By Joseph Catena
I am certainly not an election denier. I cannot deny it. It was obviously real, and Joe Biden has been the president for nearly four years. Every time I buy food, fill up my car and look at my paycheck, I really can’t deny who won that race. Gone are the days of $2-per-gallon gas. Gone are the days when I could feed my family of five on 200 bucks a week worth of food. And gone are the days when we could get by with one income in the household. Believe me, there is no denying Trump is gone from the Oval Office
But I am a questioner.
My questions stem from the many observations I made throughout that election season, Covid-19 notwithstanding. When Americans were finally allowed to gather and get out in society to socialize again, I was astonished how Trump’s rallies were as jampacked and fervent as ever. Tens of thousands of MAGA supporters came out to see their leader, and enthusiasm was tremendous.
On a personal note, I attended mini-Trump rallies in my home state of New Jersey. For the last five Saturdays before the election, I would join in with a flow of Trump supporters right on Route 18 South in East Brunswick. Numerous cars passing us would honk and beep and shout encouraging words as we waved our flags and cheered. Every now and then, angry haters would flip us the double bird or shout naughty words, but they were a ridiculously small minority. There was a lot of love on our side of the highway. And a lot of people.
During the final week of the rally, there were more than 700 people on our side of the highway. A local vendor donated pizzas. Music was blaring, and it was one big party. Across from us, on the northbound side were a handful of misfits. At their peak, they reached a grand total of 13 protesters. A couple waved Black Lives Matter signs. One or two had rainbow flags. There was also the young lady with mint green hair and large ear gauges. It was almost amusing. I remember turning to a fellow flag waver and said, “It’s weird to think we’re in New Jersey right now with this turnout.” For the record, East Brunswick is a Democrat stronghold where approximately 60 percent voted for Hilary Clinton in 2016. This scenario was a microcosm of a microcosm in New Jersey, and I was not expecting Trump to win.
But I was quite surprised to see that he lost by 16 points.
This led to my first election question. Since there were so many mail-in ballots sent to residents to protect them from germs within their six-foot social distance. One man, one vote. Unless you’re my friend’s daughter, Nina. She received one for herself and one for a dead in-law. An honest citizen, she only utilized her allotted one. But how many other N.J. residents had multiple ballots mailed to them? She could not have been the only one. And how many other Honest Abes – or Honest Ninas, did the right thing under the circumstances?
Back to the rallies. Trump seemed to be in a groove, attracting massive crowds and getting America back on track. Biden literally hid in a bunker. While Trump was out with the people, anywhere in the tens of thousands, Biden was going virtual. When Biden did finally go back outside, he was masked and socially distanced. At one of his outdoor rallies in Pennsylvania, it looked more like a neighborhood get together. Masks and social distancing added a surreal effect. It appeared as though more haystacks and pigeons were on hand than people. The aforementioned scenarios represented both men throughout their campaigns. With so much enthusiasm on one side and such stealth support on the other, it led me to my next question: how the hell did such paltry turnouts and such low outward enthusiasm draw 81 million people to the polls?
My third question was more than just my eyes seeing something that did not make sense to me. It occurred on election night. One might recall there were more than just seven swing states back in 2020. Florida, Ohio, and North Carolina were also in that purple mix. When the press declared that Trump won all three states, my sense was the election was his. It was getting late, but who can really sleep on election night? I was determined to stay up to the bitter end. No reason America should not know who the next president is.
Then came the great stall.
For some reason, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Michigan stopped counting. Ironically, when everyone in America was told to find their pillows and get some shuteye, Donald Trump was winning all four states. Four states that carried 60 electoral votes. When everyone woke up on Wednesday, November 4, the numbers slowly started to turn. As the day wore on, the numbers magically turned a deficit for Joe Biden into a lead and then, a victory. Hmmm…
Speaking of Georgia, another question comes to mind. On the morning of Election Day, a pipe burst in State Farm Arena, which caused a four-hour delay in processing election ballots. Supposedly, none were harmed. But absentee ballot counters were sent home that evening at 10:30, for whatever reason, with the outcome not yet decided.
We haven’t even touched the Democrats’ manipulation with ballot harvesting or how the media was beyond biased – according to Media Tenor, CBS weekly evening newscasts between June 22 and November 3, 2020 gave Joe Biden 98 percent positive news coverage. Conversely, CBS gave Trump 8 percent positive coverage.
While I do not deny the end result of the 2020 presidential election, I sure as hell won’t be satisfied or convinced it was legitimate until my questions are really answered.