Don’t Just Get Back in Line, We Out Number the Oppressors

There’s an early scene in the Pixar movie A Bug’s Life where the ants are all marching in line toward the offering stone with their berries and grain. A leaf drifts down and disrupts the procession. (link)

“I’m lost!” the separated ant shouts. “Where’s the line?”

A grandfatherly ant comes to the rescue coaching, “We are going to go around the leaf!”

“I don’t think we can do that,” the separated ant stutters.

“Nonsense! This is nothing compared to the twig of ‘93!” The old man waves the young ant forward, to the right, then claps in time as he urges him to navigate around the leaf. “That’s tt! You’re doing great! Watch my eyes! Don’t look away! And there’s the line again!”

“Thank you!” the young ant effuses.

“Good job everybody!” the old ant exclaims. He’s led them back to the line. 

We’re like these ants in the United States today. We’re anxious and worried about disruption and change. We’re perpetually frightened about the future and even current circumstances. And our elected leaders are steering us around the leaf and back in line.

Back in line.

Our citizens have been robbed of their agency, told one vote doesn’t matter – but don’t throw it away – and that our state is a foregone conclusion (super majority Republican). We are all marching toward the offering stone without really knowing why things have to be this way.

• Why must we accept the worst people in our country in the highest levels of government?
• Why must we allow corporations to direct policy?
• Why must we expect endless foreign wars and domestic military force?

So many of us are wondering, as the protagonist of A Bug’s Life asks later, “Why are we even doing this?”

I’m tired of hearing people say, “that’s just the way it is.”

The entrepreneur in me knows it doesn’t have to be this way. And I think a LOT of South Carolinians know that, too. I think at least one million of us know this isn’t the government we want. Good policies don’t need enforcement, good policies earn public support. 

In a recent conversation about the campaign, I was told one of my opponents is likely to raise at least $30 million before election day. That’s a lot of money. I’m not surprised, every social media message I’ve seen from this candidate (including text messages) have been pleas for more donations.

In a separate conversation I was told my own messaging should be at least 30% not donation requests. That means 70% of the messaging should be donation requests.

What the hell kind of broken system is this? Why are we spending all season harvesting for the offering? When will we pick grain for ourselves?

Not long after A Bug’s Life begins, the protagonist, Flick, ruins the offering and brings the wrath of the grasshoppers upon the colony. The bully antagonist, Hopper, frightens and intimidates the queen and the other ants, finally grabbing the smallest ant by the head and threatening her life.

Flick steps forward, “Leave her alone!” he demands.

Hopper says, “It seems to me you ants are forgetting your place.”

The plot of the movie is Flick’s efforts to liberate his colony from the tyranny of the grasshoppers. In our current United States, the grasshoppers are the two political parties and their federal government chokehold.

They bully, intimidate, and recklessly pursue their own sustained power at any cost. There is no more compromise: individuals who work across the aisle to find win-win scenarios are accused of being disloyal and primaried out.

Party is everything. The people are ignored.

That’s why fundraising is so important. The parties need money to pay people to do the political work. Their policies, their candidates, and their work is so bad, they must pay people to do it or it won’t get done. What volunteers would organize around the same tired talking points and the corrupt machinery?

Worse, in this party-obsessed culture, independents are completely shut out. In South Carolina’s open primaries, independents can at least vote, but in many other states, closed primaries prevent undeclared voters from even participating. Nevertheless, the parties don’t court independent voters. They accuse them of being low-information and unpredictable.

But here’s the thing, Hopper knows the risk.

“Those tiny little ants outnumber us 100 to 1,” he says, “And if they ever figure that out, there goes our way of life.”

Independents make up 44% of the voting population. Republicans are 28% and Democrats 27%. We outnumber them both. If we ever came together, we could be the majority.

But what principle would unite us?

• How about being sick of the partisanship?
• How about knowing the government shut down is politics at their worst?
• How about finally addressing the national debt and the cliff we, as a nation, are careening toward?

Citizens have been robbed of their agency. They’ve been manipulated and lied to, misled and dismissed. I’ve heard strategists call voters dumb, heard politicians claim they deserve the jobs they hold, and seen political parties treat candidates like performing monkeys. There is no dignity in this game. They have all lost the plot.

Government is about society organizing its resources to protect individual rights, provide for a common defense, and promote general welfare. So why are we all stuck in the same line delivering food to the offering stone for techno overlords, oligarchs, and a duopoly more interested in power than prosperity?

Fundamental to the Blessings of Liberty is the entrepreneurial belief that we live in a world of abundance, not scarcity. It’s the scarcity-minded that use fear, coercion, and power to oppress others and take for themselves. 

The reality is, our world is abundant. We create more goods, innovate more solutions, share more opportunity, and serve more ambition in this country than in any other civilization in the history of mankind. We are abundant. Our hope should also be abundant.

We can do more. We can love more. We can have and give and create and share more.

The only thing holding us back is our government: an infrastructure that tells us we cannot have, give, or create without it. Its existence is critical to the ones who get rich off of it. But it’s not fundamental to us. We can create, have, and give without government’s permission.

SNAP benefits are gone. The same government that feeds you is the government that will starve you. Food pantries are stepping up and regular citizens are giving more to help their neighbors.

As health insurance costs spin out of control, entrepreneurs are creating new models of healthcare. When the certificate of need law was repealed, South Carolina saw creators in the healthcare space deliver solutions to meet patient needs. Less government, more opportunity for people to prosper.

We are capable. So let’s do it. Let’s show the oligarchs and the machinery that seek to control us that we are the power. We have free will, liberty, and unlimited potential.

First step? Organize independent candidates to run for office. Alliance Party, Constitution Party, Forward Party, Libertarian Party, all the alternatives should be putting forward candidates. Let’s get in the game. Rally around your local alternative and get them elected.

As your alternative Senator, I will lead common-sense, middle-road, compromise-driven conversations. Stand up to corruption, and brush off the leaches that seethe with government power and unmitigated spending. A government that does less leaves more liberty for humans to prosper. Together. 

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