My parents once told me that there was a time when no one would eat tomatoes because they thought tomatoes were poisonous. I don’t know how they discovered the truth, but obviously the truth won the day because we buy them, grow them and eat them. A person might wonder why such a misconception could persist, but such misconceptions cannot only exist, they can thrive.

For example, George W. Bush had his own justice department investigate to see if election fraud was a problem. They found no problem. Then Donald Trump was concerned that Hillary Clinton received 3 million more votes than he did, so he also commanded an investigation looking for voter fraud found only 8 cases in the entire state out of millions of votes, and five of those were felons, who at the time could not vote but did not realize it.

Then one could perhaps look at the secretaries of state in our country, the judges in our country, the Supreme Court of our country who supervised or heard cases claiming irregularities in our last election. They too, found no problem. It seems there is one person whose claim of rampant voter fraud poisoned the tomatoes. The person and his claim were so powerful that both could incite an attack against our own government with the result of five deaths.

One day we will all realize that our election was not fraudulent. One day people will wonder how on earth anybody could believe they were. So nowe have Iowa cutting down he hours to vote, the days to vote, the voting depositories etc. and claiming that they are merely protecting the “integrity” of elections – those same elections that already have integrity.

However, as one of their lawyers explained to the Supreme Court in a case involving Arizona and voting suppression, the hurdles to voting were necessary and had to be implemented by Republican legislatures because otherwise Republicans would not be elected. Just a thought – perhaps if the Republican Party endorsed and enacted laws that were actually wanted by the voters, they would have no problem, and they would receive the votes they desire.

One could make the case that tomatoes and voter fraud are very different. They certainly are different. Tomatoes don’t threaten the very base of our democracy, and they don’t result in terrorism, insurrection, and death.