If Kamala Wins, We All Lose

We can't just rock the vote; we need to tip the vote over.

Imagine you’ve been saving up for years—let’s call it four—for a vacation. You’ve weeded through hundreds of travel websites and brochures, gone half-blind scrolling TikTok and trolling Pinterest for inspo, scoured countless Reddit and Quora strings seeking adventure suggestions. After months of Yelping, Hopping, TripAdvising, Kayaking, Skyscanning and YouTubing the world’s menu of exotic options, you’ve narrowed it down to just two possibilities: Ten glorious days in Tahiti, where you’ll bask in turquoise waters, stroll power-white beaches, and sleep in an opulent overwater villa (private chef and daily housekeeping included), or three nights in a roach-infested trailer next door to the state prison in Tijuana (Port-a-potty right on site!).

Take your time; I know it’s a grueling decision. Sometimes there’s just not one obvious answer that jumps out at you.

Anyway, did you guys realize we are less than three weeks away from the election?

I’ll admit, when Bobby Kennedy dropped out of the race, I had a “lesser of two evils” feeling about the two remaining candidates. Don’t get me wrong; Kamalamadingdong was never, ever an option for me, but part of me still needed to mourn the loss of a presidential contender I was actually excited about. Trump would be fine; we’d been-there-done-that and it had not been an unpleasant four years. The economy was screaming, we weren’t funneling billions of dollars to Ukraine, there was peace in the Middle East, and our streets (and that one apartment complex) weren’t overrun with violent criminals. Best of all, he wasn’t Hillary. I didn’t own a generator or a bug-out bag or spend several fretful hours a week thinking about nuclear war during his first term, little luxuries I would very much like to reclaim. A Trump encore wouldn’t be awful. If only he wasn’t so relentlessly unapologetic; so yugely, obnoxiously bombastic; so unpresidential.

But then something crazy happened: Kennedy endorsed him. Tulsi Gabbard endorsed him. Elon Musk endorsed him. In my mind, Trump went from a guy I was embarrassed to admit I didn’t despise to part of a party I could actually get behind. This time, he had not just a posse of mediocre politicians in his camp but a dream team of veritable legends (Rogan? You in?) backing him up. He’s still far from presidential—in the articulate, eloquent, unifying, dignified sense—but he’s strong and he’s unapologetic (it can be bad and good) and he’s certainly a whole lot less likely to take any global political shit than his competitor. [*Do yourself a favor and click that link*]

I had the great pleasure of attending a private screening of Dr. Aseem Malhotra’s new film, “First, Do No Pharm” this week. (One word: Must.) Afterward, there was an intimate panel discussion featuring Malhotra, Calley Means, Del Bigtree, Brian Sanders, and Dr. Joseph Fraiman. It was electric. The experts discussed pHarma, freedom, food, federal corruption, and how fuc extremely important the looming election is to the future of our country—and the world. They were not being hyperbolic.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Toward the end of the Q&A, a couple pointed out that the panel was clearly conservative—even though most have admitted to being lifelong democrats—and launched into a diatribe some of my regulars would have applauded (hi, Vee!). They spoke of the infamous two-winged bird and bipartisan betrayal and the scam/sham that is voting and insisted that the only answer is to flip that illusory bird a fat, angry bird of your own, exit the matrix completely, and become fully self-sufficient and wholly self-governed. They were clearly proud of their presentation—which sounded a whole lot like the comment below, one I happened to see on another substack the very next morning (and to which obviously I felt the need to respond).

I know the arguments: The two-party system is a false dialectic. The concept of a ruling class versus ruled is self-made. We are inherently free and governance is a violation of our innate rights. We can live by honor codes; by consensus. With all due respect, hahahahahahaha. We can’t even agree what color this dress is.

It’s obviously white and gold but some lunatics see blue and black.

Believe me, I wish we lived in a society on a planet in a universe where we didn’t need rules and laws; where everyone just did his or her own happy, harmless thing. But here’s the problem: What’s happy? What’s harmless? What if your happy is strangling puppies and my harmless is heavily day-drinking before I drive the school bus? (I’ll be cooper sareful—hic—I promise!)

I also know the insults: I’m brainwashed. Indoctrinated. I’m begging to be oppressed. I’m a victim of the very government mind control that taught me I needed government in the first place. I just need to wake up, break free, and reclaim my fundamental freedoms to live unruled, unrestricted, and unburdened by—oh, you know the rest.

As I said in my comment above, I wish I had recorded the First, Do No Pharm panel discussion. Their responses to the anarchist couple were powerful and impassioned and unapologetic (in the good way), and the resounding collective plea was: Vote. Vote harder than you’ve ever voted in your life*. Vote for Tahiti (the land of free speech, secure borders, clean food, a mighty military, and America First), and tell Tijuana (with all of her warmongering, corruption, censorship, surveillance, lawfare, lockdowns, hatred dressed up like virtue, and discrimination disguised as DEI) you’ll see her in two-thousand-never.

*I realize that phrase is used satirically; it was a joke. Sadly, sometimes you have to explain these things.

Could I BE any happier to be with this icon? (Also if you didn’t read that in a Chandler Bing voice, I’m not sure we can be friends.)

I know emphatically that not everyone reading this stack agrees with my position. (Hello again, Vee! Don’t you look handsome today?) And that’s okay. For now at least, we live in a gloriously free country where we can actually discuss, debate, and disagree on all manner of things and not be deplatformed or imprisoned. I for one would very much like to keep it that way.

How hard are you going to vote (or not vote) next month? Tell me in the comments.

P.S. Did you know you can vote for me in this contest every single day? And that the winner gets the cash equivalent of a gently used Tesla? Now you do. TIA, fam. :)