Who is Aaron Van Langevelde of Michigan?

American Hero......Dutch Everyman.

The Detroit Free Press

11/23/20

Who is Aaron Van Langevelde of Michigan? How and why did he save democracy in the USA and perhaps the world?

THIS QUESTION AND ANSWER IS IMPORTANT FOR EVERYONE TO READ AROUND THE WORLD, IT WILL TAKE YOU 5 MINUTES. HOPEFULLY ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT 5 MINUTES IN A LONG TIME.

It was a cold November day, two days before Thanksgiving with the pandemic rising all around. President Trump was getting desperate, he knew he needed a breakthrough in his attempt to overthrow the election. Just one he thought, he needed just one state to not certify the results and then he could move in decisively with his plan to get the Republican legislatures which included every single swing state, to declare that there was sufficient fraud to block certification of Joe Biden’s victory which he absolutely would not accept.

Then it would be easy for Trump to pressure these local officials to put in another slate of electors for the electoral college. He chose Michigan and identified the weak point, the board of canvassers a bi-partisan normally benign body that simply says, yes we have the votes, this person has more than this one, we certify the election results and passes it on. Done finished over.

Officially they have no real power, they are only saying yes, what is in front of us is in front of us, but in this year of 2020 with Trump claiming fraud is everywhere, they were his target.

If he could get one then the Michigan legislature which he had brazenly invited to the White House on the previous Friday would definitely go along with the plan.

Once Michigan fell, he sensed it would be like dominoes. Everyone would have some cover, they were simply righting a wrong, the real winner all along was Trump. Trump would not need to go to the courts any more he could sweep up all the swing states with the electors switched from Democrats based on the popular vote to Republicans.

The real ‘will of the people’ would then be enacted and Trump would be the rightful winner.

Enter, Aaron Van Langevelde, a 40 year old Republican operative in Michigan and Trump supporter and one of the two Republicans on the board. The Chairman was Norm Shinkle and Langevelde didn’t think he would have to do anything as Shinkle would just certify that Biden had won and he would quietly go along with it and it would be over.

But Shinkle was baulking, he didn’t know if he would vote against certification or abstain. Either way it was coming down to Van Langevelde.

Maybe it was his Dutch heritage a place where doing the right thing is so engrained that much is still on the honor system and doesn’t require police or other enforcement of laws, you just do it because you are expected to do it, your father did it, your mother did it and you will do it as will your children. You are not patted on the back for that, it is just who you are and that is all there is to it.

Maybe it was more, maybe it was something deeper. He stated, ”We have a clear legal duty to certify the results of the election, as shown by the returns that were given to us," Van Langevelde said. "We cannot and should not go beyond that. As John Adams once said, 'We are a government of laws, not men.'

"This board needs to adhere to that principle and do its part to uphold the rule of law here today. This board must uphold the law and comply with our legal duty to certify this election."

Shinkle called for the Republican-led Legislature to conduct an in-depth review of election procedures . He also cited Wayne County, where two GOP canvassers said they regretted their votes to certify the county results because of out-of-balance absentee ballot counting boards in Detroit.

"I think that the board's duty today is very important. We have a duty to certify this election based on the returns," Van Langevelde said at that point. "That is very clear. And we are limited to these returns. And I'm not going to argue that we're not.

"But I still think that people who signed up to speak today should have the chance to speak before we act on the motion."

People then spoke including Langevelde asking questions to a man who had previously been in Langevelde’s position.

Van Langevelde then made his momentous decision, he sided with the two Democrats and certified the results. Like in days of old where when a candidate had been selected in a backroom deal reporters ran from the virtual room reporting Michigan had certified for Biden, the dam had held, there would be no recounts, new audits. The results would stand and the Republican run Michigan legislature would not get a chance to switch electors for Trump instead of the rightful winner Biden.

It should be pointed out that if Van Langevelde had switched and voted to not to certify, Gov Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat could have changed the Republicans but it would have meant just another Republican and the certification was already done at that point and could there even be a do over or would it get tossed into the Michigan house of representatives. She had gambled, said nothing to anyone and let the process play out and Langevelde had done his civic duty and upheld the constitutions of the USA and Michigan.

