Stolen Franchise

In the latest round of primary elections, Kentucky representative and Trump nemesis Thomas Massie was defeated by Trump-endorsed Ed Gallrein 57,053 to 47,018. Less than 14% of the people in Kentucky’s 4^th district voted and the total number of voters were only 37% of Massie’s vote in the 2024 general election. A relatively small number of Trump’s MAGA base was able to swing the election to his favored candidate.

Only 9% of Louisiana‘s population were needed to dispatch Trump-nemesis Senator Bill Cassidy from this years senate campaign. And at least five of seven Indiana state senators who had courageously voted against gerrymandering that state’s voting districts were punished by being primaried for taking their brave stand for the public good.

And here in Texas, Trump has recently endorsed scandal plagued Ken Paxton over incumbent John Cornyn in the Republican primary runoff for senate. The rather bland Cornyn, more of a senate fixture than leader, campaigned that he had supported Trump 99% of the time. I guess that missing 1% cost him. Meanwhile Paxton’s political career has been anything but bland, including not disclosing investments in companies with state contracts he voted on, charged with fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission, accused of bribery and abuse of office by members of his own staff as Texas AG and impeached by the Republican dominated Texas House of Representatives. Whew! All that plus infidelity and a nasty divorce by his wife was not an impediment to his getting an endorsement from Trump. We will see next week if the MAGA base can ignore all Paxton’s baggage in their absolute fealty to their great leader.

It is becoming clear that the Republican Party has abandoned all belief in the ideals and principles that made America truly great. Only loyalty to Donald Trump matters now. It is not that President Trump has not done some good things. He stopped the uncontrolled immigration that has drastically changed the demographics of the country. He has eliminated a lot of the unnecessary regulation that strangled the private sector and hampered economic growth. But he has done many other things that have undermined the confidence of the American people in his leadership. His poll numbers are awful.

But the United States has survived bad presidents before. Mr. Trump has about two and a half years left in his term and I don’t think even he would consider a third term in violation of the Constitution. But I wouldn’t put it past him to name a family member or trusted flunky as his successor while he attempts to keep control of the Republican Party in his senescence. He has purged independent thinkers and honorable folk from the ranks of the party. There is little left of the party of Lincoln. It is now the party of Trump.

Of course, the Democrats are no better. Their loyalty has been given to Karl Marx and the bizarre offshoots to his pernicious philosophy such as critical race theory, DEI and cancel culture. The Democratic Socialists from Mamdani, AOC and Katie Wilson have far outstripped the leftist visions of the old guard led by Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Plus add in a little antisemitism to boot.

The American economy has been so extraordinarily successful because it relies on a free market of voluntary exchanges between millions of producers and consumers. Our free market economy goes hand-in-hand with our political liberty – the free market of political thought. But Donald Trump has shut down the free market of political thought in the Republican party. Only loyalty to him and his ideas is acceptable, everybody else must be purged. The progressive Democratic Party also shut down the free market of political thought through cancel culture and DEI. But a free market economy can’t exist without the free expression of political thought.

My granddaughter turned eighteen this summer and she will be voting for the first time this November. But there is a dearth of candidates for her to vote for. She should be voting for candidates that will not saddle her with unpayable debts, that will preserve Social Security for future generations through reasonable reforms, that will create economic opportunity and a safe society for her future family. These goals are the product of good governance as opposed to radical ideology. She has been disenfranchised by these radically partisan political parties (as we all have been).

In America we have many alternative political parties, the Greens and Libertarians along with regional parties, for example. But the Republican and Democratic parties have organized a governmental structure that makes it impossible for third parties to be viable. But those traditional parties have been captured by radicals on the left and the right. The people in the center have been abandoned. For my granddaughter to have a better future (and for your kids and grandkids) we need to take back the center.