Upon Counting the Villains
Wherein the Author, told by the Television that the Republick is in mortal Danger, counts the Villains herself, finds 172 of one Kind and roughly none of the other, and goes round the Back of the House to look in on the Henhouse.
To the Readers of this Publick Blog,
Being a Woman of a practical Turn, and having lately been told by a great many Television Advertisements that the Republick is in mortal Danger, I resolved to count the Villains myself.
I began with the Menace most often described to me: Men in Skirts stealing Medals from our Daughters. The President of the NCAA told the Senate, under Oath, that of some 510,000 College Athletes in his Charge, fewer than ten were Transgender. That was in December of 2024, and the NCAA has since banned them from Women's Sports outright. I counted twice, and came up with roughly none.
I then counted the Billionaire Families who have bought themselves a Share of this Year's Congress. There were 172 of them, and they had spent above $1.7 billion between them, more than in any Midterm in our History. I had to borrow my Neighbour's Abacus.
172 to roughly none. I am no Mathematician, but I know which Wolf is at the Door, and it is not wearing a Swimsuit.
These Gentlemen do not spend such Sums for Sport. They are buying Quiet: a Congress that permits Wars without a Debate, shrugs at the Fumbles of the Executive, confirms Cabinet Secretaries who could not find their own Department with a Map and a Lantern, and admires the new Ballroom while the Roof leaks everywhere else. A Vote for any Gentleman with an (R) beside his Name this Tuesday is a Vote for more of the Same: the same Speaker, the same Majority Leader, the same War, the same Ballroom, the same cheerful Demolition of our Manners.
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The Fox in the Henhouse
While we stand on the Front Porch with our Pitchforks, guarding against a Bogeyman who never comes, the Fox is in the Henhouse out back, and he has been at it for some Time.
Consider what you have actually felt this Year. Gas has sat above $4 a Gallon all Autumn, the dearest Autumn the Motor Club has ever recorded. Those who buy their own Health Insurance watched their Premiums leap 20% this Year, as the Subsidies were allowed to lapse, and the Insurers have asked for 15% more next Year. If you earn above about $63,000 and buy your own Policy, you now pay every Penny of it yourself.
And the Fox is clever: he saved the worst Bites for after the Election. Come January of 2027, Medicaid's new Work Rules take hold, the first Course of nearly $1 trillion in Cuts over ten Years. The Tax Cuts were served at once; the Bill arrives after you have voted. No Swimmer in any Lane has ever raised your Premium, priced you out of a Doctor, or put a Penny on a Gallon of Gas.
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Upon the Socialists
Now I hear my Cousins in the Country protest: "But Polly, the other Party is full of Socialists!" To which I say: Splendid. If you fear the Socialist Part more than you believe in the Democratic Part, there was never a safer Season to let them try. Your Side holds the Executive and the Courts. Let the Democrats take a Chamber and govern in full View. If their Agenda is as unhinged as advertised, the President will veto it, the Courts will strike it down, and the whole Country will watch them knocked back a Generation. That is what Checks and Balances are for. Grandpapa did not help build the Machine so that it might rust in the Shed.
And should the Socialists prove less frightening than promised, you will have gained a Congress inclined to ask why our Leaders have grown so fond of Mr. Putin and Mr. Xi.
Save the Culture War for another Day. It will keep; it always does. On Tuesday, vote for a split Government, and make the Gentlemen with the Checkbooks earn their Keep.
Polly Dogood
P.S. I shall be told that the Billionaires give to both Sides, and it is true: of the 172 Families, 113 gave mostly to one Party and 45 to the other. I invite the 45 to read this Letter twice.
