Newly elected Congressman August Pfluger wants to "being certitude" to every American voter. He also wants your Social Security Number on federal election ballots.
Requires voters to produce a matching SSN printed on their ballot in federal elections.
My SSN is not on my Tom Green County Voter Registration Certificate or my Texas Drivers License, documents used to ensure I am the person voting in my name.
I don't understand how my SSN printed on my ballot provides certitude to every American. It sounds like an intrusive government regulation, something a Republican should oppose.
Certitude: something that someone firmly believes is true
President Trump firmly believes victory was stolen from him. The facts, recounts and numerous court challenges do not bear him out.
As Trump will continue to claim the election was stolen there will never be certitude for every American. Continuing to undermine American's confidence in the 2020 election will bring more division, inspire more violence like the Capital Riot (which Pfluger condemned)..
Pfluger owes his constituents the truth, as Senator Romney implored the night of the Capital attack.
The best way we can show respect for the voters who are upset is by telling them the truth. That is the burden, and the duty, of leadership. The truth is that President-elect Biden won this election. President Trump lost. Scores of courts, the President’s own Attorney General, and state election officials both Republican and Democrat have reached this unequivocal decision.
People once wanted leaders to be honest. Did that change with custom news feeds that prioritize information that fits with an individual's interest? Did dopamine fueling shots steer people away from a shared reality?
“The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between the two, the leader must become a servant and a debtor."-- Max Dupree
The Trump Ego World Tour nears its end. Brand new Congressmen should not emulate or imitate Donald J. Trump's abysmal model of human insecurity, arrogance, vengefulness and ignorance. Nor should they blindly follow him..
President Trump sent a violent mob to the U.S. Capital to interrupt the certification of President Elect Joe Biden. Rep. Pfluger was there as a Joint Session of Congress certified the Electoral College results.
One definition of certify could apply to the Donald Trump mesmerized by the mob violence and now raging alone in the White House.
Certify - officially declare insane
Rep. August Pfluger hung his political ambitions on a presidential nebula, permeated with dysfunctional fog and toxic smoke. The Trump Nebula consists of remnants from a dying star. One could get lost in such an environment.
Nine in 10 Americans oppose the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, seven in 10 say Donald Trump bears at least some responsibility for it and a majority in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll – 56% – favors efforts in Congress to bar him from holding elected office again.
Fifty-four percent in the national survey also say Trump should be charged criminally with inciting a riot for having encouraged his supporters to march on the Capitol. More, 66%, say he has behaved irresponsibly, more broadly, in his statements and actions since the election.
I shouldn't have to put my SSN on a federal ballot because Trump lied.
Update: Former Cruz staffers expressed disgust for their boss' behavior. Rep. Pfluger is a Cruz acolyte.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz's former staffers are "pretty disgusted" by the recent actions of their former boss, according to New York Magazine's Intelligencer.
At least six of Cruz's former aides have expressed their distaste at the senator's political stance in recent weeks, the magazine reported.
This behavior, which has included peddling election misinformation, leading the objection to the Electoral college certification, and sending out a fundraising email while a pro-Trump mob breached the Capitol, has left a soured impression of those who have previously worked for him.
One former aide told Intelligencer: "Most of Cruzworld is pretty disgusted."
Another told the magazine: "Everyone is upset with the direction things have gone, and the longer they've been with the senator, the more distaste they are expressing."
Update 1-18-21: Walgreens and Pfizer are two of the most recent companies to suspend PAC contributions to the 147 Republican lawmakers who opposed the certification of Democrat Joe Biden as the next president. They join Amazon, Marriott, AT&T and others in suspending donations to GOP lawmakers who tried to overturn the election. AT&T donated to Rep. August Pfluger's campaign.
Update 1-19-21: The vast majority of states (44) have constitutional provisions guaranteeing secrecy in voting, while the remaining states have statutory provisions referencing secrecy in voting. The U.S. Constitution gives states wide authority to conduct elections.
Texas Attorney General website states: "You have the right to vote your ballot by yourself, in secret." Putting my SSN on the ballot negates this constitutional right.
It would behoove Rep. Pfluger to remember how elected officials in the South suppressed the African-American vote.
The new mechanisms of voter suppression display all of the ingenuity of their racist forebears, though expressed in race-neutral language that promises to safeguard against election fraud.
Pfluger's SSN requirement for federal ballots could be viewed in such a light.
Update 1-21-21: In an interview Rep. Pfluger said he was pursuing the Gold standard for elections but never explained why he wants your SSN on a federal ballot.
Update 1-22-21: Fiery Rep. Pfluger said he never heard candidate Joe Biden decry violence last summer, August is flat out wrong,
On August 30, Joe Biden condemned violence at protests in Portland (here) by releasing a statement on his campaign website (here), which said, “The deadly violence we saw overnight in Portland is unacceptable […] as a country we must condemn the incitement of hate and resentment that led to this deadly clash. It is not a peaceful protest when you go out spoiling for a fight.” (More here )
After George Floyd’s death, Joe Biden repeatedly condemned violent protests. In a May 31 post on his blog shortly after George Floyd’s death, he wrote, “Protesting such brutality is right and necessary. It’s an utterly American response. But burning down communities and needless destruction is not. Violence that endangers lives is not.” ( here , here ).
Besides lying, Pfluger said he would "wake up tomorrow to socialism." President Joe Biden's record is anything but socialism. Corporations cut funding to the Pflugers of Congress, not to the new Chief Executive.
Update 1-27-21: Post Capital Riot more Republicans dropped their party affiliation, over 30,000 in six states.
Update 1-31-21: Lawmakers in 28 states proposed 106 bills that would reduce voting access for citizens.
Republicans have been talking out of both sides of their mouths, at once decrying the violence over false allegations of election rigging, and at the same time using false allegations of voter fraud to make it harder for people to vote.
None of these laws actually correct an existing problem – because, as we learned through a great many court cases brought by the Trump administration, there simply was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. And there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in elections before that one, either.
Update 2-1-21: Dozens of former Bush officials (W.) quit the Republican Party calling it a Trump cult.
Update 2-4-21: Rep. Pfluger did not have to put his SSN on his ballot regarding House Leader Liz Cheney:
The conference voted 145-61 in a secret ballotUpdate 4-5-21: Texas Senator Bryan Hughes talked about the importance of the secret ballot in Texas while a new proposed law allows poll watches to video voters getting assistance.
