Are You For or Against Self-Government? Full Stop.

There are the laws on the books and the laws that ought to be on the books. There are the laws of nature and the laws that are an abomination of nature. And there are the egalitarian laws of self-governance and the authoritarian laws of the oligarchy.

In most presidential elections for the last forty years, there has really only been one issue that should have been the focus of every voter: Do you favor taking money out of politics or not?

All other issues, such as health care, immigration, criminal justice reform, literally saving the planet, are truly secondary because we can’t address any of them while our system of self-governance is paralyzed by legalized oligarchic bribery.

There has only been one issue for forty years, and until we learn to focus on it, we are wasting the precious time we have left to prevent the Earth’s ecosystem from becoming incredibly hostile to civilization as we currently know it.

So, this has been the question: Do you favor taking money out of politics or not? Because if you don’t favor taking money out of politics, then you are an outlaw in a self-governing society. If you don’t favor taking money out of politics, you favor authoritarian oligarchy that says, “we the few can lord it over the rest,” and that justifies its oppression of others with deceitful justification ideologies claiming moral supremacy based on lies to which the commitment can become so strong it drives the liar into psychological self-delusion. And this delusion does not excuse the people who believe their own lies from the crimes they advance based on those lies. As a mass-psychosis, these delusions are driving civilization off a cliff in an absolutely criminal manner. We do the MAGA-mad among us a favor by holding them accountable for their madness before the election so that they don’t rue it after when the consequences may be unbearable.

Don’t let anyone frame the issue in any other way. Use your words to hold people accountable to declare themselves for or against self-government. Any other discussion is a distraction and irrelevant.

So, here’s some accountability: Bat-sh*t crazy or not, if you, like Justice Kennedy, argue that “independent expenditures, including those by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption,” then you support an agenda that is criminal in the eyes of the laws of self-governance. But in this election, the sickness of authoritarian oligarchy has spread its delusion so extensively throughout society, that the question is no longer even as far removed to the very immediate issue of taking money out of politics. This election season, the question is absolutely direct: Are you for or against self-government? This is the only issue that matters. This time, we have a candidate we know incited insurrection.

This election, that means the accountability we do our people a favor in insisting upon is this: Supreme Court Justice or not, looney-toon self-deluded Billionaire narcissist or not, proud-to-be-a-MAGA-manipulated-lie-swallower or not, if you believe there is justification for Donald Trump’s instigation of the January 6, 2021 insurrection and so cast your vote for him in the presidential election, then you are an abettor of a sacrilege against egalitarian human nature, and you are breaking the code of your own honor, giving your self-governance away like a beast-of-burden kneeling to his yoke in the field.

It does not matter if the corrupt Supreme Court excuses him with phony arguments, insurrectionist Donald Trump is a criminal. He has been accorded every procedural opportunity. The investigations have been multiple, the evidence is overwhelming, and the record of Donald Trump’s lies is also irrefutable. Everyone knows the Republican nominee for the presidency presumed the authority to try to establish himself as President against the people’s exercise of self-government on January 6, 2021. There is no going back from that assault on our democratic process. Donald Trump is an outlaw. People who would vote him back into power are abetting a crime, obstructing justice, and defying the natural order of civil society.

Journalists, in particular—but all of us who favor and believe in self-government as the law of the land, the law of nature, and the law of a moral society—cannot commit the mistake of arguing the merits of every issue out there. As bystanders or participants in the public debate, there is one and only one issue: Do you favor self-government or not?

We see billionaire Elon Musk spreading misinformation to advance Donald Trump’s campaign, we see him giving people million dollar checks at campaign events, and somehow, the press wants to know why Elon Musk says Trump will be better for our nation. That’s not the question. The question is: Mr. Musk, do you favor self-governance or not? Because if you favor self-governance, we will not allow you to deny that Donald Trump is a criminal who broke the law of self-government. You either denounce Trump and demand his prosecution or we take your conduct as an admission that you are a criminal abettor of a known insurrectionist. There is no other option now that you’ve jumped up and down on his stage.

We see billionaire Jeff Bezos afraid that publishing an endorsement of Kamala Harris in his newspaper, The Washington Post, might cost him devastating damage if Donald Trump returned to power, and the press wants to talk about the corruption of the press, but that’s not the issue. The issue is this, Mr. Bezos: Do you favor the self-government that allowed you to become so successful or not? Because if you favor self-governance, we will not allow you to deny that Donald Trump is a criminal who irrevocably broke the law of self-government on January 6, 2021, and we will force you to either denounce him in your newspaper as a criminal or we take your silence as an admission that you too are a criminal abettor of a known insurrectionist. You wanted to be a newspaper publisher. Now, you are learning that a publisher has to publish. So publish: Is your allegiance to that law of self-government or are you are a criminal oligarch abetting a fascist lunatic? Staying silent is the wrong answer.

And it is not just billionaires we must hold accountable to the law of self-government. It’s every person who appears on a political news show to discuss the issues. There is only one issue. “Are you for self-government or against it?”

It’s all of your friends: “Are you for self-government or are you against it?”

It’s the family member at your dinner table. “Are you for self-government or against it?”

There is no disputing Donald Trump is an insurrectionist. The 2020 election was not stolen. There is no evidence it was. There never has been any such evidence. Donald Trump knew there was no evidence from the start. He rehearsed his lies even before the election day, anticipating he would lose. He is rehearsing them again now, with the same strategy deliberately in mind. Countless court cases and an extensive congressional investigation make clear: Joe Biden won the election and Donald Trump is an insurrectionist. There is no evidence anywhere that allows for any other conclusion.

And even if there was evidence supporting Trump’s lies, under the law of self-government, he still has to follow the law; he doesn't get to violently take over the Capitol. In the 2000 election, Al Gore conceded the election when the corrupt Supreme Court illegitimately threw it to George W. Bush. Gore recognized, win or lose, he did not have the authority to incite insurrection. Self-government required the people to take action through their peaceful political process. The 2000 election result was an abomination before the law of self-government, but that was the Supreme Court majority’s dishonor and abomination. Al Gore was a law-abiding candidate. He left self-government intact to the people, honorably, dutifully.

The 2020 election result, by contrast, actually abided by the law of self-government. Trump lost and Joe Biden won and became President. But whether Trump won or lost is not the issue today; the issue today is that Trump’s actions in fomenting the January 6, 2021 insurrection make him an enemy of self-government, an outlaw whom a self-governing people cannot allow to hold office.

In the remaining days of this election, we, the law-abiding people who are for self-government, need to be absolutely disciplined, civil, polite, but disciplined, firm, and unsparing in our analysis, keeping the conversation always focused on this one question: Are you in favor of self-government or not?

And if someone at your dinner table tries to assert that Trump had the right to incite violent insurrection or that the rioters were not engaged in violent insurrection or that Trump will be better for America, then, if you want your self-government to survive, you need to insist they answer you when you ask: “Are you for self-government or against it? Have you really thought about what it means to lose self-government? It’s not the same as losing an election; it is losing the vote entirely forever.”

And then you need to tell them:

“There has been ample investigation. The facts are clear. Trump’s lies are clear. Your denial of the facts and commitment to Donald Trump’s lies are not an excuse for you continuing to abet a crime against self-government by voting for an insurrectionist whose criminal actions are widely in evidence. If you stole a car to drive to our house for dinner, I would not simply pass you the potatoes. I tell you now, your vote for Donald Trump is a crime that changes my relationship to you the same way it would if you deliberately sought to hurt my neighbor. You need to respect the law of self-government. Nothing is more basic than that. Wake up.”

Don’t let anyone frame the issue in any other way. Use your words to hold people accountable to declare themselves for or against self-government. Any other discussion is a distraction and irrelevant. Help people understand the choice they are making. They will thank you for it, when they come to their senses.