Power & Market

Did Constitutionalists Gain in the Last Election?

What matters in every election is what progress has been made by constitutionalists.

Constitutionalist voters and politicians have formidable difficulty getting constitutionalists past the Republicans’ Progressives. Progressives are helped by state primary processes, party rules and practices, crony media buys, and legacy-media support.

Even so, constitutionalist voters are in the majority. And constitutionalist politicians, who would earn Conservative Review Liberty Scores of at least 80 percent pro-liberty, went into this election making up around 27 percent of elected Republicans.

The slow turnover of senates and the results of the Republican primaries each guaranteed that this election would bring little increase in liberty in the near term. But next steps were taken towards improving elections, increasing the number of constitutionalist voters, and improving the choices in constitutionalist politicians.

Progressive Incumbent Politicians

The unfolding Great Inflation II has been brewing for a long time. Since 2008, the true money supply has increased by an astounding 303 percent. This dwarfs the Great Inflation I 1960-1978 increase of 176 percent, the Financial Crisis 1995-2007 increase of 128 percent, and the Great Depression 1921-1929 increase of 62 percent.

The Great Inflation II lockdowns, and the recent covid portion of its true money supply increase, an unprecedentedly rapid 120 percent, came under much the same Republicans as now, and Trump.

Going into the Republican primaries, the future senate’s swing vote could have at-most improved from Susan Collins, who had been voting 20 percent pro-liberty, to Mitch McConnell, who had been voting 44 percent pro-liberty.

Going into this election, the current house’s Republican leadership promised far-too-little, and could be counted on to deliver even less.

Election Problems

This election brought even-more-glaring disparities between reliable polls and the vote counts recorded by election officials in numerous precincts.

A kind of natural selection is in progress. Republican state politicians are ultimately going to have to either use their constitutional powers to ensure that voting is untainted, or go extinct and get replaced by new politicians who will use their powers.

Newly Independent Voters

Various voters in the past had been Democrats but, in this election, supported Republicans.

These voters were motivated by economic factors and social policies. Even if they identify as Republicans for now, most will really function as independents, since what drives their voting is that they are economic and social refugees.

Most such refugees’ backgrounds are from cultures, whether foreign or domestic, that have long accepted bigger governments. Any economic refugee’s vote for a big-government Republican Progressive will be a temporary setback, until the refugee sees the natural consequences of this action and learns how to stop getting burned. That will happen sooner or later.

And meanwhile, many economic refugees already arrive with intuition that will help them recognize Progressives, and determination to choose constitutionalists. Constitutionalist voting is growing.

Constitutionalist Politicians

Toward the end of Trump’s time in office, Liberty Scores of at least 80 percent pro-liberty had been earned by 8 percent of that house and 6 percent of that senate. At mid-2022, these had increased to 17 percent of that house and 14 percent of that senate. Given the favorable retirements and the probable losses by some of the worst newcomers like Dr. Oz, when the dust from this election settles, we will likely see that the proportions of constitutionalists have increased further.

But keep in mind that to even block a veto override takes 33 percent of one house. To enact legislation requires 50 percent of a house and a senate, plus a willingness to stand up and be counted using constitutional simple-majority voting in a senate, plus a presidential signature, or else requires 67 percent majorities in a house and a senate.

Change toward constitutionalist governance can come much faster under Constitution-following, emotionally intelligent executives. On this score, this election brought the clearest improvement.

This election made the next president less likely Trump and more likely Ron DeSantis, Rand Paul, or Thomas Massie.

More evidence on election integrity, new independent voters, and a better future president—in a single mid-term election, constitutionalists made helpful progress on many fronts.

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