Opinion: Every four years, the same old thing

Do you ever feel like you’re stuck in an infinite presidential time loop? Every four years I watch it repeat, but no one else seems to notice.

Like the movie Groundhog Day, where the protagonist relives the same exact day with only his own behavior and choices changing, I see the repeating patterns in every presidential election.

Opposition party loyalists with a special dislike of the current president — whoever it may be — are certain the president will declare himself dictator to stay in power. Doesn’t this fearmongering ever get old? Doesn’t anyone notice this is always the claim yet it never happens?

Most politicians want to keep the system’s appearance of legitimacy intact above all else. Staying in office beyond their term might cause the rest of you to immediately stop believing the system is legitimate. Politicians need the illusion of legitimacy and can’t afford to let this happen.

Then there are the recycled claims of this being “The most important election of our lifetime.”

Sure it is. And I have oceanfront property in Arizona I’d sell cheap.

I’m not saying there won’t be bad consequences due to the election — there will be — but it has never been the case that “Every vote counts,” and this won’t be the first time. “Every vote” has never been counted in any election.

Maybe it’s worse than a simple time loop.

As long as you are forced to choose between government-supremacist candidates who have been selected by the major parties you can be sure nothing will change for the better. The parties have made certain of this; it’s how they retain power. As has been pointed out, if voting could change anything, it would be illegal.

You may believe elections are “Democrat vs. Republican” (or even Libertarian) but they are actually The State vs. you. Elections are set up to make certain The State wins and you lose no matter who is elected to office.

I am not a Trump fan, but I certainly don’t see him as unusually dangerous, nor do I prefer Biden or Harris. They are all cut from the same cloth. It takes a particular type of person to gain national political prominence, and it’s not a type you should trust with power over your life.

Again, it’s just the same old thing, time after time. There’s one thing I’m glad will never change, though: my liberty will never be subject to a vote.

Farwell’s Kent McManigal champions liberty. Contact him at:

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