“Even as a youngster, though, I could not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presented danger, the solution was ignorance. To me, it always seemed that the solution had to be wisdom. You did not refuse to look at danger, rather you learned how to handle it safely.

After all, this has been the human challenge since a certain group of primates became human in the first place. Any technological advance can be dangerous. Fire was dangerous from the start, and so (even more so) was speech — and both are still dangerous to this day — but human beings would not be human without them.”

— Isaac Asimov

Under a limited government republic (the way America started out), there’s little reason to discuss politics. The government handles only a few things, and its members are citizen-legislators, not career politicians who make billions off the public and stay in office for 5, 6 or even 7 decades.

Under a tyranny, there’s only one party in charge. Nominally, there may be two parties (let’s call them Republicans and Democrats), but in reality there’s only one policy: control every last activity of each and every member of the country. The two parties merely fight over the particulars and the personalities. In principle, they hold the rights of the state as above the rights of the people.

Under tyranny, it makes no more sense to discuss politics than it does to discuss politics under a limited government run by citizen-legislators. Nothing is seriously debated and nothing is going to change. Now isn’t the time to pay attention to what Mitch McConnell is doing or what Nancy Pelosi is feeling. These creatures have lost whatever humanity they once may have had. They are parasites holding unearned power over others. They are like heroin addicts who almost cannot stop themselves; they are too far gone, and they’re living under the delusion (reinforced by well-funded echo chambers) that what they do matters. What goes on in their crappy existences amounts to little more than palace intrigue — perhaps, in part, designed to keep the peasants preoccupied so they won’t notice the willful and outright destruction of life as we’ve known it through inflation, dangerous and unnecessary wars, brainwashing of children in state-run schools, and progressive nationalization of the economy.

The only thing to discuss now are the real issues, and the deeper ones: What’s human nature, why do we even need a government at all and, if we do, then what should the functions and limits of that government be?

The American republic was a grand experiment. It functioned for over 200 years, with declining efficiency over the generations as the principles of the Constitution were gradually violated. The Bill of Rights generated the first civilization in all of human history to uphold the rights of the individual as sovereign above all else. It started on the premise that government serves the people, and not the other way around.

We must be honest. That experiment ultimately failed. It’s not a sign of despair to state this fact. On the contrary, the American republic gave us a tantalizing glimpse into all that was possible. Human beings are just getting started! But this particular chapter has closed. It’s time to give up on the rotten cancer that sits where the likes of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Lincoln and Reagan once sat. That freak show sitting in the Oval Office should not even be granted the seriousness of opposition, past a certain point. It’s over now. But don’t despair. In accepting the truth, you’re free to start over with something bigger and better than before. That’s how life works.

Forget the palace intrigue. Look at this picture of Mitch McConnell. He’s part of the ash heap of history. But as for liberty and individual rights? Their power is only beginning to be discovered, and appreciated … at first, in their absence, because America will be the first civilization in history to lose them. The gulags, the political prison camps, the prolonged economic despair brought about by reckless spending, inflation, taxation and regulation (they are coming, in some form) will hit Americans harder, because there’s no precedent for such monstrosities here.

Yet: The story of America will never be forgotten. Freedom will rise again, because you can’t quash the truth … not a truth this powerful.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

For the past two years, every Republican should have been either attempting to beat back the flood of “no excuse” mail-in ballots saturating swing states, or building up a party network that could adapt to it. There were some efforts to manage the mail-in voting problem in Arizona and Georgia but otherwise the party said its prayers and hoped for the best heading into the midterms.

We see how that strategy turned out. Democrats once again turned on the ignition and their army of activists began knocking on doors and dialing up their reliable voters to be sure that every single one of them knew the time to vote was now. Whether it was three weeks or a month before actual Election Day, it didn’t matter. Now. In response, Republicans donned a toothy smile and told their voters to keep Tuesday open. Wait in line— no matter how long it takes.

True, Republicans tend to be a lot more motivated than Democrats to vote in a non-presidential campaign year. They’re happy to drive to the booth and wait their turn. But the new reality is that elections are happening for weeks before the designated day for official in-person voting. That’s a lot of time for dedicated activists to call or visit the homes of their voters, no matter how unmotivated they are, and tell them that they don’t have to wait at all. They can cast their ballot right now. Want me to do it for you?!

[From The Federalist]

Fraud is one thing. What about the mass STUPIDITY AND IGNORANCE?

DeSantis: The only Republican who offered an alternative. The only Republican with a red wave.

I was disappointed by the 2022 election outcome, because I knew this would happen. And it did.

Now that millions of others are disappointed, at least outside of Florida, will these freedom-loving others start to consider secession a valid option? Florida could lead the way.

Secession is just another word for liberation: From an unsustainable, unreformable group of legalized mobsters.

Tough decisions are coming, regardless.

Elections clearly will not help much.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason