Hands off State’s Rights! : Gaming Our Democracy!

Posted on November 20, 2020 by Richard H. McBee Jr.

Hands off our State’s Rights Mr. President! 10th Amendment: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” You have not been given any rights here!

This and subsequent rulings and laws were put in precisely to prevent the kind of twisting of State’s elections for anything including and especially for the Presidency and Congress in order to prevent the return to Monarchy or a Dictatorship.

Note Mr. President: Since the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Supreme Court both point to state law regarding voting rights, it is up to the individual state to determine how it wants to distribute those voting rights

Despite my continued angst about our country, I have learned some very important lessons about the Presidency, our Democracy and our Constitution during the past four years. None are infallibly perfect. Our system can be “Gamed” internally by using straight old school propaganda and modern technology. Basically, we know that humans can have their brains “Hacked” and “Malignant Viruses” inserted by “Tweeting” enough falsehoods so that we forget simple truths and believe the most outrageous lies. I call it “Gaming” because psychology tells us that “Name Calling”, “Scapegoating” and “Loaded Words” are like “Computer Viruses” in that they “Manipulate” the normal programming of our brains and thus our behaviors. In adults, this types of gaming is a lot more serious than middle school bullying which we work hard to eliminate. Adult games can end up with split societies, increased violence and major bad consequences for a nation. We only need to look at many countries we used to call “Banana Republics” to see how badly it can end. Our nation has just concluded the most secure election in history according to our government’s NSA and most national leaders. Unfortunately the results are being “Gamed” at time when a major transition in government in needed. Consequently we see a continuation of the breakdown in our national civil discourse and social contract relationships. As a nation of varied values, races, traditions and religions we need to get back on track. There is no conspiracy, it is not a battle between “Liberals and Conservatives,” (whatever those two words now stand for) or “Guns – No Guns”, it’s about living and working together. To quote Pogo, “We have met the enemy, and it is US.”

Americans, we all have a lot of repair work to do to fix the “US” whether used as a pronoun or as U.S.