think if we're going to be in charge and pushing conspiracy and pushing division and pushing lies, then the Republican Party should not have the majority."
Now it’s easy to dismiss this as just “Kinzinger being Kinzinger.” He likes being this generation’s version of Jim Jeffords or Arlen Spector, a gadfly who runs as a Republican but publicly badmouths his own party while hardly ever calling out the Democrats, likely because he wants to be welcomed if he ever needs to change parties.
But his argument requires deeper consideration, because it’s at the root of two key crises of identity in the current Republican soul.
What Issues Matter Most?
Many of us are old enough to remember a common point of argument in the news and in political circles: the ideological battle between the concept of a single-issue voter and voters who see the big picture. In the 1970s and 1980s, this concept certainly animated Republican discussions, if not always corresponding conversations among Democrats.
Should a candidate’s position on nuclear arms outrank agreement or disagreement about everything else? How about the candidate’s position on leaving the gold standard? Or perhaps the candidate’s stance on the Equal Rights Amendment, or on women in combat, or on abortion? How about the right of public employees to strike against the public good?
A plethora of issues have been the “single issue” that many believed to be sufficient to support or veto a candidate, over the years. Recent socialist concepts such as “intersectionality” have attempted to end such debate, at least, on the Democrat side, declaring that, by definition, a Democrat will agree with the progressive platform from top to bottom, or he’s out of the club.
By contrast, Republicans have taken a “big tent” position, almost by necessity. As the Democrats have moved further and further left, more and more Democrat and independent voters have found themselves with no place to go, so they’ve joined the GOP. Republicans have some candidates who focus on economic issues more, others who focus on foreign policy more, still others whose focus is on domestic social issues. The GOP is infinitely more diverse than Democrats will ever admit out loud, or possibly, even to themselves.
But still there is broad agreement among Republicans on the big picture. While individual senators and congressmen will differ on one budget or another, on one tax-cut proposal or another, the GOP stands for the same general concepts, in direct contradiction to today’s Democrats. The GOP stands for smaller government, lower taxes, greater encouragement of entrepreneurship, safer streets, stronger borders, and the primacy of the Judeo-Christian focused culture of Western Civilization.
In 2021, with a truly malevolent administration holding the reins of power in Washington, DC, this contrast could not be more clear.
Any sane American, whether Republican or independent, and even many Democrats as well, must admit that the Biden/Harris regime is thoroughly destructive, and whatever the imperfections of the Republican opposition, it’s as plain as day that Republican governance would be superior to the status quo.
…And this is what makes Congressman Kinzinger’s comments so shocking. He didn’t say that GOP efforts to better protect elections from fraud are merely a point of contention or an exaggeration of the problem. No, the Rockford congressman said that Republican focus on cleaning up our elections render the party undeserving of consideration as the replacement for the current Democrats. He says he’d rather see the Pelosi/Schumer cabal continue to run America into the ground than see the GOP clean up dirty elections.
The more you think about it, the more shocking it sounds, coming from an elected (alleged) Republican. The Biden/Harris administration has empowered and financed our primary terrorist enemies by its perfidy on Afghanistan. The Pelosi/Schumer Congress daily threatens our economy with destructive legislation such as the green new deal. The Democrat governors and big city mayors preside over crime sprees, urban destruction and unconstitutional business lockdowns that have thrown millions out of work.
And yet Adam Kinzinger (and several other Republicans-in-name-only) have the chutzpah to declare that GOP attention to election abuse is some kind of dealbreaker for the rational voter? They believe that our economy, our borders, our foreign policy, our schools, our children’s careers, and thousands of other issues – on which the Right is plainly superior to the Left in every way – are all issues to be dismissed as unimportant, if the GOP hurts the feelings of some ostriches who don’t want to acknowledge the reality of vote fraud?
The man makes a strong case, not just for his ouster in the next primary, but for his immediate commitment to a nuthouse.
The Vote Fraud Conspiracy
Truth be told, this is a much more complex issue than the Left would have us believe.
The modern Left’s current position – which Rep Kinzinger has clearly accepted as gospel – is that there is no vote fraud, so anyone who claims that there is must be a lunatic or a liar, denying the “reality” that modern computers and the pure hearts of local bureaucrats make vote fraud simply impossible.
The Left simply MUST hold to this position, because if they accept the possibility that there is vote fraud, then they must admit that recounts, audits, and other such challenges of close elections might indeed have merit. Far too many elections are far too close; the Left cannot afford to have the carpet rolled back so we can see what they have swept underneath it for so many years.
Speaking personally, this writer is not yet certain about the loudest charge about the 2020 general election: the theory that offsite vote counting manipulation flipped millions of votes from Republican to Democrat. Speaking just for myself, I know it’s conceivable, and the case looks strong, but I’m not an IT expert, so I cannot personally be sure of it.
The Left is counting on the nation concentrating only on that charge, and on successfully shaming people into dismissing it without study.
But there’s more. Much more.
There are certain things that we know for facts – not just theories, but facts:
- There are tens of millions of illegal aliens in America, and many millions more legal green card holders who are not yet citizens. Neither of these groups can legally vote… but Motor Voter laws and paid voter registration drives enable them to do so, even outright encourage them to do so. We don’t know for certain how many do take advantage of this illegal but remarkably easy opportunity, and the Left spares no expense to stop us from researching the problem or putting up protections against it.
