By Dan Spalding
InkFreeNews

WARSAW – In a move that would have been hard to imagine just a few years ago, a handful of area lawmakers (all Republicans) declined Friday to admit Joe Biden was the legitimate winner in the 2020 presidential election.

Editor’s Note: The thoughts found in this weekly columnare an expression of opinion by the author andnot necessarily the opinion of InkFreeNews.

During the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce’s legislative update Friday, Feb. 26, held online with five lawmakers, InkFree posed a two-part question: Who won the 2020 U.S. presidential election and was this the legitimate result of a free and fair election?

Lawmakers participating included Reps. Craig Snow and Curt Nisly; and Sens. Blake Doriot, Ryan Mishler and Stacey Donato.

The question is certainly newsworthy in light of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection by supporters of Donald Trump who contend – without any evidence – that the election was stolen.

Doriot was quick to speak up after the question was posed by Chamber CEO Rob Parker. He questioned if the election was legit.

“I’ll bite,” Doriot said. “Being a good Republican, I don’t really appreciate the individual who won.”

He pointed to what he calls “the questionable balloting” coming out of Detroit and Philadelphia.

“Unfortunately, in my view, the president is Joe Biden and I think there should be an asterisk by his name like they do with a lot of sports records,” Doriot said.

Parker then asked the other four lawmakers to offer their opinions on the issue, which led to an awkward silence.

Crickets.

Obviously, everyone is entitled to their opinions, but the lack of willingness to admit Biden won after a 7 million-vote victory is dangerous and irresponsible.

Our nation is a political tinderbox right now and failing to stand up and be honest only adds fuel and legitimacy to what is commonly known as The Big Lie.

I’m guessing the Poli (Sigh) Naysayers out there will point out that many Democrats didn’t think Trump’s 2016 victory was legit (it was), but the difference is Dems did not try to interfere with the Democratic process of installing a new president and sure as hell did not kill anyone.

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ALL-IN – U.S. Rep. Jim Banks seems eager to use unease over the election to tighten voting restrictions. He’s supporting a bill sponsored By Sen. Rick Scott that would, among other things, prohibit automatic voter registration, bar the use of unmonitored ballot collection boxes and would require that absentee ballots are received by the close of Election Day. The bill, known as The Save Democracy Act, pertains to federal elections.

“We have a crisis of faith in our electoral process, and maybe Congress’s most important job in 2021 is to restore that trust. The Save Democracy Act is a way for Congress to go beyond reassurance and prove that our elections are secure. Americans know common-sense reforms like citizenship verification and poll-watchers will make our elections safer,” said Banks, who now serves as Republican Study Committee Chairman, a platform that allows him to speak and help develop Republican policy priorities.

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PERSEVERANCE – PBS has an amazing documentary looking at the Mars rover known as Perseverance, which touched down earlier this month. While all the details about the mission are something to behold, there was another nugget that was just as startling.

Growing up and watching the Appolo missions, it was always striking that all of the NASA’s personnel at Mission Control were all older white guys with crew cuts and white shirts.

The PBS special featured numerous experts on the mission. Many were much younger, some were women and it was clearly a very diverse group.

That’s what I call the Perseverance of the American Dream.

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FLAG STATUS – If you lowered the U.S. Flag in honor of the 500,000 who died from COVID-19, it’s time to raise the flag again. Gov. Eric Holcomb’s directive ended at sunset Friday.

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Dan Spalding is the editor at InkFreeNews.com.
He covers city government and politics and always welcomes your input.