Living in the One Party State

 

To Save the Country, Break the Economy

Trump’s mugshot from the Georgia legal circus made the rounds today on every social platform. It’s likely the most famous mugshot ever. MAGA country is going to make it fun. I’ve already seen a handful of funny takes. The meme champions are up their noses in ideas now. I imagine the Left is also celebrating. It’s the best they can do for a president that they just can’t get to without busting up the whole place. For bitter, basement dwelling progressives Trump is the spider they can’t kill. He runs under the stove after they grab the broom, he goes into a crack in the wall when they try to smash him with their sandals.

Failing to get him creates a reckless combination of busted floors and broken cabinets as they try in vain to kill him.

The deep state is actually tearing up the country to make an example of him. But it’s exposing our government for the soviet style security state it is. Complete with goon squads that arrest pro-lifers and other undesirables on the right, they don’t hide their contempt. The difference is, we still pretend it’s politics as usual. The Republicans had a debate the other night for the primaries which are still 8 months away. I didn’t watch it. I’ve soured on debates. Not because I think the candidates are bad, but I’m not watching anything that’s so irrelevant to my daily life. I heard a couple of coworkers discussing the debates at work, who they like and why. It’s like they didn’t see an election stolen just a few years ago. We’re already on the next one, examining issues like crime and the border as if it makes a difference.

Presidents don’t run the country. That much is clear now. Trump showed this and he’s been paying a heavy price ever since. Biden is as sharp as a beach ball and getting further from reality every day. There is an entrenched group of people who make the decisions. The elected guys go around and sign bills and give speeches, but their real value is in setting the agenda for the country. Democrats control narratives, Republicans promise not to be racists. Democrats use government offices to impose their will. Republicans pay high priced defenders to stay out of jail. Democrats play football, Republicans play footsie.

There isn’t really an opposition party. How can there be if the all the power exists at the federal level. If you’re an AG in red state that tries to jail a Democrat official as a tit for tat because of Trump, you’ll be locked up too. State officials have no real power when the Department of Justice can quash anything they don’t like. Merrick Garland even came after parents who criticized the school boards over useless mask mandates.  

I’m a Trump guy for sure, but no one on the Right has explained to me how he gets elected this time. The same crooked people and processes are in place in all the same places. From Georgia’s inner city ballot counting machine to Wisconsin’s bloated voter rolls. Arizona made sure all the MAGA types lost and Pennsylvania boarded up their vote counting areas vote creating areas. We’ve made mailing in ballots a normal part of voting. That’s an obvious recipe for fraud. If you can’t count the votes on the same day, someone is cheating. And yes, I’m remembering the Florida recount incident from 2000 as well.

Ballot harvesting is a disgrace and should be illegal. That’s when you send mules around to “collect” votes and drop them off. Some sites describe ballot harvesting as a process that’s been abused in the past. Umm…yeah you think? Abuse is kind of the point, just like with mail in ballots.

It’s tough to pick an issue that’s more critical to the country than its voting infrastructure. I don’t just mean the machines but the whole apparatus. Voting need not be this complex. When something is this complex, look for fraud. It was one of the mantras of my favorite writer P.J. O’Rourke. He was talking about the subprime mortgage fiasco from 2008. I think it applies here too.  

The best ideas on how to dismantle this behemoth of corruption won’t come from the Republican debate stage. There are some capable leaders up there, it’s not about them. None of them can do what’s necessary to bring the country back. It only happens when you bankrupt the country. You can only do it by draining the swamp, in a matter of speaking. Unfortunately, that looks like bank failures, runaway inflation or depression where the dollar collapses. Power drains when money drains. I’m not eager to lose my savings or start working 3 jobs just to keep the lights on. But it might be the only way to save the county.

Can America gain its former glory as the place to park money, to send your kids to school and worship freely? There has to be a rebuilding phase that’s painful or we won’t remember what got us here. There was no real collapse after 2008 because the government backstopped everything. With another big crisis they won’t be able to. But don’t worry, we’ll have Trump in jail for sure next time.