Senator Darling and the Huge Lie About Vote Fraud

Last Sunday, on Milwaukee TV Newsman Mike Gousha’s weekly public affairs program (“Up Front with Mike Gousha”), the veteran broadcast journalist’s guest was State Senator Alberta Darling, who represents one of the more right-leaning areas of the state, including such wealthy enclaves as River Hills and Fox Point, and communities including Germantown, Mequon, and Thiensville.

When Gousha  (pronounced “goo-SHAY”, in case you’re not familiar with him) discussed the election results with Senator Darling, she said if Wisconsin’s Voter ID law had not been blocked, Mitt Romney might have won the state.

WHAT?

This campaign season will almost certainly go down as the one marked by the greatest number of lies ever told, but Darling’s assertion is patently absurd.  President Obama won Wisconsin by over 205,000 votes .  In other words, by a number of votes just a bit smaller than the number of people who live in Madison, and about twice the population of Green Bay.  So Senator Darling wants us to believe that there were over two hundred thousand fraudulent votes cast in Wisconsin’s Presidential election.

This is complete and total horse-puckey.

And yet, Darling and her fellow travelers continue to assert massive voter fraud in the state, offering absolutely no evidence of any. Earlier this year, Senator RoJo The Clown told tall tales – never supported by one iota of evidence – of busloads of illegal voters in Racine.  It’s a right-wing meme: voter fraud is everywhere!!!!  These people are delusional.

It disgusts me not only that people like Senators Darling and Johnson can spew this manure essentially without challenge from any “reporter” or “journalist”, but that so many people, even those with IQ’s above room temperature, will repeat it.  An insignificant percentage of people watch shows like Gousha’s, but I still think he – and others who practice this art – should pursue a far more aggressive line of follow-up questioning when pols like Darling spew this utter nonsense.

Mitt Romney lost Wisconsin for many reasons, but one of them is NOT voter fraud.  His running mate Paul Ryan, caught in the lie about the Janesville GM plant (among many other huge untruths), was a drag on the ticket.  Obama won Wisconsin by seven percentage points, but every reliable poll showed  Obama’s lead smaller before Romney picked Ryan.  Every poll showed Wisconsinites clearly supported the auto bailout, and even Ryan’s emotionally-choked speech about the boys he went to high school with losing their jobs at the hometown GM plant couldn’t be sold to Wisconsinites, who have a clear recollection of how, when, and why that plant closed.  Lyin’ Ryan was re-elected to his seat in Congress, but he and Mitt did not carry Janesville or Rock County.

Mitt Romney lost Wisconsin for a myriad of other reasons, not the least of which is he had almost no appeal on social media, which made him look even more old-fashioned than his ideas about women.  President Obama had more than 31 million “likes” on Facebook, contrasted with Romney’s 11 million.  Obama had 21 million followers on Twitter, contrasted with Romney’s 1.6 million Twitter followers.  This is a crystal-clear sign that the Republican campaign strategy was defective.

The list of reasons Wisconsin went for Obama and not Romney is long, and it’s difficult to explain an electorate that votes Ryan back into Congress, but against sending him to the White House; selects Tammy Baldwin over Tommy Thompson, but also strongly supports Governor Walker (who is the REAL up-and-coming Republican star, not Paul Ryan); and gives the Republicans even more control in the legislature.

But one thing is certain to any person capable of rational thought: voter fraud had NOTHING to do with it.