Shadows flicker across the cracked screen of an old laptop as I sit, hunched over, scrolling through election data that feels more like a riddle than a record. Nineteen million votes, gone, vanished like whispers in a storm, and I can’t shake the disbelief gnawing at me. These weren’t just numbers, they were people, folks who roared for Biden in 2020, who stood in line, who cared. Now, in 2024, they’re silent, as if that fire just sputtered out. It’s hard to swallow, picturing someone like my neighbor, Mrs. Carter, who’d argue politics over her morning coffee with the fervor of a preacher, suddenly deciding it’s not worth the effort.
Then there’s Trump, speaking to Congress, pointing to a Social Security database like it’s some grand conspiracy unveiled. Nearly 19 million numbers tied to people over 100, still kicking according to the records, or so we’re told. I imagine a wiry old man, say, Mr. Ellison from down the street, 103 years young, sharp as a tack, chuckling at the idea he’s part of this mystery. A 2023 inspector general report backs it up, claiming these centenarians aren’t dead, just lingering in the system. The irony twists my gut, the same number, 19 million, echoing in both stories, one of absence, one of impossible presence. Did they vanish, or were they never there? The question hangs, thick and heavy, like fog over a graveyard, daring me to figure out what’s real.
I can't lie. I still find it hard to believe that 19 million people who voted for Biden just didn't vote at all in the 2024 election. It just doesn't add up that, that many people decided not to give a damn.
Now add up all the people who Trump claimed were over 100 years old according the Social Security database.That database listed nearly 19 million Social Security numbers of people 100 or older but not dead, according to a 2023 agency inspector general report.
LInk to report produced during the Biden Administration -
"QAnon as a movement based around secret codes and clues and riddles doesn't so much exist anymore," Rothschild said. "But it doesn't need to exist anymore because its tenets have become such a major part of mainstream conservatism and such a big part of the base of people that reelected Donald Trump."
https://www.npr.org/2024/12/30/nx-s1-5230801/qanon-capitol-riot-social-media
