What’s even sadder is that while I might have that same hope, I already know my side can’t win. And I also know that statement will get “both sides” a little up in arms for opposite reasons. Republicans because they are clueless to why they will lose (because they are out of touch) and democrats because they are convinced republicans losing means the people want to put them in their rightful place as rulers over all – even if they have to burn it to the ground.

But here’s something neither side knows: I’m not on either side. As a matter of fact, as a human with inalienable rights, all I see are folks running for office (along with myriad ballot proposals) lying about how you should put all your hope in them, which leads me to one question:

What has government ever done to deserve your hope in anything government?

Yes, Election Day – or week or month or fortnight, however long your state desires to rig what it needs to get their current side in control elected – depresses me. Because no matter who we elect or what measures pass, there is only one certain outcome: Government control and size will grow exponentially, which means it will confiscate even more of our property, which will never be enough to satiate its gluttony.

And yet we’ll still go to rallies and chant along with the leech class and then vote for them. Because that’s exactly how both sides want it. If you don’t think both sides want it, just look at the pitiful list of choices (OK, locally there are a few good ones) we have as voters. It’s called your ballot.

What’s more pitiful is that one side has a bunch of tyrants telling you they will do the most anti-freedom, anti-constitutional and anti-America’s-founding things if elected, while the other side brags about running the most out of touch, clueless, sad candidates it can find as it splits its party into permanent minority status.

Little harsh? I say it is not harsh enough.

And across the country we have election seasons where these same folks spend time campaigning not once, but twice, as to why the “other guy” isn’t fit for office (not that I need convincing, I already know most, if not all, running aren’t fit for office), and those are called primaries along with the general election. The only difference is once the political hack survives the primary, they turn their attacks onto their opponent from the other “party” in now telling you why that person shouldn’t be elected. All because by dumb luck they came out as “special,” because enough folks didn’t listen to their primary opponents telling why they shouldn’t be “selected.”

I know, I used a Tina Peters term there. But she’s a great example of someone who should never have been elected. Funny how there was never cheating or fraud as long as she and her compadres were winning, isn’t it?

But let’s get to the real reasons all-too-many run for office, and they are as old as history itself: Power, control and money. All sold under the lie of “hope.” Or as we call it, “The American Dream.” If memory serves, it used to be (for the most part) the freedom to have a family, home, car, job and ability to own property and build a nice nest egg for retirement and our golden years of enjoying the fruits of our labor.

Then politicians started running for office telling you how they will guarantee all of that, because the “other side” was trying to take it all away. Your only hope was in them winning. Because they know better how we should live; and in the areas they don’t know everything (which are few and far between; just ask them) they have what all Americans should fear the most: Experts.

And look at what that has wrought.

The nuclear family in America has been all but destroyed through policy and government-forced morality (I use that term very loosely). Its very survival is at stake. We’ll never actually own our property even if the mortgage is paid off, because property taxes never die; and as long as government-caused real-estate prices escalate, “homeowners” will need a mortgage just to pay their tributes.

As for cars, those monthly payments are now higher than our parents’ mortgages, and don’t get me started on the idiocy of “electric” mandates. Job opportunities have been destroyed by the Eugenics of the “minimum wage” and expectations that worthless degrees should bring enough in salary to afford the previously mentioned, or on an even dumber note, flipping burgers should pay enough. And the government-created nest eggs are known as Social Security and Medicare. Enough said.

All these government-created solutions of “hope”-lessness.

And these snake-oil salesmen keep running on it. Worse, we keep voting for them in the hope Lucy will let Charlie Brown kick the football this time, when the only thing being kicked is the can down the road to the day all of this blows up in our collective American faces.

And the only difference between those elected in the bureaucracy and the voters? The voters won’t be protected and will bear the brunt of the cost and suffering. The voters always do. This also explains why the government bureaucracy does what it does. There’s no recourse.

So, when you think you’re soaking the rich on the tax proposal, which will never bring in the confiscatory amounts the ruling class promises, just know the next step is to declare you’re somehow, magically rich. It’s a game they play for two reasons: The rich can afford it; and they know the next, next thing politicians will do is create loopholes for the rich to get out of the taxes and then the next, next, next thing they’ll do is go to the ol’ tax well of fleecing the ever fleeting “middle class” for the money.

Don’t believe me? Just go back a century or so and read the original income-tax law.

And yet you think electing your candidate is somehow going to make this corrupt, bankrupt system better? The truth at its core is simple; politicians are interested in two things: Your vote and your property. I used to say paycheck, but we’re now about to start taxing assets and “unrealized gains,” which is much, much worse. In case you think that only applies to the rich, check your property-tax bill. They’re already doing it.

I guess I could have summed this whole column up in a sentence or two, but there’s no fun in that for me in blowing off steam or fulfilling my sarcasm limit for the day. Plus, it lets me further explain just what “my side” is. My side isn’t party-based and certainly doesn’t do party lines on a ballot. My side is me, my family, my business and my property – physical, monetary and intellectual – the stuff government is supposed to protect, not pillage or control. And I take any infringement by government personally.

And every election, it cannot win. And it will never win if we keep this downward trajectory neither side is doing anything about. Sure, they’ll talk about it on one hand. But the other hand is busy doing only God-knows-what to the detriment of the people. And in some perverse universe too many voters are okey-dokey with that, as long as the God-knows-what happens to the “other side.”

They say voting is the most important right we have. I’d argue, given who and what we vote for, that’s the wrong importance. Maybe before we start coloring ovals, we think about how this vote will harm our fellow citizens, not put them in their place as we or some politician sees fit. To steal a phrase from the medical community, first do no harm with your vote. Honestly, that’s how I vote any longer.

I know that’s almost impossible to do today. But it’s worth a shot. The United States used to be known for a shot heard around the world back in the day – in a good way. I hope your current ballot reflected that.

It’s time the government was put back in its place. I suggest the place our founders put their hope in.

In Truth and freedom.

Craig Hall is owner and publisher of The Business Times. Reach him at 424-5133 or publisher@thebusinesstimes.com