By Nathan Barton

It’s only been three days, so we are all still digesting the election results.

But it is clear, whomever and whatever measures DID win. In the 2018 national and local elections, generally, liberty lost.

I understand that the LP and others are spinning otherwise, but…

There were a few contrary-wise results.  I know cannabis won in three states, including (somewhat to the surprise of many) Utah.  But in everyone of those, the way it “won” was by giving government MORE control, and more money. But the most libertarian measure, in North Dakota, would have made cannabis about as government free as soda or coffee.  And it went down.

In South Dakota, a really nasty “anti-corruption” bill that would have established an awful control regime for citizen lobbyists and another politically-appointed board with super-powers to find and punish “corruption” was killed by citizen votes.  As was a tax increase on tobacco.  And a political ally of Bernie Sanders and the Minnesota accused woman-abusing Muslim Keith Ellison was kept out of Pierre. (Because he is handicapped physically as well as mentally, no doubt there is mourning of his defeat by some.)

Again, we are blessed (as a nation and many individually) that the effective outlawing of oil and gas drilling also was defeated in Colorado. Ending oilfield development in Colorado would have been bad for the economy and for tens of thousands of people: those working in the industry and those buying its products. And Coloradoans defeated tax increases and more debt. But the election still leaves a now-progressive-dominated State government in Denver to come up with more ways to “protect the environment” and crippling the industry – just not as baldly. Colorado is increasingly becoming another California.

Perhaps the best news from Tuesday is that we may “enjoy” two years of gridlock in Congress. Without having to have our stolen money used to finance a reality show called “Impeach the President.”  There will no doubt be a lot of nasty legislation that does NOT get passed because of the intense hatred and loathing so many Democrats (and not a few Republicans) have for Trump.  (And Trump’s disgust for the new Speaker of the House, the wicked witch of the west coast, Pelosi, will no doubt also be a factor.

There is a downside to gridlock, of course. First off, there is (now and then) some legislation that is useful – especially legislation to roll back government mandates and cut spending.  I know, it is a forlorn hope, but you can be sure that the House under Demo domination, will keep it from happening.  Second, the gridlock will be a major issue to whip up the fervor of their partisans for the 2020 elections.  (Which campaign, I suppose, started on Wednesday.)

But those are barely the glimmer of a half-dozen fireflies in a 40-acre field.

Scant consolation for all the states that continue to elect people that want to steal more money and more liberty, and want to get more and more power as they do so.

But that is the way of elections.

The cynic remembers a quote that supposedly came from Mark Twain:

“If voting made any difference they wouldn’t let us do it.”

(Snopes, by the way, for what IT is worth, claims he didn’t write it. Or say it.)

But the real danger of “democracy” is that people can vote themselves “security.” No, not physical security, although too many of us trust in government forces to protect us, our families, and our property from “bad people.” Even though bad people include many law enforcement types and even more bureaucrats.

I’m referring to financial security: individual welfare benefits, government contracts which are corporate welfare, massive government spending that amounts to subsidizing companies and workers, professional monopolies and restraint on trade by government licensing and more mandates by government.  And more: government-mandated (and funded) insurance for banking institutions, government-controlled interest rates for savings and much, much more. Voting their pocketbooks NOT to keep from being taxed, but to keep the “free government goodies” coming.

People can vote themselves big bucks from government, which either steals money from taxpayers today, or from future taxpayers (by borrowing). It is voting in your own “self-interest” but it is a very unenlightened self-interest.  Call it the grasshopper mentality: everything now.

It is the alliance of the parasites with the controllers.  Again (as expected) to dominate our land for the next two years.

To finish, let me quote Mark Twain a couple more times.  Think about this, next time you talk to someone religious, whether they are a conservative or a liberal:

If Christians should vote their duty to God at the polls, they would carry every election, and do it with ease. They would elect every clean candidate in the United States, and defeat every soiled one. Their prodigious power would be quickly realized and recognized, and afterward there would be no unclean candidates upon any ticket, and graft would cease.