- While homeowners tend to stay in one address for many years, renters don’t. While such numbers are difficult to nail down, at least 60 million Americans are in college dormitories or regular apartment housing at any one time. Over the course of years, as people move from apartment to apartment and from dorm to dorm, they leave behind tens of millions of once-valid voting registrations that the Democratic Party has made it almost impossible to clean up.
- For example, speaking for my own family alone, my three children have had, between them, fourteen legitimate addresses in three states, in addition to their registration at our family home, during the past eight years of undergrad, grad school and first apartments. How many of these voting registrations are still on the books? While my kids would never vote more than once in a cycle, those other “unused” registrations are out there, available for abuse by a host of criminals who want to take advantage of the opportunities.
- Corrupt political machines such as those in Chicago and New Orleans are notorious for techniques such as sending busloads of patronage workers and their families all around town on election day, casting ballots in the names of no-show voter names.
- Recent tactics such as mail-in ballots and ballot harvesting – forbidden for a century due to their uncontrollable opportunities for abuse – have become the standard tactic of the age. Claiming a fear of “the virus,” the Left declared in 2020 that the only safe election is one that takes place entirely in mailboxes and dropboxes, with no way on earth to tell whether legitimate voters are casting those ballots or not.
Flooding apartment stairwells from coast to coast with legitimate ballots, available for the taking by neighbor, relative, janitor, landlord or passersby, is hardly a way to ensure a clean and safe election, but that’s exactly what has been foisted upon us, under the guise of “safety during a pandemic.” Republicans won’t cheat, and Democrats insist on some higher purpose that makes cheating ethical.
Ever since the 2020 election, the Left – and their house organ, the mainstream media – have constantly harped on the idea that all claims of vote fraud are lies. They insist on using adjectives like “disproven” and “defeated” to put readers off the scent.
But that’s the real lie.
In fact, we should admit that, though plenty of impressive proof has been revealed, the claims of programmed electronic counting machine vote-flipping have largely been unable to get a decent hearing in court thus far… but the other side should admit that every other charge of vote fraud has been proven, time and time again.
The Heritage Foundation, one of the most respected think tanks on earth, has been studying vote fraud for years. They have found over 1146 criminal convictions in recent years, proving that many of these vote fraud techniques are in fact incredibly common, certainly ongoing, and most likely on the rise.
What we don’t know is exactly how many votes are fabricated this way.
Hundreds of thousands? Millions? Tens of millions?
Certainly enough to overturn plenty of state and federal legislative races.
Enough to overturn a presidential race? Maybe. The 2020 margin was only ten to twenty thousand each, in several states with massive opportunities for fraud. Eliminate the fraud, and we reveal the legitimate victor.
So why not investigate? Why not build precautions into the system to guard against fraud?
There’s only one possible reason. The Democrats can only win with fraud. Eliminate – or even just minimize – the fraud, and the alleged “majority party” might well plummet to third party status in a cycle or two.
Now, back to Rep. Kinzinger. The issue isn’t just that he wants the GOP to stop talking about vote fraud because he thinks it makes us sound bad. It can’t be.
There can only be one reason to oppose speaking about vote fraud, when you know what the politicians know: if you are on the side of denying it.
Adam Kinzinger didn’t get where he is by being a dunce.
He knows that millions of illegals are voting; everyone knows. He knows that millions of ballots being mailed out willy-nilly without standard absentee-ballot request procedures guarantees (not just enables; guarantees) massive vote fraud; everyone knows. He knows that corrupt actors in numerous cities, counties and states, who have control of the levers of their respective boards of elections, use that control to facilitate and often perform vote fraud; everyone knows.
Remember, until 2020, everyone in America, frankly, in both parties, admitted that vote fraud exists nationwide… the only difference was that Republicans have always insisted that there’s enough of it to make a difference, and the Democrats have always insisted that it’s not really enough to change the election results.
Only in 2020 did the Democrats suddenly stop admitting that vote fraud happens at all, and start claiming that it’s nonexistent. Only in 2020 did the Democrats, as a party, start denying even the prevalence of vote fraud in places like Chicago.
The Democrat line always used to be, Sure it happens, but only in places like Chicago, which we win anyway, so who cares?
Only now, when it became blatantly obvious to anyone with eyes and ears that vote fraud CAN indeed make the difference in tons of elections, from state rep to the presidency… only now have they begun to deny its existence outright.
I wonder why.
Copyright 2021 John F Di Leo
John F Di Leo is a Chicagoland-based international trade trainer, writer and actor. His columns have been found in Illinois Review since 2009, and a collection of his IR columns on vote fraud, The Tales of Little Pavel, is available in paperback or eBook on Amazon.
Watch for his upcoming political satire, “Evening Soup with Basement Joe,” a parallel-universe style chronicle of the nightly discussions of the day’s events between a confused old usurper in the White House, and the young aide who serves him his nightly bowl of soup before bed, coming soon on Amazon.
Don’t miss an article! Use the free tool in the margin to sign up for Illinois Review’s free email notification service, so you always know when IR publishes new content!