Billed as a nonpartisan television program by ABC-TV, set to air on Monday, September 14, “VOMO: Vote or Miss Out,” is really a thinly disguised promotion by that network to get more votes out for Democratic Party candidates in November, particularly Joe Biden. In reality, it is a multimillion-dollar campaign contribution for the Biden for President campaign, although, of course, it will not be recorded as such on any Federal Election Commission (FEC) report.
First of all, the lineup consists of highly partisan Democrats (the program is produced by “When We All Vote,” a nonprofit organization led by Michelle Obama), and a few Republicans who have mostly opposed President Donald Trump. For example, Ann Romney — the wife of the only Republican in the U.S. Senate who voted to remove Trump from office — is set to appear. Her husband, Senator Mitt Romney, has been a consistent critic of the president.
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Other participants include Republicans who have been often identified as “RINOs,” such as former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, and the widow of Senator John McCain, Cindy McCain. Last year, Schwarzenegger responded, “I doubt it,” when asked if he would be supporting Trump for re-election, even offering that he “could” vote for Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
Republican Hogan has also indicated that he is undecided whether to support Trump’s re-election, after briefly considering mounting a Republican primary challenge to Trump. Hogan is pro-choice on abortion, opposed Trump’s withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord, and declined to accept any endorsement from the NRA after he signed gun-control legislation.
Trump’s differences with the late John McCain are well-known, so Cindy McCain’s appearance on the program can be viewed as another example of the anti-Trump nature of the pro-Biden purpose of the program.
Among the other special guests of the program are mostly known Democrats and leftists, such as Will Ferrell, a comedian who regularly ridicules conservatives and Republicans in his skits. He supported Senator Bernie Sanders in 2016, before switching to Hillary Clinton. Actress Scarlett Johansson supported Democratic presidential candidates back to 2004, including John Kerry, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton. In 2012, Johansson spoke to the Democratic National Convention, encouraging younger people to get more politically engaged.
This, of course, illustrates the purpose of the TV program — get more people to vote, thinking that a majority of these otherwise non-voters will support the Democratic Party candidate for president, former Vice President Joe Biden, over President Trump.
In case anyone has any doubt that the program is intended to help the chances of Biden against Trump, the master of ceremonies for the special is comedian Kevin Hart. Hart was a co-host of the MTV video music awards program in 2018, when he opened the show inviting the audience to kneel (in reference to Trump’s opposition to professional athletes kneeling during the National Anthem), saying, “There’s no old white man that can stop you.” He later added, “In your face, Trump — suck it!”
The ABC special encouraging a higher voter turn-out was created by online media outlet ATTN. Co-founder Matthew Segal, a frequent Trump critic, explained its purpose: “Voter participation is in ATTN’s DNA, and we hope that we can create an event that will speak to all generations, young and old, in a way that shows them that by engaging in the political process, we have an exceptional opportunity to have our voices and values reflected at every level of government.” Of course, the millions who voted for Trump in 2016 think their voices and values are being reflected right now, with better nominations to the federal courts, and his standing up to the globalists, the radical environmentalists, and the socialists.
Clearly, all of these people would not be participating in this ABC program if they thought it was going to get Donald Trump re-elected. The voices and values they want “reflected” are from those who will vote for bigger government and more government control of our lives.
Unfortunately, most of the media and the average person nods in agreement that encouraging people to vote — period — is a good thing. In fact, I have heard it said multiple times by local news anchors, “Tomorrow is election day. It doesn’t matter who you vote for, just so long as you vote.”
This is nonsense. If it were actually true that it doesn’t matter who you vote for, then voting would be pointless. Rather than encouraging citizens to mindlessly cast ballots, anyone who votes should be encouraged to first become better informed — informed about the candidates, the issues, and what are the principles of good government.
Why should anyone who respects the proper role of government encourage anyone to vote who is either ignorant of that proper role, or who is uninformed as to which candidate is the best choice to advance that proper role?
The will of the majority is not more important than the rights of individuals to enjoy liberty. Unrestrained democracy is simply two wolves and a sheep voting on what is for supper. That is why James Madison said in the Federalist Papers that the Constitution created a republic, not a democracy. Madison bluntly wrote that “democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property.” (For more information on the important differences between a republic and a democracy, see “A Republic, if You Can Keep It.”)
It is incomprehensible to think that Madison, Thomas Jefferson, or George Washington, or any of the Founding Fathers would have supported millions of individuals lacking morality or knowledge casting ballots. Urging people to vote on things that can affect the lives and livelihood of the rest of us, even if they have no morality or no knowledge of the principles of just government, is actually to be condemned, rather than praised. Asking an uninformed person to cast a ballot that would damage our nation is like asking a person to perform brain surgery who has never been taught how to do it. At least that person would only be hurting one person. An uninformed or immoral voter is hurting millions.
All government, including one selected via the ballot, should first protect the right to life, liberty, and property. As the Declaration of Independence states: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. — That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
While governments should have the consent of those being governed, even a democratically elected government should exercise only powers that are just. Just because the majority wants something does not make it right or moral.
And we can be certain that a TV program run by a bunch of progressives like Michelle Obama is not intended to help the cause of limited government.
Photo: cbies/iStock/Getty Images Plus
Steve Byas is an instructor of history and government, and the author of History’s Greatest Libels. He may be contacted at [email protected].
