Tales Of Our Times

By JOHN BARTLIT
New Mexico Citizens
for Clean Air & Water

National politics displays parts of long-standing problems facing the nation. Biggies that lie in the weeds include immigration, infrastructure projects, police relations, race relations, and voting security.

Instead, party chiefs and backers furnish news leads listing reasons the other party is the worse choice to vote for. Each party hopes their leads without answers will heighten their own power in Congress.

All the while, the pursuits of governance creep at a snail’s pace. Today’s column deals with the extent to which the business of governing has given way to party strategies and how far apart these similar terms have strayed.

Voting matters. Both parties agree our democracy depends on voting systems being secure and reliable. As politics will do, this common goal sends the parties on diverging paths. And each party’s leads deal in mud more than improved answers, as follows:

Catch the news. Party lingo on voting systems is a contest of slogans—i.e., “Stop the steal” says the right vs. “The big lie” from the left. To fuel the “stop the steal” campaign, allies of former president Donald Trump often claimed intentional defects were built into certain voting machines.

Strict remedies require fair proof that deceit harmed business. The business of voting machines is at work now in a series of lawsuits filed by Dominion Voting Systems Corporation against allies of Trump. Underway are three lawsuits for $1.3 billion each for libel (falsely defaming) of Dominion’s voting machines and systems. The world market for voting systems is big business, which takes a hit from faulty campaign claims. So companies seek redress for the harm done them.

Lawsuits are never won by quoting “stop the steal” or “the big lie.” Not even close. Trials follow a pattern entirely different from politics. A trial is thoroughly designed to verify evidence fairly.

Trials are outside our daily milieu, so their methods go unnoticed. Let’s see. Chairs over here are filled with a team poised to argue through witnesses and documents following rules of evidence. This team seeks to make the best possible case – to prove –that the accused is guilty as charged. Chairs over there are filled with others poised to test that proof and make the best case that the accused is not guilty or is less guilty than charged. Pivotal business records must be released. Witnesses must answer every question asked them about their testimony, or admit what they don’t know. Questions asked must be relevant to the issue and all proceedings have strict controls for fairness. News items are not legal evidence, since courts have no way of asking about facts the reporter omitted. All court rules are immediately enforced by the judge.

Partisans are leery of the long-standing rules in court. The billion dollar trials will focus bright new light on the public value of fairly tested evidence vs. “Talk Show” evidence. Each party wants to control the public mindset, which starts worries that the stony fairness in court might smudge their slogan. Trends of today prefer news leads steered by the parties. As a result, political strategies stray farther and farther from rationales that speed progress in every other field of endeavor.

The lawsuits on voting systems will yield more understanding of the whole truth of voting methods and accounting than will ever be clear from partisan leads or party-led investigations. The courtroom process will confirm more truth soundly and do it quicker than party politics has designs for. A Talk Show builds its case out of phrases from media notables picked by one party only. Contrast this process with facts cross-checked inside a courtroom.

Any given Talk Show carries weight with one party or other, but not both. The courtroom’s more evenhanded process highlights just how far parties have slid backwards in their business. The parties have spent decades letting the framework of the nation rust out. The metaphor is real.