FINAL THOUGHT – October 23, 2026
By Bill Collier, Editor
“The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.
“To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
“To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.” – Douglas Adams, from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
“Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.” – Abraham Lincoln
I have very low expectations for voting. I doubt the integrity of our elections, but when I vote I make my own statement. Often, it is just a rebuke of the other side. It is rarely an endorsement of the ones I am voting for.
People will vote Democrat or Republican in a couple of weeks for their own reasons; many are very parochial. That is the nature of voting: it costs nothing but a little time, so you don’t really have any expectations.
My focus is Bill of Rights freedom, as I understand it, because you can only focus on things as you understand them. I assess that the Democrats are more problematic for the Bill of Rights than the GOP, but I don’t have any delusions that the GOP are champions of the Bill of Rights, especially as I understand them and apply them to how I treat others.
I want to rebuke Democrats now because they are, as a party, doing things I believe violate the spirit of what Bill of Rights freedom SHOULD mean.
This does not mean that I like the other side or don’t see problematic behavior there as well. It just means that my calculus is based on my priority and my understanding of Bill of Rights Freedom. I have supported Democrats in the past. For instance, I would vote for Senator Fetterman unless an excellent Republican ran against him, because I think he holds a line for freedom that I can live with.
Voting is not a waste of time because it rarely takes much time, so if your vote disappoints you, you haven’t spent anything on it anyway. So why not just vote?
Some say, “voting legitimizes the system!” In my estimation, it does not. I can hold that a system is corrupt, but if that system gives me the lightest whiff of power to influence a small part of that system, I will take the opportunity. I will be content that I used all in my hand to advocate for a Bill of Rights America. I will not, however, be content with such little power.
This midterm election, I will be voting straight Republican just to tell the Democrats that their approach to Bill of Rights Freedom is not something I can live with.
If you still feel that voting isn’t for you, then so be it. I won’t judge your motives or intent if you extend the same courtesy to me. Not voting is not more or less morally good than voting. What matters is being true to your own true north in how you use or don’t use that power.
As for my predictions, Republicans will probably lose.
The wrinkle in this dynamic are the recent reports of self-confessed fake polls.
If Trump’s party loses the House and Senate, it will be a fascinating time to behold because, while his party is marking time from election to election, the other side is playing for keeps. I fully expect hard, unprecedented action by the Democrats should they win.
Trump has not been able to install a spine into his own team. Their lackluster performances and overly cautious approaches will probably turn many away. I fear a lot will conclude that it’s not worth voting for a party that sees little urgency in the midterm elections
I’ll be voting straight Republican, but I think if Trump faces bloodthirsty democrats in charge of the U.S. House and Senate, it will get VERY ugly between them. Their goal will be to tie him down, prevent him from doing anything, and finally run against this “failure” in 2028 with the hope of sweeping it all, to fully consolidate power and usher in the progressive state.
Most voters don’t think for two seconds about the ideological, spiritual, or philosophical foundations of the other party. They also don’t take warnings about them too seriously, even if the warnings are legitimate.
This isn’t because they are unintelligent; they are not. It’s because they keep hearing these fears over and over and over, and nothing, to them, changes. It’s the classic “boy who calls wolf too many times” syndrome, and I fear it will help the Democrats greatly.
Popular online influencers chasing clicks, likes, and superchats constantly hype and sensationalize, to the benefit of their online careers, but to the detriment of truthful aggregate understanding.
I don’t know how many times I’ve seen “The Democrats are destroyed,” or words to that effect, in shocking fonts on YouTube thumbnails with hyped emotional faces, all just to build personal empires at the detriment of the republic they allegedly hope to defend.
I think it is more probable than not that the GOP gets a shellacking. Some will say it’s Trump’s fault, and sure, he is the President after all.
I think, however, it’s mostly on Thune and the whole top-tier leadership of the Party, a leadership that cannot and will not play as hard as the other side. When they do play hard, it’s often for things most people don’t care about and at least half absolutely hate. When they go after their own, they play hard as well.
While Trump has been tone-deaf on the Epstein Files, AI Data Centers, and even the Iran War, none of that would be an existential harm were it not for the fecklessness (seemingly intentional, probably intentional) of the GOP leadership, who failed to pass his agenda and convert his executive orders into law.
Trump’s chaotic style, ego, impetuosity, and ribald venom don’t help. His constant shifting around on Iran and Ukraine, frankly, sends mixed signals and peels off supporters.
The Democrats, however, are even worse. They are also chaos lords, shrill, often using lies and exaggerations even more than Trump does. The difference is they are on-brand and affirmed by the progressive state press.
To progressives, like Islamists, lying to advance your kingdom is not only acceptable; it’s morally necessary. To conservatives, lying to advance your kingdom invalidates your kingdom.
Trump is both off-brand to his own party and vilified daily by the same press that is aggressively and illegally protecting the Democrats.
People who thrive on chaos, drama, and hyperbolic reactions lean sharply left. But the people who would lean center-right, center-left (not hard left or partisan Democrat), and centrist specifically don’t want that behavior in their politics.
As for me, as a Christian, I find the left to be violently anti-Christian right now. While the candidates themselves attack Christianity almost daily, the progressive state press conceals their rants, leaving most Americans oblivious to the anti-Christian party they are voting for.
They are not voting for their anti-Christian agenda, but because they believe they will see their gas prices go down with a new party majority in the legislature. The unaffordability narrative is what they are voting for, not Talarico declaring God is non-binary.
I find the Democrats who run California to be in severe violation of basic Bill of Rights freedoms. I am concerned that the people in this land and their leaders have turned from God and are reaping those fruits
I get frustrated that I have to deal with those consequences myself when I have always opposed the things that caused them, progressive policies and conservative fecklessness.
Our “choice” is not an ideal American one. One side, the GOP, is slowing the decline away from freedom, but at this moment, with some exceptions, the Democrats are speed-running the dismantling of the Bill of Rights.
No matter why they might win, the Democrats will celebrate their win and think people voted FOR their pro-Political Islamism, “transing” kids, and other more extreme policies. Yet their party is running on unaffordability, not cutting off the breasts of little girls (their true policies).
All the voters seem to want is cheaper gas, not progressive sharia. The GOP elitists will think if only Trump was as feckless as they are, they could have won. It will only embolden their efforts to sabotage Trump, even at the cost of the republic, since the republic was never their concern.
They work to preserve power within the progressive state, nothing more. They are willing vassals of progressive power, not Americans at all.
I believe that even if the Democrats win, this isn’t the end of our story. Eventually, things will turn around because strong Americans will come along, but not from the Democrats, and probably not the Republicans. The people may just get sick of them both and find a new party to get behind.
As an amateur historian, it’s an interesting time to be alive, but I’d rather just be reading about it.