When the Fate of the Nation Hangs in the Balance

Tuesday is Election Day, although as of today, over 50 million votes have already been cast in early voting and mail-in ballots. That is slightly under half the expected turnout for these midterm elections. Democrats want to transform the nation into a socialist system, import millions of non-citizens, and punish anyone who supported Donald Trump and his pro-America agenda. Republicans want to promote Capitalism, restore the economy and preserve America for Americans. Most people are just trying to survive as best they are able.

The Democrat party has become the party of the elite

The intent of an election, including this one, is to decide which course to take--Socialism, Capitalism, a thriving economy, shared misery, a nation of shared goals and common values, or one of grievances and constant discord. Would you rather be left alone to pursue your own interests or live where everything not forbidden is compulsory? That might sound rather extreme, but we have numerous modern examples of countries at both ends of the spectrum, as well as a good deal of history to draw examples.

At one time, the Democrat party was the party of the working class, organizing people to defend against the power of big corporations and authoritarian government. Republicans were supporters of big business and large bureaucracies that could organize national resources to "get things done". Somewhere along the line of the last hundred years or so, and especially in the last fifty, things changed.

The Democrat party has become the party of the elite, of those who seek power to force obedience to their ideas of how things should be run, and to punish anyone who disagrees with them. It has become the party of hate--hate Trump, hate MAGA, hate conservatives, hate Capitalism, hate America, hate Christians, hate, hate, hate.

The Republican party is now the party of ordinary people who want freedom instead of obedience, who want a strong economy with good opportunities, who want a government that is honest, just, and keeps things running smoothly and generally leaves people alone. I can't say Republicans have become the party of love, but it certainly is the party of tolerance, realizing that tolerance can be practiced, but not enforced.

It is one thing to advocate for particular practices, but still leave people free to adopt them or not. It is quite another thing to require them and force people to comply. The Capitalist society of Republicans is the society of free people able to choose their own path. 

Socialism as advocated by Democrats ultimately requires obedience and compliance and is intolerant of any deviation from prescribed behavior.

We have come to a fork in our national road

We have come to a fork in our national road. Do we continue as a free society, accepting that freedom to succeed also includes freedom to fail? Or do we take the Left branch that leads to more and more intrusive government, that discourages initiative, confiscates the fruits of individual labor to ensure that everyone shares in misery?

Freedom also includes freedom to learn so that failure does not have to be permanent. The wealth of Western societies, of which America is a shining example, is wealth that has been created by people with dreams and ideas who took risks to create new and better ways to do and make things. In the course, they also increased their own wealth, but also enabled millions of others to share in the new wealth. Socialism denies those opportunities to take the risks of creation and thus of opportunities to create new wealth.

Ordinary people today live better and longer lives than the wealthiest kings and monarchs and elite of most of history. We have better food, better housing, better medicine, better transportation, better clothing, and live in more peaceful times than most were able to enjoy ever before, all due to Capitalism rewarding initiative and freedom.

Socialism, including the deceptively named "Democratic Socialism" of today's Democrats, discourages individual initiative, and thus the creation of new wealth. If there is no potential benefit to an individual from accepting the risks of trying something new, why bother? Even if the costs of failure are mitigated by a socialist society, if there is no benefit to be gained, why take risks? In the end, no-one works any more than is necessary, and the society becomes a zero sum system, with entropy slowly eroding the shared sum.

In the course of years of development, I have often heard people say "that will never happen", usually in objection to the work needed to prevent some negative outcome. Frequently, that very thing that "will never happen" is one of the earliest things to occur.

There will be lots of different forms of cheating, from ballot duplication, to non-citizen voting, to drop box stuffing, to system hacks

Socialism is one of those "ideal" systems where its advocates always say "that will never happen" when any of the many fatal problems are pointed out. No-one has yet found a way to prevent any of them from happening, so sooner or later, they always occur. Democrat assurances that "this time is different" when all the many failure modes of Socialism remain present, are just snake oil promises.

This is the choice of our midterms: do we take the path on the Right that leads to freedom and prosperity, but also includes individual risk of both success and failure, or do we take the Left path of lost freedom and opportunity that rewards greed and envy under the illusions fostered by a perverted sense of "justice" and "fairness"?

The stakes are high--which course shall we take? One side wants free and honest elections that truly reflect who we are and what sort of nation we aspire to be. The other side is so convinced that it knows what is right that it feels any means necessary to win is justified, including cheating.

Now we come back to the midterms. We have discussed what is at stake, so we can look at what to expect, and what we can do.

First, there will be cheating--count on it; they are.

There will be lots of different forms of cheating, from ballot duplication, to non-citizen voting, to drop box stuffing, to system hacks, and many others. I have written about many of these in previous articles. Those who would manipulate elections have had years to develop and perfect their techniques, to lay the groundwork. We have seen how effective they have been recently in Brazil, but that is only the latest.

Cheating, though, might not be enough. The Democrat platform, such as it is, doesn't have strong appeal to most ordinary folk. Mutilating children in gender transitions, mandating boys in girl's bathrooms, opening borders to mass immigration, and presenting Socialism as an alternative to a robust economy does little to win hearts and minds, even among many long-term Democrats.

Once in power Democrats can take steps to ensure that no-one ever questions an election again

Although pundits show registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by a few percentage points, they neglect to point out that only about 40% of voters declare a party preference. Further, a third of those declaring are independents or other parties. In reality, only a third of less than half of registered voters--about 15% total--declare themselves as Democrats.

That is a far cry from a Democrat majority that the media keeps trying to convince us exists. That media psychological warfare tactic is another of the Left's methods for election manipulation. If you can convince your opponent that their cause is hopeless, and resistance is futile, that is another way to win.

If all else fails, though, the Democratic leadership thinks they have a foolproof plan to take power. If the election goes as they want, then they will label any attempts to question the outcome as a far-right attempt to overthrow the election. Activist judges will block any attempt to question or even audit election results. Media will spread the story that there was no fraud, that it was the most free, fair, and honest election in the history of forever. Once in power they can take steps to ensure that no-one ever questions an election again.

However, if there are enough Republican votes to overcome whatever cheating takes place, they plan to claim that it was the Republicans who cheated, the election was rigged. They plan that they would be able to declare the government to be illegitimate and claim that it would be necessary to take over the government by force to "preserve democracy". Riots, demonstrations, organized acts of violence, such as we see in France would all be heralded as evidence of popular dissatisfaction with the election results and justification for actions to "correct" them. Heads I win, tails you lose.

Regardless of what happens this November 3, the months ahead promise to be more interesting than most of us would like. I don't intend to let that stop me, though, from voting for Republican candidates. I know what sort of country I prefer. If the Left objects, let them. We can handle that. We may even find we had more friends than we thought. Either way, these promise to be interesting times.