President Donald Trump is obviously the leader of the Republican Party (see the latest Gallup poll on the most admired American) but should the 2020 election remain in its current dubious state and should Trump decide not to run in the future, Josh Hawley, the senator from Missouri, has moved to the head of the class for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
He has done this by being the first Republican senator to commit to objecting to electoral college certification for the 2020 presidential election.
This courageous act, in conjunction with similar pledges already made by members of the House, opens the door to serious discussion of the election on the floor of Congress
In so doing Hawley has cited problems that several states had, particularly Pennsylvania, in not following their own election laws. (Georgia’s problems were demonstrated today by the testimony of IT expert Garland Favorito and others in front of their Judiciary Committee.)
But equally, if not more, importantly to the future of our country, and the democratic world in general, Hawley has called out the undue influence of Big Tech in our presidential election, in this case, Facebook and Twitter. (He could easily have added the giant of giants, Google, as well.)
Many have asserted these entities, as private companies, have the right to do as they wish. In a perfect world, that is correct. But this world is far from perfect and getting less so.
Big Tech controls the flow of information globally to a degree no one has ever conceived, not even Orwell or Huxley. Traditional anti-trust legislation is virtually Paleolithic when it comes to adjudicating the capabilities of these companies.
With the possible exceptions of the United States and China, Facebook and Google in particular arguably exercise more power over world affairs than any country.
They may not have armies, but they have our minds.
Hawley, again to his credit, has been at the forefront of the U.S. Congress to address this.
It is not just the notorious Section 230, the clause that prevents Facebook & Co. from being sued for what they publish that he, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, and others have laudably confronted, so far to no avail.
(As of now, Big Tech has essentially bought Congress.)
The potential for mass thought control, referred to above, starting with our children, is ultimately the largest part of this problem, but it applies directly to election 2020 as well.
Technology is leading us rather than the other way around. The use of the disputed Dominion machines is an example of this.
People made the unquestioning assumption that such devices must be better, almost like the iPhone 12 must be better than the 7, leading to voting being easily manipulated by equipment few understand, even, and often especially, those operating it.
Hawley so far has stood alone in the Senate to protest this as regards the current election. We can hope that others will join him shortly.
But being first gives you special credit. Hawley’s action will be and should be remembered by the Republican electorate, the large percentage of whom are “deplorables.”
These people, in general, are running ahead of their elected representatives. They will be pleased, even excited, to support those that join them.
