Publisher’s Note: Today is Halloween, supposed to be a scary holiday. Perhaps the most frightening thing about this 2022 Halloween is that we still have 8 days to go until the election this year.

Is your brain fried yet? You don’t have to watch television (or news online) or listen to the radio to get bombarded with the junk. Open your mailbox, if you dare. Drive past thousands of yard signs and billboards to and from work or stores. Check your wipers when you get back to your car after going to an office or store: that probably isn’t a parking ticket – its campaign fliers. And watch out for those true-believers crowding the street corners with their signs.

On to the commentary:

We can only wish that this 2022 election WAS over.

The hype is insane: “the most important election of our lifetime.” “Our last chance to save our republic.” And more.

According to a LOT of people, the 2022 election is rapidly approaching being a done deal.

A few days ago, several Democrats (including Uncle Joe?) were heard on a live mike worrying over their losing prospects heading into the midterm election. (Never mind what Uncle Joe’s controllers are having him say in public: that the Demos are getting their second wind and the election is looking good for House, Senate, and many state Democratic Parties. Remember this is the guy that keeps telling energy prices are going down, that Ukraine is winning, and that congress-critturs come back from the dead.)

Do you think Republicans will retake the majority in the Senate? Many do; I’m not sure myself. It isn’t just polls by various media and so-called “neutral” polling outfits. It is the increased loudness and tempo of Democrats claiming that the GOP is stealing the election and cheating on the balloting. Is it not natural to accuse your enemy of what you plan to do or want to do? (Which of course, raises the same concern about the GOP, doesn’t it?)

Will the GOP take control of the House? Yes, more and more pundits say. Apparently even some top Democrats are depressed about this.

But some who think the GOP will win big in both Senate and House are not that pleased about it.

Why?

Does it not seem like the ship’s course is fixed and we’re heading into the iceberg (or if you prefer, the enemy battle line) at full speed. Getting GOP control in the Capitol building just slows down the speed (some). But the course remains unchanged, all the same: into more and more danger. Stupidity is demonstrated by BOTH old parties.

More debt. More deficit spending. More welfare programs. (Remember, it was Republicans who voted in a massive entitlement program two decades ago — Medicare Part D — when they controlled all of Congress and the presidency.) More war. More government control. More meddling with other countries. (And with the States.) More kicking the can down the road. Exactly HOW are the Republicans better than the Democrats?

They talk better – to many libertarians and so-called conservatives, at least.

Folks, it is time for the lifeboats. Or even the rafts and life vests. It is time to wake up: this election will change things some but not enough to truly address the problems we face. Times are getting rough and tough. Or should we say, rougher and tougher.

Lifeboats are important, as they protect us from drowning and let us escape that iceberg and go to safety. Ditto for the rafts, and even somewhat for the vest and other personal protective gear. We can save our strength and use it to get away from the immediate threat. Whether it is with a motor, oars, or just swimming.

More and more families are doing this: materially, financially, and above all morally and spiritually. But is it enough?

If you don’t have a plan and are not prepared for AFTER the goons in DC sink the American ship of state – economically, politically, and socially, you are still sunk. (I know, another bad pun.)

We are not alone, and we are not the first to face this. Look back at the Founding Fathers.

John Adams (three times in his political career) fretted about the problems in his day. He saw how easy it is to get people to tear down the existing political infrastructure. (Today, that is easier than ever, and the same can be said for economic and physical infrastructure.)

But Adams told his wife Abigail again and again how hard it was to find good people who knew how to build up — how to build organizations and projects and laws that will protect our rights and create long term prosperity. Again, this applies to us today: to build business enterprises that look beyond quarterly earnings and egotistical founders and owners to create goods and services that people need and want legitimately, not just because the latest influencer or ad agency is pushing them. To build societies that look beyond so-called rights (like a right to not be offended, or a right to aggress against and kill innocent but inconvenient people) to establish communities that don’t just survive but thrive and proclaim liberty and true peace unto all.

Another: below is a portion of Thomas Paine’s famous first essay in the American Crisis series, published in December 1776. General Washington read it to his troops before the victorious Battle of Trenton (desperately needed after the Continental Army had suffered several severe losses).

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman,” Paine wrote.

“Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph,” he continued. “What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods, and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.”

If we truly want liberty, want freedom, we will look beyond the nonsense of the 2022 election and so many like it, past, present, and future. We will worry less about which set of thugs wins in eight days, and more about preparing for a future in which both sets have succeeded in destroying American society and the world economy and more, in which we will find the opportunities to grow and live in liberty.