A Message to Democrats
Dear Democrats,
With few exceptions, your party has held sway in Washington State politics since about the year 2000. Since then,
- Our state has risen in the US and is now tied for 8th place for the most debt--a whopping $96 billion which equates to over $12,000 for every man, woman, and child. For every dollar it takes from us in revenue, it spends that dollar plus an additional 13 cents on programs.
- Nearly 1 in 8 Washingtonians now use food stamps.
- We have the 6th highest homelessness rate in the nation.
- Our educational performance has fallen more than 10% in national scoring over the last decade. despite being the 16th highest spender at over $18,000 per student.
- Violent crime has skyrocketed back to the same levels we started with in the year 2000.
I presume that these are some of the core issues you care about which is good because I do too. I also presume that you would agree that our state (and country) have entered a period of internal decay despite throwing vast amounts of money at these and other problems. We may disagree about their causes, but let’s use this as a springboard to discuss how we get ourselves out of this mess.
From a Libertarian standpoint, the reality of the matter is that your fellow citizens are not really the problem. Not the poor, not the rich, not your political adversaries, nor any internal conflicts over race. The problem is our government. More precisely…everyone’s willingness up to this moment to cede their power and money to them to “fix” things on our behalf.
Hear me out: for nearly every tangible problem we can think of that society experiences—high healthcare costs, lack of housing, expensive housing, poverty, violent crime, militarized policing, corruption, etc.—when we analyze the variables and long-term data, it is almost always the case that, upstream, the central authority we call government is involved in some way that makes the problem worse by tipping the scales, driving out competition, and adding costs than would otherwise not exist had you or I agreed to figure it out ourselves through private, voluntary actions--the so-called "free market" that we've never actually had. Worse, once government receives that power to tax and coerce via legislation, it always presses us for more. It's attempting to do that this very year here in Washington!
And now, for the 2024 election, the system itself is once again surfacing two main choices for you to vote on—“leaders” that no one appears to want, but we all feel compelled to vote for anyway because…what else are we going to do? The current Democratic frontrunner is a career politician who has quite likely greased a lot of wheels to get where he is and those wheels always expect favors once he wins. Likewise, the Republican frontrunner is of the aforementioned "crack down" variety, promising more law, order, and what amounts to a setback of all the social progress you feel your party has made these past two decades. This is the nature of our system. Note that both election favorites from the two major parties make liberal use of party stereotypes and buzzwords in the hopes of emotionally manipulating you. They implicitly vow to make your side win and punish (via the law) those they taught you to blame for your problems.
Is this really the way to build a healthy society? Is this what YOU want more of regardless of who wins?
You yourself have probably thought at least once in your life, “I really wish a third party would win…Green, Independent, Libertarian…maybe I’ll vote for one”, but the establishment has always been one step ahead of you, whispering into your ear, “What, and throw away your vote?! This election is the most important one of all! Everything’s at stake!” And, on the whole, because we buy into it, nothing changes. What we believe and repeat to ourselves becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I realize I’m asking a big favor of you, but I really do think we’re about to pass through some critical threshold and time is of the essence. When we look around us these past few years, it all seems like it's coming to some kind of head, doesn't it? We doom scroll on social media and public discourse is just a bunch of people lobbing political labels and soundbites back and forth.
As the Libertarian candidate, believe it or not, I actually support you and I support your right to chase after those causes you feel are of utmost importance to you and society as a whole. My campaign nor my administration are about asking you to agree with my personal views on a myriad of issues, they are about getting you to agree that there is only ONE issue we should begin agreeing on if we ever hope to get off this train headed to Authoritarianville—minimizing the amount of government we have and its increasing cost in our lives. In doing so, we free ourselves to arrive at actual solutions with our own money (and more of it!) rather than relegate it to a coercive, inefficient middleman. We need our autonomy back so that we can be better prepared to face the challenges that are already at our doors when it comes to finances, raising our kids, and securing food, shelter, and other necessities in the months and years ahead.
I am asking for your vote in the primary because, as we go down the recession rabbit hole, here in Washington that means no matter how much you support the Democratic Party’s policies and the candidate with a “D” next to their name, there is soon coming a time when the proverbial waiter returns to our proverbial table with the news of “I’m sorry, but your card has been declined. Would you like me to try another?” But there is no other card…not in your party, nor in any other. In fact, the banks that make those cards are, themselves, about to go out of business. They are about to take our assets to collect on the debts we owe so that they can scrounge up enough to pay their bad debts. And unfortunately, dear Democrat, if you've been paying attention to the banks, it’s bad debts all the way down. The corruption in our society runs deep and the chickens are coming home to roost.
Your decision to visit to my site before casting your vote is appreciated. Please have a look at my Campaign Strategy and Issues pages and, if what I say resonates with you, please consider voting for me in the primary. Take the leap of faith--for yourself, for me, and for your state. With your help, we can not only survive this, but thrive.
Michael DePaula
