No One great choice for president

(My Clovis News Journal column for January 29, 2016)

Donald Trump: Making elections funny again.

I'm not usually interested in watching elections or the hysterics leading up to them. I see sincere but silly people trying to convince me that the bowl of sewage they dipped from the cesspool is more delicious, or at least less toxic, than the bowl of sewage some other people dipped from the same cesspool. I'm not interested in sampling either bowl.

I have never needed a president. I can't point to a single instance where a president improved my life in any way. The same goes for any political office.

I am told I need to help choose the person to fill these offices, since someone will be elected whether or not I participate. Sorry, but I'd rather keep my hands clean.

So, no, I don't want Trump to be president any more than I want any of the other covetous control freaks to be president.

I am, however, enjoying watching his campaign out of the corner of my eye.

It started back in the middle of August when Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams predicted Trump would win the election. My interest grew in October when Adams predicted a Trump landslide.

He bases this on Trump's skill at persuasion- what you could think of as hypnosis without the trance and clucking. Adams is also trained in hypnosis and says he has never seen anyone use persuasion as skillfully as Trump. The simplistic language; the appeal to identity; the rejection of reason; the way he offers a blank canvas with his words and lets the listener paint the picture he wants to see, believing this is what Trump said.

Several times Adams has predicted how Trump could neuter a particular opponent-- using what he refers to as "linguistic kill shots"-- only to have his prediction come to pass within a week or so. It is fascinating.

So, even though I have no need for a president and pity those who believe they do, I hope Trump wins if somebody has to, simply because I'd like to believe it possible for someone to look beneath the surface and see how voters are tricked into voting for someone.

Of course, my only choice for president is No One. No One would be a great president. No One is honest enough to trust with that power. No One can run your life better than you. No One deserves your vote. Vote for No One.

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A 600 Year-old truth

"... for men change their rulers willingly, hoping to better themselves, and this hope induces them to take up arms against him who rules: wherein they are deceived, because they afterwards find by experience they have gone from bad to worse."~ Niccolo Machiavelli (The Prince, Chapter 3, 1513)

And so it still is, with every election and revolution.

Vote for this parasite, because he's better than that bully and you'll be more free if he wins.

Yeah, right.

Every president is worse than the ones before- each builds upon the abuses and violations of their predecessors and make up their own. If they claim to be reducing government, you can bet they are lying and building bigger government behind you back while you are distracted. When any president leaves office your liberty will be damaged a bit more than it was when he took office.

Because liberty NEVER comes from politics. You have to make it yourself. And TAKE it yourself. You can't exercise your liberty while obeying "laws"- liberty is the province of the outlaw.

Don't initiate force. Don't violate private property. Defend yourself and your property from those who violate you. Realize that defending yourself from violators will have consequences- and the consequences for defending yourself from certain serial violators will be steeper than for defending yourself from others- so be smart and choose your battles. Liberty-lovers have enough martyrs already.

Stop worrying about trading one bully for another, unless you know for certain you can trade for a weak, frightened bully you can easily get rid of without replacing him or her with anything.

And go out and live.

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