CG Interview: California Rep. Tom McClintock Warns About One Party Seizing Control of Elections Process

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

Following California Globe’s interview July 22, with U.S. Representative Tom McClintock (R-CA), he played a major role in the House Judiciary Committee hearing July 24, and questioned White House Special Counsel Robert Mueller on the report of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and the question of whether President Trump obstructed justice.

“Having desperately tried and failed to make a legal case against the president, you made a political case instead. You put it in a paper sack, lit it on fire, dropped it on our porch, rang the doorbell and ran.” Rep. McClintock said to Mueller at the hearing. McClintock noted Mueller refused to explain why critical details that are in the underlying evidence were not reflected in the report.

Following the hearing, McClintock did an NPR interview with Mary Louise Kelly. “So I hear you’re saying you still have questions,” Kelly said. “There are more details that you would like to add to the record here. I’m hearing other Republicans say case closed, end of story. Can we not all move on already? Where does this leave things?” she asked.

“Oh, the case is certainly not closed,” McClintock said. “Don’t forget. You have the inspector general that will be issuing the report very soon on the whole origin of this claim backed up by the Steele dossier that the president was colluding with the Russians. We now know the Steele dossier was a complete fabrication.”

This is important because during our interview, Rep. Tom McClintock expressed his serious concern about the direction of the country. “If Democrats take the Senate and White House next year, they will abuse cloture” – the Senate rule that requires 60 votes before a bill can be considered. “They are not fools.” The cloture process limits debate on any bill or motion before the Senate. Cloture allows a majority leader to “push past a recalcitrant minority,” the Pew Research Center says.

“The first bill they would pass is H.R. 1, to regulate election laws. In House floor remarks on H.R. 1 in March, McClintock addressed how Democracies die. “In America, the people are the sovereign and they govern through the votes they cast.  At the very core of this process is fair and free elections,” McClintock said. “Democracies die when one party seizes control of the elections process, eliminates the safeguards that have protected the integrity of the ballot, places restrictions on free speech, and seizes the earnings of individual citizens to promote candidates they may abhor.”

That is precisely the bill.  “It destroys the bi-partisan composition of the Federal Elections Commission and places a partisan majority in control of every aspect of our federal elections.  It imposes limits on free speech that has earned the opposition of the American Civil Liberties Union.”

McClintock referred to Abraham Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech. “Abraham Lincoln warned us that “a house divided against itself cannot stand.”  He went on to say, “I do not expect the house will fall; but I do expect it will cease to be divided.  It must become all one thing or all the other.”

McClintock continued: “Lincoln realized that two antithetical principles were then vying for the future of the nation.  The two could not co-exist and they could not be compromised or reconciled.  In his day, those principles were freedom and slavery.  In our day, they are freedom and socialism.  In a very real sense, our society has returned to the same crossroads that gave birth to this party and to the administration of the man we honor today.”

“I think people would be stunned at how fast we could be surrendering our freedoms,” he added. “Once it is lost, it is very difficult to get back.”

“Worst of all, H.R.1 undermines the integrity of the ballot and opens the floodgates to fraud.  The purpose of registration periods is to allow parties to canvass the rolls and challenge improper registrations, while assuring candidates know exactly who’s voting.  The reason we require election-day voting at a polling place is to assure voters cast their ballots in secret, AFTER they had heard the entire debate and AFTER verifying their identity to their neighbors.  This bill sweeps away these few remaining vestiges of ballot integrity.”

McClintock said in 2016, the American people voted at a pivotal moment in the life of our country to “make America great again.” He said President Donald Trump has fulfilled his campaign promises to revive the economy, balance the budget, secure our borders, and rescue our healthcare system. “To accomplish these goals, voters provided Republicans all the necessary tools: majorities in both houses of Congress and the presidency.”

McClintock warned that the middle class is getting pushed out, particularly in California where the outbound migration is 150,000 per year, for the last 30 years. He said a financial advisor he knows well analyzed California’s outbound migration, and the economics of the wealthy and poor in the state. According to the financial advisor, those in California who have $500,000 of annual income are fine, and will not suffer despite California’s increasing regulations and taxes. Those who earn $50,000 or less have social services and government assistance to help them, and they don’t pay much in income taxes. However, it’s everyone else in the middle, the Legislatures’ policies are hurting, and that’s a very sizable group.

Part III: McClintock on California’s untapped energy, water and the Burns-Porter Act of 1958,  Jerry Brown