The American People Want and Deserve Honest Elections
The emerging socialist, anti-American wing of the Democratic Party will make this issue even more important.
President Donald J. Trump’s commitment to pass an election reform bill that blocks noncitizens from voting is deeply popular with the American people.
Yet, the Senate Democrats are unanimously fighting to block this legislation. They are opposing the overwhelming majority of Americans - including those their own party. Running for re-election as a pro-noncitizen voting candidate could be a heavy burden.
The puzzling thing is that a small number of Republicans have voted against honest elections. It is a little hard to understand why they would stand with the Democrats and against most Americans.
Consider the evidence of overwhelming popular support for serious election reform:
According to America’s New Majority Project:
Americans overwhelmingly want people to show proof of citizenship to register to vote by about 5:1. Seventy-nine percent favor it, while only 16 percent oppose it.
There is a similar margin for requiring people to show photo ID to cast a ballot. Seventy-seven are for it, and 18 percent are against it. In fact, Pew Research Center found that 83 percent of Americans - including wide majorities of Democrats, independents, Whites, Blacks, and Latinos - favor voter ID requirements.
On the general issue of noncitizens voting, 77 percent of Americans oppose this and only 18 percent support it.
According to Gallup, 84 percent support voter ID, with 98 percent of Republicans, 84 percent of independents, and 67 percent of Democrats on board - while an equally robust 83 percent back proof of citizenship for voter registration.
There are three big conclusions to be drawn from this overwhelming support for honest elections which are limited to American voters.
First, this is such a hugely popular issue that Republicans should focus and campaign on it back home while regularly forcing votes in Washington. Every candidate who votes against these reforms should be confronted back home and asked why they want noncitizens to vote. They must be made to own their votes.
Second, the bill should be described by what it does and not just by Washington’s term, “the SAVE Act.” Every time a supporter, including President Trump, refers to it they should slow down and emphasize what the bill does - bars noncitizens from voting so only Americans cast ballots and requires voters to show photo identification to vote. In March, the pollster Scott Rasmussen found that only 40 percent of voters said they knew what the SAVE Act was - and only 23 percent could describe it accurately. Before you earn Americans’ support for the bill, they must know what it does.
Third, this is an ideal campaign to be won at the grassroots rather than in Washington. It is hard to win an insider fight for reform because the lobbyists and forces for the old order are so entrenched.
However, if Americans can be aroused by a 5:1 margin to demand honest elections, with only U.S. citizens voting, then this bill can be driven through by sheer grassroots pressure. Abraham Lincoln’s rule that “with popular sentiment nothing can fail and without popular sentiment nothing can succeed” applies to this fight.
The best parallel to this situation was President Ronald Reagan’s fight for a three-year tax cut. Reagan knew he would never win inside the Washington system. He knew that he had to arouse the American people and get them focused on pressuring Congress. As he once said his job was to shine the light on the American people so they turn up the heat on Congress. Speaker Tip O’Neill once told me he lost 46 Democrats after Reagan’s nationally televised speech for the tax cuts.
President Trump has deeply popular cause in limiting voting to American citizens. In chess terms, he can create a fork for the Democrats. They can vote with him to pass the bill now, or they can be defeated back home and their Republican successors will then pass the bill in January 2027 ahead of the 2028 presidential election.
The emerging socialist, anti-American wing of the Democratic Party will make this issue even more important. The open advocacy of ending American civilization, opening the borders, and allowing a flood of noncitizens to vote will further alienate the Democratic Party from the American people.
In the final stages of the Reagan tax cut crusade, all Cabinet members were instructed to put the issue into every speech. The cause of honest elections and ensuring that only American citizens decide to whom we loan power is central enough to our survival that the Trump administration should adopt the same rule - and ask House and Senate GOP candidates to do the same.
In the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, it is important to remember that Lincoln’s injunction of “government of the people, by the people, and for the people” still summarizes the meaning of freedom and self-government.
The people want honest elections with only Americans voting - and they will presently overwhelm the forces arrayed against them. A strong grassroots campaign by President Trump visiting city after city for “honest American elections” rallies will accelerate this process.
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