People still trying to make sense of Tuesday's elections need to start thinking bigger. Yes Trump weighed down the GOP and yes Republicans failed to offer voters anything to excite them enough to generate the red wave analysts predicted, but the actual problem is more fundamental: Democracy sucks.
If you want someone to blame for the current regime solidifying its grip on power, blame voters. Unfortunately the average voter cares more about what government can do for him than how to best preserve liberty in America.
Democrats, after all, did everything possible to deserve being removed from office. They masked your kids, shut down schools, robbed you of bodily autonomy, bailed out the rich at the expense of the poor, turned the FBI against parents, opened the border to anyone who might eventually vote Democrat, printed trillions & created a historic inflation crisis, all while orchestrating a vast censorship campaign to try keeping you in the dark.
But none of it mattered, because ultimately there will always be a majority who cares more about how they can personally benefit than anything like the greater good.
Talking points notwithstanding, democracy is incompatible with freedom. So long as a majority can vote for themselves goodies from a minority, that minority is no longer free and equal, but rather subservient to this more populace class of voters.
This isn't new. Our founders specifically endeavored to protect Americans from democracy as they knew from history that a "tyranny of the majority" is tyranny just the same. During this founding era, the Scottish writer Alexander Tyler observed of the Athenian Republic 2,000 years earlier:
A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy,(which is) always followed by a dictatorship.
The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
From Bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.
You can see where we're at in this chronology.
The Founders tried preventing us from this fate, restricting Congress from doling out cash for votes by specifically delineating its powers. Unfortunately since at least the Reconstruction Era, progressives have broken down these constitutional bulwarks meant to protect our republican form of government. The 14th, 15th, 17th, 19th, 23rd, 24th, and 26th Amendments all broaden voting "rights" at the expense of decentralized power via federalism.
Writing in 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville echoed Tyler, warning: "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.”
When the mainstream media waxes rhapsodic on the glories of democracy, know you're being hoodwinked. True, you can sometimes vote yourself a handsome payout, but this only creates greater pain later on. The American Rescue Act sent Americans $1,400 "stimulus" checks; this & other Covid spending bills created inflation now costing the average American household $7,400/year, according to a Heritage Foundation study.
Imagine starting an organization dedicated to helping homeless people. Perhaps you and around 50 other generous benefactors pool enough funds to open a shelter that houses and assists 1,000 homeless. To ensure the long-term viability of this work, the benefactors create a budget ensuring their limited resources aren't overextended early on. Makes sense, right? Well, what if, in a spirit of goodwill, these benefactors decide the recipients of their charity should be given a say in how the organization allocates funding. As the recipients are now voting on how much of other people's money they'll be receiving, you can see how quickly this would become unsustainable.
The inflation crisis we’re suffering through directly results from the problems inherent in democracy. Various constituent groups with big sway in DC — teachers unions, Silicon Valley, “green” tech, etc. — have used their vassals in Congress to procure themselves huge payouts from the public trough. Low-income workers, seniors living off a pension, savers — basically anyone living responsibly — are left holding the bag.
Government creates problems, then cast themselves as heroes when they propose "solutions." The purpose is to foster a culture of dependency. Elections are the sideshow that prevent any kind of actual accountability as ultimately government wins every election.
The American empire will continue its steady collapse unless and until we reverse course, retreating from democracy & returning toward a decentralized republic. For example: doing away with dropboxes, universal mail-in balloting, and other recent sketchy contrivances; restricting voting to actual taxpayers, multiplying the number of states; awarding state-wide offices to those winning a majority of towns & municipalities (not voters); and most especially, ending Congress' ability to print money.
Based on Tuesday's results, I have no confidence any of this will ever happen. It seems more likely our civilization will need to completely collapse before progressives entertain the possibility that government creates more problems than it solves. And even then they would still invariably scapegoat corporations.
What we can do now is at least recognize the problem, more actively share better ideas, and start shifting the Overton window beyond our current index card of allowable opinion (to borrow from Tom Woods). Our founders understood how to solve these problems: freedom & decentralization. These ideas still work. The sooner we can bring them back to life, the better our chance at protecting future generations.