A long time friend from northern Italy asked what was going on in Washington after seeing the scenes on his TV.  This was my reply.  This is not a religious commentary as per usual, just my take on the division and frustration in the US today.

Roberto,
Your well wishes for America are appreciated. Your prayers would help also.

HISTORY

The United States of America is a country different from other republics in the world.

In the 1700s, the English wrested most of the territory which would become the U.S. from the French.

The original 13 colonies of England on the North American continent were New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, all along the Atlantic Ocean seaboard.

England granted land rights in the 1600s to various men or groups to establish colonies here because of religious differences, economic reasons, among others.

When the descendants of the colonists felt oppressed by the king in taxes, conscription of men for soldiers, and on, the colonists revolted in 1776.

In 1783 the war was over and 13 colonies became 13 independent states, just as your country Italy is an independent state now after its unification. (I’m not so sure anymore with the EU and all its laws and regulations.)

The confederation of states was not working well, so a constitutional congress was formed to write a constitution to which all 13 states had to agree in order to become united.

To elect a president, each state sends a specified number of electors according to their population. The founders did this to keep single large populated states like New York and Virginia at that time from controlling the rest of the country such as California, New York, Texas and Florida would be able to do today.

The federal government in the beginning had little power and influence over the individual states.

When that power grew, some states felt oppressed and rebelled in 1860 for a civil war of 5 years.

From this time forward, the federal government of senators from the states, representatives of the states, with the president grew stronger. In the early 1900s an income tax amendment ratified by 2/3 of the states allowed the federal government to tax income from earnings and spend the peoples’ hard-earned money according to the government’s desire.

After two world wars the federal power grew even more with this money and federal laws.

The two political parties were not much different, Republicans more business oriented, and Democrats more worker oriented, but with common goals for building up the country.

In the last eight years that has changed. Just as Europe is socialist, many younger people in the U.S. wish the government to control our lives, our economy, religion, schools, what we say and do, how we think, open borders, yielding our sovereignty to the UN or to international treaties.

For a treaty to be valid in the U.S., our Senators must ratify it; otherwise it is merely an agreement that has no binding power.

President Trump broke much of those non-biding unratified treaties in his 4 years. He removed us from unsigned treaties like the Paris Climate Accord, certain international trade treaties, kept out those who tried to invade our country from all over the world, removed internal regulations by bureaucrats who took it upon themselves to interpret laws from our congress (just like the EU does to its member states), lowered our taxes, rebuilt our defense system, challenged Communists in China to stop stealing our intellectual property, to trade fairly, and in general gave power to the people as was intended by the founders who ratified our constitution in 1787.

Never was it the founders’ intent to impose restrictions on business, movement, speech, religion, etc. as socialism and communism do in the world.

People in government are enriched way beyond their salaries, both those elected and the bureaucrats. President Trump threatened both their power and their access to extra money, returning power to those of us who are not elites in government. This power, money and bureaucracy spread to universities, churches, particularly the Catholic Church through the bishops’ conferences, and all aspects of society where money could be given.

Thus many entities including the Catholic Church fought against him for four years. They failed in every way to oust him through false accusations and manipulation of government.

ELECTIONS IN THE US

Every four years on the first Tuesday of November an election is held for the president, vice president, all the representatives of congress, and some of the senators (this rotates because they are elected in their states at different times.)

Each state legislature only (not governor nor other officials) has election law power granted by the constitution to regulate and promote voting.

When a citizen (only U.S. citizens may vote) registers to vote, most states require some identification like a driver’s license, a signature which can be matched to the vote recorded on the day of voting to assure that it is indeed the person who signed the registration card.

When we come to the polls to vote our signature is taken after our ballot is completed, and later the signature is matched to the card to assure fairness.

If we cannot be present (as I could not be this year because I was in California helping other priests in their churches), we may request an absentee ballot by filling out a form, showing some identification (ID) like a driver’s license, and stating why we cannot vote in person.

A ballot is mailed to us then. After filling it out, most states demand a signature on the envelope so that fairness be assured that the person voting is indeed the one who requested the ballot. The election officials are supposed to match the signature on the ballot envelope to the voter’s real signature.

The U.S. has had election fraud just like any third world country. This year it was manifest beyond all others. We are as bad as any banana republic in the world now.

The voting rolls in the counties of most states have not been cleaned out of the names of deceased people, people who have moved to other places. In addition those ineligible to vote have presented themselves as citizens and given ballots without question.

Ballots were requested in the name of deceased people, filled out, and counted without signature verification.

No ID was required when a person arrived at the polling place to vote.

Because of Covid a very few legislatures and some governors or secretaries of state sent mail ballots to everyone, registered or not. Only the state legislature has the right to command this according to the voting laws.

More people voted than were registered in many states. People who were not registered in a state voted in that state as well.

On election night, President Trump was leading by huge margins in a number of states. Those states, all with Democrat control in the large population centers, stopped counting for the evening. This never is done. Suddenly the next morning huge numbers of ballots were unloaded from trucks. Many of them had votes only for Joseph Biden and not the other candidates on the ballot.

The electronic vote counters also were questionable in counting extra votes for Biden.

This last election had so much voter fraud that it cancels out the honest votes of people like me and those who follow the voting laws.

Yesterday you saw the frustration unleashed by those whose voting rights were trampled upon by corrupt people who will secure the election for their candidate through fraud.

Most of us Americans do not want socialism as Europe is living it. We do not want bureaucrats or elected officials interfering in our daily lives.

We will see what becomes of our 250 year experiment as a republic now under socialist control.

By the way my Italian friend, do not fall under the oppression of a Germany or a Russia again. The U.S. no longer will be able to rescue you.

The above comes from an email sent on January 7 by Father Richard Perozich, former priest of the Diocese of San Diego.