How Did the Cause of Liberty Become a Popcorn-Eating Netflix Series?

I am so sick of the presidential horse race.

Who will acquire the most delegates in time for the Republican convention? Will the Republican donor elites seize control of the convention, or allow Ted Cruz or Donald Trump—whoever has the most delegates—to be the nominee?

It’s like a soap opera. Or a Netflix series. And I’m sick of it.

Liberty and individual rights are not a television series. They’re real life things, with real life consequences for all of us. We’re losing them, systematically and progressively. And all we’re hearing about in the presidential race is (1) how victorious Democrats will take even more of our freedom away; and (2) how evil and awful Cruz supporters think Trump is, and vice-versa.

I heard one commentator say, “We’re getting out the popcorn and ready for a wild ride in this summer’s Republican convention.”

Really? Is that what the revolution started by Jefferson, Madison, Franklin and Washington has come to? If so, then the majority of us watching the tragic spectacle with the popcorn deserve exactly what we get.

To be fair, we don’t have a candidate to champion individual rights, or anything substantive other than socialism (if you wish to call that substantive). Although I disagree with almost every single thing Bernie Sanders says, he’s the only candidate I can actually hear or understand.

If we did have a candidate with substance, we’d know it. How would we know? This candidate would not succumb to Donald Trump’s disease, to attack your enemies personally rather than (1) upholding your own ideas and (2) contradicting your opponent’s ideas.

Sadly, Trump, Cruz and Kasich do to each other what the leftist candidates always do to their opponents: attack them personally. When a leftist does it, it reveals the lack of credibility and substance of their ideas. Socialism does not work, it’s not morally right, it’s totally unoriginal and un-American; there’s no defending it. So naturally, a socialist candidate cannot defend it. He or she can only personally attack those who presume to oppose it.

Unfortunately, Republicans do not oppose socialism with the intensity that Democrats support it. That’s how we got to this point. Democrats always win the agenda, and increasingly they win the elections. We have a massively Republican Congress; yet the budgets and bills coming out of that Congress are no different from what we had out of a Democratic Congress.

I don’t know about you, but I am against socialism and leftism because of what I am FOR. I am FOR reason, rationality, personal self-responsibility, personal boundaries, hands-off capitalism (no subsidies, no regulations), private property and individual rights. I get just as upset when I see leftists stomp on these things as when I see Republicans or people on the right simply ignore them.

If Donald Trump or Ted Cruz displayed as much ferocity towards Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and socialism as they do towards each other, I’d have a little more hope. But even then, it would only help if they talked about – on a daily basis – what they stand FOR, and why. I’m simply not hearing it. And I refuse to blame it all on Donald Trump. Yes, he’s part of it. But Trump’s remaining opponents get on board for it, and the popcorn-eating new media are little better.

Democrats seem to think that the only problems America faces are Republicans or conservatives. If we eradicate those, they assume the national debt, the unsustainable entitlement programs and the bloodthirsty ISIS will pale in comparison, as problems. As for Republicans, Cruz supporters act and speak as if destroying Donald Trump is all that matters, while Donald Trump supporters seem to think that all we need is a Donald Trump presidency, and that China will somehow be put in its place and America will be great again. Tax cuts? Regulation elimination? Free markets? No mention.

It’s not the negativity that’s the problem. It’s the lack of anything positive. By “positive” I don’t just mean happy talk ; I mean something of substance which you support, and which animates your opposition to your opponent. When you stand FOR something, you don’t have to get personal. It’s all about the ideas.

I view all the negativity and personal attacks as a symptom. They’re a symptom of lacking certainty in, confidence about or even knowledge of what your own guiding principles are. That’s why the candidates are acting the way they are, and that’s why the election only seems to interest people as a horse race, not as anything remotely substantive, to date.

I know that Cruz and Kasich supporters hate Donald Trump personally. They appear to hate Donald Trump more than Obama or Hillary Clinton. I know that many Donald Trump supporters hate opposition. Trump supporters seem to think we need Trump, not liberty, capitalism or individual rights. And we know what Hillary Clinton wants.

If Republicans spent even 10 percent of the time shifting the talk from personal attacks to real issues, the 2016 presidential race would be a lot less of a horse race. A lot less popcorn, but also a lot less of the disgrace it presently is.