As The Donald ups the ante on The SAVE Act in Congress, it is worth a few minutes to look at the logic used (or abused) by the opposing sides.

Our friends over at the Christian Libertarian Institute offer this graphic as just one of the arguments that need to be addressed.

This is, of course, just one situation in which there is significant tension between liberty and law. It is, we submit, not really as much a conflict as is often portrayed among circles of lovers of liberty. (And even more often ignored by most politicians and political pundits.)

We believe that law is essential to liberty: it is not an either/or choice. The real question is the source and content of the law. And a key reason why we here at TPOL reject the idea of arbitrary and and mandatory human-made laws. Unjust laws are a primary and deadly result of rebelling against the natural order of things: against what we see as fundamental, God-given liberty.

At the same time, the argument over the need to establish law which supports (or denies) fundamental liberties is based on a poor foundation. A misunderstanding of what we should tolerate as far as governments are concerned. One reason it is so essential to establish and maintain a balance between law and liberty when it comes to voting? Because we accept that government rightly has tremendous power over our lives, our society, our economy, and even our birth and death.

We submit that the best intentions regarding voting and “the integrity of the vote” will fail to deal with the evils of mandatory human government as long as we allow government to have such power. And if we reduce government to an entity with only such authority as we can tolerate (as a perhaps useful if dangerous servant)? The need for complex and often chafing laws to ensure voting is virtually eliminated: corrupt elections and “who counts the votes” is far less important.

That of course is not the case in the States of 2026. We have surrendered to governments: we allow them to exercise insane amounts of power over every minute of our lives, from before birth to after death. So in an attempt to mitigate the hazards to life and liberty so-called “democratic” governing presents, safeguards like voter ID and strict standards on protecting the vote (such as limits on time and counting processes) are critical.

But one other piece of logic seems (to us, at least) to be missing.

Such safeguards need to be put in place from the bottom up, and not the top down. From the people in local communities and not from DC (or for that matter, as some claim, the UN!) down. Constitutionally (and to some degree even morally), actions to establish (restablish) and maintain election integrity can come from Congress. This comes from the constitutional mandate that we read in Article IV Section 4: “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,…”

But the very idea of “republican government” and the nature of the federal union strongly imply that such Congressional action must be very nearly a last resort: the States themselves are to determine such matters as the franchise, voting, and election procedures.

And here we have the conundrum that may not be able to be solved. The people who make up the electorate of the Fifty States are poorly educated and subservient to the very institutions (governments) that they are supposed to be masters over. And therefore manipulated by politicians: skilled in subverting the concepts of democracy and ignoring the fundamentals of republican government. Thugs and parasites who in turn pervert Congress, the Executive, and the Judiciary to allow them to enjoy both as much power and as little accountability as they want to flaunt.

We submit that the current state of governments in these Fifty States (and for that matter, around the world!) is irrational, illogical, and therefore even more evil than it is naturally. The SAVE Act may treat some of the symptoms of this condition. But it will not actually treat the underlying condition.

But we do point out that several “founders” provide a solution even to this mess. First, “you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” points out that we must teach and train ourselves, our families, our neighbors and our communities about what should be done. “We must obey God rather than men” establishes a standard to restore reason, rationality, logic, and liberty. And of course, as alluded to the graphic above, the Second Amendment recognizing the God-given right to defend ourselves, our families, our communities, against all forms of evil including government.