Let us pause for a moment and remember how fragile democracy was that cold afternoon in Michigan. Van Langevelde was one in what has become a long line of Republicans state by state which they controlled who have been pressured by Trump to throw out the results of the election and switch over to Trump.

It is quite possible that without Van Langevelde and his courage, simply straightforward questions and decisive vote, the dominoes would indeed have fallen.

Would it have meant Trump would have been able to overthrow the election? Perhaps, perhaps not. Would it have allowed others to give in to what would have been mounting unrelenting pressure including as Gabriel Starling, Election Implementations Manager in Georgia denounced as having to stop ‘before someone gets killed’. By the time it got to Georgia would it have been out of control and even men of good will, conscience and civic duty such as Starling or the Sec of State of Georgia who the 2 Republican Senators have called on to resign, just because he certified the election there after a count, audit and recount with no change from Biden, would they have been able to hold the line if Van Langevelde had given in and not certified the election results in Michigan?

No one knows. But we do know that if the dam had broken, Trump would have been vindicated in his mind, he would have had his ‘victory’ he could tout it and push it to the Supreme Court where his 3 appointees whom he has said over and over he would take this election to them, would be expected to vote in his favor on whatever he would bring and give the election to him, their boss as pay back for putting them on the court.

Donald Trump is the most transactional President in American history. He is right up front with everyone and he tells you what he is going to do and he most often does it unless, unless someone stands up to him and that has been from rare to never in the Republican Party in the past 4 years.

Trump owns the Republican Party and with his base of over 70 million, now 74 million votes he is the largest vote getter in history, except Biden that is with 81 million.

But Langevelde stopped him. This slight unassuming man who normally just went about his life as a local attorney stood up to Trump and ended his Presidency and prevented a crisis turning into something far far darker. A crisis that could have ended up at the Supreme Court, where Trumps millions would have felt justified and ready to take matters into their own hands. To where Chad Wolff the unconfirmed Trump appointee for Homeland Security in charge of the ICE army could have called them out to quell unrest. To where Michael Flynn, former General and recently pardoned by Trump called for ‘martial law’ so that a new election could be held, could be implemented.

The real dominoes were waiting, have been waiting all along. They are there waiting for an excuse to overthrow the US system, to end 250 years of the ‘great experiment in democracy’ that the US has held out as the marvel and standard for the world to emulate. A standard that the US has used to transform the world from Kings and Queens and dictators to where democracy in some form or other is the dominant form of government throughout the world. All because the USA had a perfect record of always having a peaceful transfer of power. Never was it in doubt until now, until that cold November day when Aaron Van Langevelde said no, he would not give in. And like the Dutch boy who put his finger in the dike and held back the ocean so that the dike, the dam would not collapse and saved his people, Van Langevelde did the same for not only the USA but for democracy.

His forbears in Holland would not have lauded him for this, they would have come to his aid, fixed the leak and Van Langevelde would have gotten on his bike and gone home to a nice warm meal knowing that everyone in Holland would have done the same. Or would they have?

Would the Republicans still have done the right thing without his courage to hold back Donald Trump the most powerful man on the planet? We will never know, we will only know that he did it and for that we and the rest of the world are thankful knowing that men of good will stood up to evil and did the right thing when it would have been easy to have given in and no one would have blamed them.

We salute you Aaron Van Langevelde and all the Republicans who have followed and stood up to President Trump. You stopped the most evil man in the history of the USA by putting your finger in that proverbial dike and holding it long enough until others came to your rescue and you went home on your proverbial bicycle because that is who you are and that is the society that you represent. A society of laws, not of tyrants. No one will remember you and you probably don’t mind, that is the beauty of democracy, it takes all of us, every single Aaron Van Langevelde to stand up when our name is called. Otherwise the tyrants, the latent Hitlers among us like Trump will take away everything we have worked for, for 250 years in an instant.

Remember this when people talk about reform, we are only as good as the Aaron Van Langeveldes among us and that we should never put the pressure of 250 years on the shoulders of some slightly built man on a cold November day to do the right thing to save democracy from ourselves and the evil that has been in the White House for the past 4 years.

All quotes from : Michigan board certifies Nov. 3 election, cementing Biden victory