There’s a common libertarian trope, a common conservative trope, a common Christian trope that voting does not matter.
It was a trope of a different era. It was a trope from the era that brought about our present era.
It was a trope created by a free people who thought freedom was their birthright that they would have to put no work into preserving. Freedom was their birthright. Like any other thing of value, you have people who will seize it from you when given the opportunity.
You either must stand on guard or else you come to a time like the time we now know.
Virtually every institution in society now operates for your demise.
I am not just talking about voting. I am talking about an attitude. I am talking about doing everything you can. I am talking about fighting to advance freedom on all fronts and with as much power as you can muster. That is what is needed of you.
At such a moment you can pretend that your participation matters not at all.
You are on social media, which is exactly where they want you. You are watching internet broadcasts that get you well-informed enough to watch more, which is exactly what they want of you. You are outraged, which is exactly how they want you. Listen to me — it does not matter a lick how outraged you are unless you do something about it.
Action is all that matters.
I know you may have some objections to voting.
•Perhaps you are unable to get beyond the math of elections. I get it. Most elections aren’t decided by one vote.
•Perhaps you hate the collectivism of it. Your single vote probably doesn’t mean much. I get it.
•Perhaps you know the elections are not accurate. I hear that. I have been around elections since childhood, I have worked elections in most American states, and I have been an international election monitor in a number of countries. I can tell you plenty of stories about how inaccurate the results are.
All of those complaints you are right about. You probably have other good complaints too. And if I wanted you to only vote, those would be good complaints to shut me up with, but that’s not what I want.
My complaint is with your participation in your demise.
I don’t just want you to vote. I want you to vote for the better person in each race.
I don’t just want you to vote for the better person, I want you to also find candidates you believe in.
I do not just want you to do this haphazardly. I want you to vote in every election, every single race, and I want you to do your homework to find the very best candidates. I want you to actively pursue the best candidate.
There are hundreds of candidates up for election each year where you live. Out of those hundreds, if you can’t find three or four who really represent you, then there’s probably something wrong with you and your ability to cooperate rather than the system.
I don’t just want you to find those few good candidates, I want you to support them bigly. I don’t just want you to support them bigly to win this election, I want you to support them bigly through their time in office — I want you reading agendas, showing up for important votes, rallying others for those same votes, and having a regular line of communication with that person you helped elect, one that lets you pickup the phone and talk to him any time you want.
And I don’t just want you to stop there. I want you to help him build an organization, I want you to help him recruit others, I want you to help him build a movement.
Let’s apply that experience to a specific candidate.
Some man or woman out there gets so fed up that he decides to go through the sheer misery of running for office as a grassroots candidate. He ties his name publicly to ideas that the powers that be hate, becomes the object of ridicule, and a handful of people over the course of a campaign step forward and make a difference in his campaign. A handful of people make such an impact. They reach out to that candidate and help, total strangers, and from that, a candidate can build a movement if he knows what he’s doing. A big movement can start with a single candidacy that attracts a small handful of the right people.
That’s it. It’s really that simple.
I get it, you might not change the whole world overnight by doing this, but that guy running can have his life changed by your support. You can change that man’s life by looking for him and giving him your support. Many good candidates fail for a lack of one or two people who didn’t come along and believe in them. Many movements never materialize for no other reason than that. I spend a great deal of my time traveling up and down the left coast organizing grassroots activists. You would not believe what a difference you can make in these next two weeks by finding a good person, reaching out, and supporting that candidate mightily.
Perhaps you are starting to see that I’m not talking about voting. I’m talking about an attitude. I’m talking about you saying that you are invested enough in your community to support good people trying to do good things. It is about being invested in the world around you. It is about being more than just the tourist in your own community that modernity would prefer you be.
Since the Ides of March 2020, my time, my income, my effort has gone overwhelmingly to the cause of freedom. On all fronts, as much as I have has gone into the fight. I know I have more than some. I know I have less than others. But I give mightily from what I have been blessed with.
So knowing that, you can imagine how allergic I might be to excuses people give to not be involved in the simplest of ways. When I hear an excuse about why someone refuses to say “No!” to the mask at every moment in life or why someone won’t vote, I don’t see courage, I see cowardice. In fact it’s not just a cowardice of being unwilling to stand. It goes further. I also see someone too cowardly to commit. An unwillingness to commit is an ugly cowardice all its own.
