Aside from matters related to baseball (e.g., that the DH sucks), I don’t often agree with my conservative friend, Paul Ogden. I disagree, in part, with his recent blog (Ogden on Politics) on the Justice Department’s Legal Challenge to Georgia’s Election Law.

He wrote: “The worst thing about the lawsuit is that it contributes to the Democratic delusion of focusing on the casting of votes when the Democrats should be focused on the counting of those votes.” Mr Ogden is correct when he says we need to monitor counting of votes.

2020 was clean, per GOP election officials and trump’s AG Barr. But trump can’t win unless he cheats. We need to: (1) ensure everyone eligible to vote is registered and (2) take down barriers created to block people from voting. Elections should be won on issues, not games.

On D-Day in 1944, the Allies attacked on the beach, with air cover and with artillery from warships. Troops came ashore IN NUMBERS. Many knew they would not live to see June 7, 1944. As was true then, we have to show up at the polls IN NUMBERS.

After the Civil War, harassment and violence were used to deprive former slaves and their descendants of rights, especially the right to vote, guaranteed under The Constitution. In 1954 SCOTUS said all people really have equal rights, like The Constitution says.

Some people (e.g., George Wallace) did not get the message. In the 1960s Congress enacted statutes to ensure the civil; rights of all people were protected. This worked out well for the majority of the American people, but not so much for white supremacists.

Advertising people were pivotal in Richard Nixon’s 1968 campaign and his presidency. The right wing learned. Lee Atwater and his (vile) successors learned to label issues to maximize fear and the production of saliva from oral orifices. Label it and people don’t think.

Mr Ogden understands: a good baseball team focuses on all aspects (pitching, hitting, fielding, coaching, performance-enhancing drugs) to win a pennant. To defeat the evil that seeks to destroy this country, people need to act on every front.

People need to register to vote, make sure their registration is current, get all the required ID with them to vote and vote. We all need to act to make sure that trump’s crooks (who are not in the Bureau of Prisons) don’t steal it in the count.

It’s important that we vote out of, or prevent from taking, office all those who seek to destroy this 232-year-old experiment in democracy. Numbers are important. In “Casablanca,” Victor Lazlow said of his adversaries that even they couldn’t kill that fast. It’s that dire.