DECEMBER 17, 2021, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A7
The so-called plot to
fix the 2024 election
PUBLIC SQUARE welcomes all points of view. Published submissions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Keizertimes
Meeting about schools
was an eye-opener
By ANDREA SMITH
I am a parent of a current student in the
Salem Keizer School District. I have lived
in the Salem area for the past seven years.
I grew up in New York City and Chicago.
This week I attended a meeting being
held and promoted by two local organiza-
tions: SK We Stand Together, and Oregon
Moms Union. As I did not grow up in the
area nor attend the local schools here, I
appreciated the Oregon Moms Union’s
advertisement and blurb of who they are
and what they do (they presented inclusiv-
ity, a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.
and photos including diversity). I showed
up and quickly found myself surrounded
by about 30 people without masks on, in
a closed room above a bowling alley in
Keizer.
Current schoolboard member Dr. Satya
Chandragiri was present, maskless. There
were current Salem-Keizer school prin-
cipals and teachers, maskless. I quickly
learned that this was a very far-right group.
Though it was advertised as non-partisan,
quick reference was made to Democrats
and Republicans. Dr. Chandragiri was a
key speaker, who provided his card and
personal assistance to all. Dr Chandragiri
shared that it’s important to find ways
to skirt around the current laws. I found
this meeting was absolutely partisan
in nature. Another current schoolboard
member Marty Heyen was in attendance,
unmasked.
Chandragiri gave his entire speech
unmasked—which included making com-
parisons to the abuses the Native commu-
nities have faced regarding the abusive
Native boarding schools—to the fact we
are not allowing God in our schools today.
He also clearly stated that the intergener-
ational trauma that the Native Americans
have lived through, is exactly the same as
these Christian families’ children having
a checkbox on a test that gives the option
Guest
COLUMN
of transgender or non-binary.
Dr. Chandragiri was stoking these
folk's fears at worst, knowing full well
exactly what he was doing. I was horrified.
One parent shared that their son feels like
he is being forced to be transgender while
in a classroom with a pride flag on the
wall. The parent then explained that his
son “returned to normal” as soon as he left
the classroom.
I would like Satya Chandragiri investi-
gated for his ties to these far-right groups.
He was doing harm to our community and
continues to by allying with very harmful
and fearful rhetoric. I believe he needs to
resign, or we need him out of a position
of power.
I also did not expect to have litera-
ture handed out by these folks from The
Heritage Foundation. Can a resolution be
made that standing board members and
anyone having to do with our schools not
use the offensive information provided
by The Heritage Foundation, for starters?
And they called sex education “Marxism."
Is this actually happening? Why are
these folks in positions of power? If folks
like these continue to be in positions of
power in Salem/Keizer, the children are
going suffer. I am of the mindset that reli-
gion and school should be separate. I am
also of the mindset that exposing a child
to folks who live different lifestyles than
they do can only be a good, positive thing.
To think these are the folks in charge of
things, the teachers, principals, school-
board chair members, it makes me very
worried.
(Andrea Smith lives in Salem.)
By DEBRA J. SAUNDERS
Most Americans don’t stay up nights
worrying about “voting rights” reforms in
the belief that they are needed to eliminate
what progressives call “barriers to voting.”
A September Morning Consult poll
found that 44% of U.S. adults believe vot-
ing rules are not strict enough, while “only”
one-third believe it’s too difficult for eligible
Americans to cast their ballots.
Yet big media are obsessed with stories
about GOP attempts to make it difficult to
vote, even if most voters don’t see a big
problem.
In The Atlantic, Pulitzer Prize winner
Barton Gellman writes of a “plot” to steal
the 2024 election. “Thousands of votes will
be thrown away, or millions, to produce the
required effect,” he predicts. “The winner
will be declared the loser. The loser will be
certified president-elect.”
Trump’s Next Coup Has Already Begun,
the headline reads.
The next presidential election is three
years away, and already leftists are concoct-
ing dubious reasons they could lose. They’re
already writing pre-conspiracy screeds.
Note that when the conservatives chal-
lenge how elections are conducted, the
media lament that the right is undermining
public faith in elections.
When progressives do likewise, it’s like a
tree falling in the woods with no one there.
In her new book, Rigged: How the
Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized
Our Elections, Fox News regular Mollie
Hemingway quotes Democratic pols
who claim the 2016 election was “stolen.”
(Hillary Clinton said that.)
In 2019, former President Jimmy Carter
told NPR, “Trump didn’t actually win the
election.” You don’t see a lot of fact checks
or stories about election “misinformation”
from these sore losers.
The real misinformation, Hemingway
points out, was the false story about Russia
colluding with the Trump campaign—which
Special Counsel Robert Mueller did not
find—and the impeachment efforts, based
on the bogus Russian collusion fiction, that
followed.
Hemingway catalogues the various ways
Democrats gamed COVID-19 to increase
voting by mail and extend when people
could vote and where. At the same time,
signature verification and other safeguards
were relaxed. Ahead of the November gen-
eral election, 39 states changed their elec-
tion laws or rules.
When it was over, Biden won.
My view: They changed the rules in
the light of day. It was the campaigns’ job
other
VOICES
to adjust accordingly. That’s the American
way.
But when Republicans try to peel back
the changes also in the light of day, Gellman
sees “election theft.”
Not a coincidence: President Joe Biden’s
poll numbers are underwater with 52% dis-
approval and 42.3% approval, according to
the latest RealClearPolitics polling average.
Americans disapprove of his handling of
the economy, the coronavirus, immigra-
tion, foreign policy and the direction of the
country.
At the end of a very long and tor-
tured piece, Gellman concedes that for-
mer President Donald Trump or another
Republican could win a fair election in 2024.
He uses the word “coup” anyway.
Trump likewise threw shade at the elec-
toral process, even though he won in 2016.
In 2017, Trump named an election integ-
rity panel. It disbanded after six months
with no evidence of the fraud Trump had
alleged.
Either election integrity meant little to
Trump or he was incapable of luring the
best people to fight bad actors. Or, most
likely, Trump just wanted something other
than himself to blame if he lost in 2020.
Which he did.
The next presidential election is three
years off, and already Democrats are con-
structing arguments that explain their loss:
They were outplayed by a ruthless team. If
only they hadn’t been so trusting.
But really, who would believe that?
(Creators Syndicate)
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