Dear Editor,
It was bizarre to watch PNC strongman Joseph Harmon whining about electoral fraud while still embracing Mingo, the architect of the post election debacle. It was comical to hear him assert that the results of the election are not credible because of massive fraud then claim victory for his party based on Mingo’s fraudulent declaration even as the plot is being exposed by the recount. It was odd to see a PNC politician seeking the moral high ground on electoral fraud. Harmon was wearing a mask during his diatribes and that may have given him some comfort to make those statements with a straight face.
Words have consequences. Desperate people do desperate things. Ordinarily Harmon’s bluster would have been funny but in the context of a contested election, it is not. It is dangerous. His senseless rants project defeat. They are red meat to the base and a dog whistle to his most ardent supporters. They are irresponsible given the conduct of his party’s supporters after losses in 1992 and 1997.
His false but incendiary comments about the army vote are as transparent and they are obscene. His lies have already resonated with the Veterans Legion.
President Granger, if he is worth his weight in salt, needs to step up to the plate and nip this nonsense in the bud. He needs to show that he is qualified for the job he holds and seeks to retain.
The internet played a crucial role in the 2020 elections. Online publications such as SN kept the world abreast of developments. It is now an effective tool for Harmon and company to communicate their lies to their supporters. His tirades are not divorced from the deliberate effort by his party to snail walk the crucial and Region 4 recount. The coupling of the two is troubling.
The recount now in progress will provide definitive answers to two questions: Which party won the election and did APNU+AFC (with a little help from its friends at Gecom) try to steal the election? As the answers to those questions are emerging, Harmon, Norton and company are trying to change the conversation, desperately hoping to regain a semblance of credibility with their supporters. Their response for most parts has been incoherent and often comical, but it looks as if they have now settled on a page from the Trump playbook: lie a lot, incite your base, and accuse your accusers of doing what you have been credibly accused of doing.
Electoral fraud in any form and at any level is unacceptable. Credible allegations should be investigated by the proper authorities and guilty parties should be punished. That standard should apply across the board from Joe, the voter to Mingo, the Returning Officer and beyond.
It is worth repeating that the APNU+AFC folks, now so sanctimonious about voter fraud, continue to embrace Mingo even as his bad acts are being exposed by the recount. That they are so blind to the contradiction reinforces public perception that the coalition was complicit in the actions of Mingo. It brings into question the credibility of those now claiming the moral high ground on electoral fraud.
Author Stephen Law in his book “Believing Bullsh*t” proffered that any theory, no matter how ludicrous, can be squared with the evidence, given enough ingenuity. Harmon, Norton and company are trying that approach but their public statements are beyond ludicrous. Harmon’s statement that more than 90,000 questionable votes were counted will require even his staunchest supporters to suspend belief. It will require them to believe that the APNU+AFC representatives present at the polling stations on March 2, were either dumb, blind, incompetent, corrupt or asleep. That is the implication of Harmon’s twisted logic as he threw all his party representatives under the bus to score political points.
Without addressing his many other absurd claims let me say that if an incorrect tick or check mark on a document was a fatal flaw, accountants would be an endangered species.
Posturing is not proof: it is a political strategy. The burden of proof is on APNU+AFC. Harmon and company have arrogated unto themselves the role of accuser, investigator, prosecutor, judge and jury all rolled into one. Without adducing any evidence, they assume and assert that everyone they believe may have committed voter fraud voted for a party other than APNU+AFC and that he or she did so with full knowledge of another party. That is a bridge too far for rational thinking people.
The credibility of the accuser must be assessed in any allegation, especially one involving electoral fraud. Is it inconceivable that APNU+AFC is now using fraud it orchestrated during the election to discredit the opposition and the process? Is this a case where the brilliant investigator who uncovered all the evidence turned out to be perpetrator of the crime? It begs the question.
Silence is not an option. Responsible people must speak out. Joseph Harmon is at war with the truth. He must make peace with the truth to avoid the dire consequences of his lies.
Yours faithfully,
Milton Jagannath
