Editorial: The Time to Act is Now

It cannot be stated too strongly that this nation remains at a grave risk for losing its cherished democracy to totalitarian thugs who are dedicated to just that outcome. This is an urgent issue on a number of levels, not the least of which is the ongoing ability of hostile foreign powers to mess with the outcome of our elections, including the critically-important midterm elections this November.

Virginia’s U.S. Sen. Mark Warner spoke directly to this threat in his opening statement at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing yesterday. He also penned a strongly-worded commentary in yesterday’s edition of the USA Today newspaper. There, he wrote in the context of the debate to prevent foreign intervention in this November’s elections that he’s released 20 proposals this week as “a good starting point for a debate on the future of our nation’s technology policy.” He asked, “Should public interest researchers have access to closely-held company data so that they can help identify problems early? Should data be portable and systems interoperable, allowing users to take their accounts to a competitor without losing all their content? Should the platforms be held responsible in some way for removing provably false content?” concluding “Government must have some role in answering these important questions, but it must also make sure regulation doesn’t stifle innovation.”

Meanwhile, a report came from a computer nerd conference this week that the most sophisticated electoral voting systems we have were effectively hacked in less than two hours.

Time is running out for the November elections, which could be our last shot at preserving our democracy if they don’t go the way they should. It is a huge uprising of women, minority and young people that will be required, and there is strong evidence that this is what will be coming. It is desperately needed to stem the tide of the dark forces aligned with the current president whose attacks on a free press, the First Amendment cornerstone of our democracy, and his other abominations make it appear he is bent on supplanting American democracy with a cult-like tyranny.

Those who would corrupt this November’s elections are aligned with this president’s dark designs. Of this there can be no doubt, based on the evidence.

There are just three months left before this day of reckoning will be at hand. The children and grandchildren of every American will one day be asking what their parents and grandparents did to stand up to the threat before us right now, no matter which outcome prevails. “What did you do in the war, daddy? Mommy?”

Yes, all the cliches apply to these times that “try men’s (and women’s) souls.” Don’t be left wanting, because if wanting is the shape you wind up in, then life on this planet will have come far too close to extinction for any to survive, and it will be too late for corrective action.