Martha's Vineyard and the Quest for Democracy

By: Frank Yunker

Date: 2024-08-05

The quadrennial Martha's Vineyard presidential survey took place in July 2020 and it showed not only the weakness of the Democratic candidate, but also the narrative going forward. A survey of the island showed a dismal 2 signs for Biden-Harris. Sure, that beat the 1 flag for Donald Trump, but the 2 signs for Biden were only 20 feet apart. If a Democrat candidate cannot get the support of the whole island of Martha's Vineyard, then they've got a problem.

Of course, that problem was evident during the June Trump-Biden debate, which settled the "Is Biden cognitively impaired?" debate once and for all. It took 90 minutes to convince the Democrat rank-and-file and another 3 weeks to convince Jill Biden and the rest of the team who are actually running the government.

Which makes all the more ironic the most popular political lawn side of 2024 in Martha's Vineyard. "Only You & I Can Save Democracy" was the mantra on 8 signs across the island, far outstripping the popularity of the Biden-Harris ticket. What did it all mean? Save Democracy by voting for Biden one might presume.

So, we're going to save democracy by voting for a cognitively impaired individual so that a shadow government of unelected officials can pull the levers of power?

No, wait! Let's save democracy by switching candidate at the last minute to someone who did not get any votes in the 2024 primary. That'll save democracy, for sure!

It seems unlikely that the Martha's Vineyard folks meant let's save democracy by electing a man who believes only citizens should vote. By electing a man who believes we shouldn't stop counting on election night, kick every observer out and then start counting again. By electing a man who believes mail-in drop boxes should be banned because by their nature cannot verify chain-of-custody of the vote.

Integrity in elections save democracy. Attempting to jail your political opponent on fake trumped-up charges is not the way to save democracy.