Hate-Voting, Lawbreaking, and the American Art of Ignoring Washington – PJ Media– pjmedia.com

The Founders of the American Republic were geniuses at creating a government that satisfied different factions while preserving liberty. It was no small task. The core disagreements boiled down to a few major fault lines, pitting large states against small states, Northern states against Southern states, and those who wanted a strong national government against those who favored state sovereignty.

While the delegates at the Constitutional Convention argued fiercely over the structure of power, representation, and slavery, they shared a fundamental, underlying agreement on one radical premise: the ultimate right of the people to alter, reform, or outright ignore and overthrow a government that violates its social contract.

This wasn’t just a theoretical point; it was the very premise that justified the American Revolution and, consequently, the Convention itself.

Early Americans voted with their feet. If their local or state government became too overbearing for their liking, they moved, usually farther West. This wanderlust became part of our national character. To this day, we are the most mobile society in history, moving for better jobs, for better weather, and for better government more often than the people of any other nation.

The Democratic sweep that flipped the government upside down last week is becoming more common as this polarized, formerly 50-50 country swings wildly between extremes. It isn’t support for Democratic or Republican policies that’s giving us whiplash every two or four years. It’s a total disgust and rejection of the party in power. In 2024, it was a Republican sweep that materialized after the Democrats botched COVID, tried to impose radical social policies, and opened the border to millions of illegal aliens. Donald Trump and the GOP believed they swept into office because the voters loved their policies instead of hating the Democrats less.

“Americans are hate-voting in election after election,” writes Reason’s J.D. Tuccille. “While the shrinking ranks of hardcore partisans still like their parties, Pew Research’s Steven Shepard reported last month that majorities of independents who just favor one party say a major reason they lean toward their preferred party is that the other party’s policies are harmful.”

Reason.com:

Even so, in our seemingly immutable two-party system, rejecting one of the political tribes means handing the reins of power to the other. Politicians aren’t very good at accepting that they’re regarded as slightly less awful than the alternative and acting accordingly. They always take the ball and run.

“Democrats will use their new trifecta status in Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to dismantle union reforms, progress on taxes, school choice and litigation reform,” cautions The Wall Street Journal‘s Kimberley Strassel.

Sure enough, Democratic governors in Arizona and Texas immediately renewed vows to roll back overwhelmingly popular school choice programs, just as their colleagues in Virginia earlier attacked that state’s once robust protections for self-defense rights once they gained power.