There was a momentous shift when we elected Donald Trump for the first time in 2016. His agenda took an introspective approach that drastically improved the lives of all Americans, reinvigorated the American Dream, and reminded us of our own self-sovereignty. International trade deals were negotiated fairly, no new wars began, Native charter schools opened, and we finally stood up to China.
On November 3rd, as we voted in droves to re-elect President Trump, we, as well as Democrat voters, knew that he was well on his way to serving his second term. He had high approval ratings with Republicans after all. Months before, I saw the Trump Campaign’s strategic approach; registering so many new Republican voters, reenergizing previous Republican voters, and launching coalitions, including the Native Americans for Trump where I proudly served as an advisory board member.
Today, sworn affidavits tell us that thousands of dead people voted, reams of pristine prefilled undervote (single vote) ballots were counted, USBs were handed-off suspiciously, suitcases of votes were used, ballots were counted more than twice, GOP poll watchers were blocked from viewing the vote-counting process, and algorithms were manipulated to ensure a victory for Biden.
I will also point out that many federal agencies serving Native American populations did a disservice to the Trump Administration by not highlighting the many wins for Indian country, adding fuel to the fire that Trump “didn’t do anything for us.”
Every day it seems, the Biden Campaign and mainstream media ram down our throats a socialist vision of America, and it’s terrifying. Can you imagine a cabinet with Tom Vilsack, John Kerry, and Xavier Barcerra? Old Obama Administration voices would bring us another presidency where more things get swept under the rug and crises go unnoticed. We are already seeing the media spoon-feeding us about Biden’s socks or how a pet cat will join the White House.
Unfortunately, many tribal leaders have fallen in line with Biden, with over 200 tribal and Native leaders endorsing Biden. I’ll never know why we want to return to the breadline so quickly. Native Americans were pushed out of Act Blue’s Black Lives Matter movement and told not to co-op their cause: which to me was a call to riot and burn down Black and brown businesses, including one of our Native American urban centers.
Native people are not a monolith, we are conservative, we are pro-life, we love our land (because we are of the land), we hunt, and many of us are led by Christ Alone. These values are Trump GOP values. As a reminder, Trump provided long-term funding for Native languages, gave more decision-making powers to tribes regarding their natural resources, land development, and conservation.
Trump brought entrepreneurship, business ownership, domestic energy independence, meaningful work to secure our southern border, and a booming economy that benefited all Americans, especially Indian gaming tribes and those seeking a job. During the ongoing pandemic, the Trump Administration immediately funded the Indian Health Service, tribal clinics, urban and rural HRSAs in March, and directly to tribal nations only to be stalled by lawsuits from large tribes. Many tribal citizens still have not seen CARES Act funding as it is being held in the hands of tribal councils, parsing it out to only those who can “prove” hardship.
The United States will cozy up with China and disrupt the Middle East’s progress if Biden were to become the president. We would rejoin the Paris Climate Accord, which reopens our wallets to benefit Europe and Asia.
The mainstream media tells the voter irregularities story as “unfounded,” “baseless,” “with no evidence,” and “disputes widespread fraud.” I will agree there wasn’t a single widespread tactic used, but the fraud was certainly diverse, various, single, and grouped. All options were put on the table by the Democrats to secure an illegitimate win.
Although this is nothing new, we’ve all heard of election stories using dead voters, ballot stuffing, counting ballots twice; this should be something we as Americans are never okay with. We cannot shrug our shoulders and say, “well, that’s democracy for you.”
Trump, his legal team, and our prayers will secure his win in court, but it didn’t have to be that way. We should know, with confidence that our vote does actually matter, that our vote is sacred, and it reelected President Trump.
Michael Woestehoff (Navajo) is a multi-industry consultant based in Washington, DC, and serves as an advisory board member for the Native Americans for Trump coalition