Recently, I had a discussion with a dear friend from recovery here in the Toledo area who is a strong Trump supporter. Being how relatively neutral I’ve been throughout this entire election process, I felt comfortable enough to ask them how they felt post-election. I didn’t expect the conversation to last as long as it did, much of which they talked about their belief that the entire voting process was fraudulent. They had strong arguments surrounding it all, which I really tried to remain neutral about, but eventually I opted not to. Before I talk about that though, I want to briefly take the time to be politically outspoken for once, being how I’m normally so very apolitical.
When Hilary Clinton lost in 2016, she gracefully called Donald Trump and conceded, wishing him the best. Although she won the popular vote, she failed to secure enough votes in the electoral college, something that continues to bother me with our Presidential voting process, but alas that discussion is for another time and day. Nevertheless, there wasn’t much talk of conspiracies or fraudulent voting back then, not from Hilary, nor from the majority of her constituents, of which I really wasn’t one of, but then again, I wasn’t much of a Trump supporter either. Oh, and in case you may be wondering in light of that information, I’m registered Independent. Anyway, over the past year, as an Independent, I’ve watched without taking sides our President constantly speak of his worries of fraudulent voting, especially via mail-in ballots. When election night finally arrived, while Trump was showing a lead, mail-in ballots and provisional ballots hadn’t been factored in yet, but as soon as they began to, showing Biden taking over the lead, Trump started to claim fraud, believing there was no way he should be losing. His denial via claim of voter fraud has now convinced many of his avid fanbase that it must be true, which is exactly what my dear Trump friend told me in our extended discussion. While no voting fraud has actually been proven at the time of me writing this article, which is about a week ago now, what is true is that it doesn’t matter whether there was fraud or wasn’t, because all it has created is massive doubt, anger, judgments, and plenty of increased negativity in an already unsettled and negative-feeling nation. Even worse, it’s now also cast shade on President-elect Biden, something that my friend was doing at points during our conversation, which is specifically what led me to move out of remaining neutral. When I did, I quoted a passage from the Bible in Matthew 7:3-4.
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye. How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? (NIV)
Look, I know how easy it is to throw shade on someone, pointing the finger, especially when things aren’t going the way our minds think they should be going. But to judge this entire voting process, claiming it’s fraudulent and then pointing out specks in it or President-elect Biden’s eyes is going against the very core beliefs that the Bible tells followers of Christ to live.
How many of us have been fraudulent in some way in our lives? Has any of us actually been 100% truthful throughout our entire lives? I can’t imagine any of us have been. Thus, pointing the finger at Biden, or the Democratic party, or this voting process and saying it’s all fraudulent, when we ourselves have committed our own cases of fraud at various points in our lives is being hypocritical.
I’ll be the first to be honest and say, I’ve been fraudulent. I’ve led people on, made people believe things that I knew not to be true, convinced them of things to get my way, lied more times than I can count, and became guilty in so many ways because of it all. Yet, I often pointed out the speck others eyes never once looking at the plank in my own. All that did was create more division and left me lacking any real integrity. Thankfully, I’ve worked hard to change that and honestly wish all those who still support Trump would do the same. I wish each would look at their own actions and past transgressions, at their own potential fraud, rather than to continue pointing negative fingers at this election and ultimately of Biden.
My sole French-Canadian friend asked me very recently, “What the hell is wrong with my country?” What’s wrong isn’t a potentially fraudulent election, or a wrongly-elected President, or the Republican or Democratic party, or any of those political conspiracies either. We are what’s wrong. We’re the problem. Because we keep pointing our fingers outward, over and over again, failing to ever look in the mirror at our own cases of fraud.
Can you actually say you’ve never lied, cheated, stolen, or ever lived in any sort of dishonesty in your life? Can you truly say you’ve never been fraudulent on any level to anyone or anything? I most assuredly can’t say that and instead will most assuredly say that I have been fraudulent towards plenty of others in my life. So, the only thing I should be doing is looking in the mirror at the plank in my own eye, which if you know me, or regularly read my blog, then you know I try to do just that.
When we all truly stop believing the problem in this country is in things like our leadership, potential voting fraud, conspiracies, or in anything else outside of us, maybe then our country will finally become a truly united nation. Until then, believing in things like voting fraud, political conspiracies, and angrily judging the other political side or the new President is only going to continue leaving us all as a very divided nation and a country in turmoil.
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