I know the arguments against voting are well-regarded, well-established, and intellectual sounding, especially in some of the circles I travel in. Libertarians and conservatives alike have many good-sounding reasons not to vote. The same arguments are made in favor of perpetual tourism or polyamory, though often by different people. The thought process is the same — what’s the point of committing when there is no benefit? I get it. Commitment can suck. Leading can be a slog. People seldom appreciate you and life can be tough. So why do any of that?
Why not just turn on, tune in, and drop out?
And here we come to a cultural quandary: For I cannot build you into someone that you are not.
Perhaps you stuff your face with soy.
Perhaps you fill your time with screens.
Perhaps you pursue as much ease as you can.
If you are anything like contemporary man, then that is you, with that pursuit of comfort part being the most enfeebling part of the mix.
You simply are not for me. You probably will never find meaning in life that transcends your momentary feelings.
But if that is not you, then you must be fighting on all fronts. You must root neglect out of your life.
All fronts. Time. Money. Effort. Prayer. Intellect. Entrepreneurship. Volunteerism. Coordination. Organizing. Whatever it may be.
A complete and total war against totalitarianism is needed right now. Because while this is not the darkest hour humanity has ever known, the completeness of power that the technocratic class can have over human existence through technology makes a loss right now so very bad. I’m not talking about an electoral loss. It is much bigger than that, but elections are part of it.
Let us talk about scale.
If you have $500,000 your gift to a Super PAC can make the difference in a close congressional race. I know some readers of these pages can swing that. If you have $500 your gift to a campaign can make a difference in a close school board race. I know some readers of these pages can swing that as well. It’s not about voting. It’s about building potential in the community around you.
I don’t need you to compromise on your values, but I need you to focus on your most important values and to find someone who promotes those.
Not everyone reading this can impact the Florida Governor’s race or the Michigan Governor’s race. Those are determined by so many variables. But anyone reading this can affect a school board race. Maybe you don’t have money but you have time. Two weeks out, you can vow 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 hours a week to volunteer for a favorite candidate of yours and you can be the one who singlehandedly shifts an election. Will it change the world? No. It might not even change the board.
But this is what happens, if small investment is built upon small investment, you end up with institutions that are not entirely antagonistic toward you. You might even end up with institutions that support you and promote your wellbeing. You might even be able to pass that inheritance on to the next generation even if that inheritance was not passed on to you in very good shape.
All that is needed of you is to decide quickly, commit promptly, and to stay committed through thick and thin. Do you have to be committed for life? No. But why don’t you try it out for six months — sprint for the next two weeks alongside a candidate and then run the marathon next to him for the next six months. See how it goes. See what your wins are like. Watch how much more effective he is just because he has one good person like you to turn to. Watch how much harder it is for a politician to lose spine when he has someone like you to turn to.
And if he burns you, then work to replace him. It’s that simple. This is part of living the life of a free man. This is part of being the builder of the institutions of the future.
This is the behavior that allowed us to inherit the freedom that we are living through right now.
The good guys are winning, the bad guys are really putting up a fight. And as that fight intensifies, it is becoming increasingly clear that it is not just an election we are talking about here.
While you are hemming and hawing about helping a candidate, your adversary is playing for keeps and on every front.
You are seeing the plan for you play out on the world stage.
Alex Jones must be destroyed because he can’t be controlled.
Donald Trump must be destroyed because he can’t be controlled.
Kanye West must be destroyed because he can’t be controlled.
If you can’t be controlled, similar plans for you are not far behind. Realizing this, you might understand why I say complete and total victory on all fronts is needed.
It’s not just about voting. It’s not just about face masks. It’s not just about a host of other superficial things. It is about your attitude. It is about the need for you to be all in.
This moment needs everything of you.
Are you in?
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How do you build a campaign that is dedicated to becoming an institution? That is where my next two weeks of focus will go as we head toward the elections. Join me in my free newsletter (https://realstevo.com) as I guide candidates toward doing exactly that. If you have ever wanted to understand politics better, the next two weeks in my newsletter will be filled with passion and contemplation about the process that you will find nowhere else.
