Kamala Harris just reminded us of why our ancestors immigrated to America. She is promoting freedom and liberty for all which is why pilgrims seeking freedom and liberty from royal and religious oppression risked everything in the hope of finding a land where they could earn an honest living and worship in ways that brought them peace.

They elected leaders and pastors from among themselves. Before coming ashore each man signed the Mayflower Compact which defined the Protestant Work Ethic. Each man was free to own property and to benefit from his worthy endeavors and frugality.

Freedom and liberty are powerful motivators. People dominated by a dictator do the bare minimum required to avoid punishment while people free to pursue their own dreams devote their lives to earning rewards they value. Comparing the prosperity that exists today in North American lands settled by self-governing freemen to the oppressive poverty in Central and South American where minions were and are exploited and oppressed by oligarchs, priests and dictators makes this truth perfectly clear.

Separation of church and state means each citizen is free to practice a religious doctrine that soothes their heart. Pilgrims were free to educate, hire and fire their own pastors, instead of being forced to obey government sanctioned priests. Being able to worship as one wants is one reason this is one of the most religious nations on earth.

Thanks to this being a Protestant work ethic based liberal democratic republic ours is the richest nation on earth. In 2023 The United States of America generated $27,400 trillion in Gross Domestic Product (GDP). China, second largest economy in the world, only generated $17,700 trillion about the same as the entire European Common Union.

Freedom makes us resilient. When the world plunged into recession with Covid-19 ours was the economy that recovered quickest. While sending money to citizens generated slight inflation almost every other nation is still in the throes of recession, and some are into deflation which is much worse. Almost everyone here who wants a job has a job.

There are things ordinary Americans take for granted here that are not available to anyone but the elite in most nations. Our electrical power grid is dependable, we can safely drink water that flows from our faucets, we can travel to and fro without being robbed and anyone willing to conform to minimal cultural norms has a safe place to live and food to eat.

But no matter how well off we are it is human to want a little bit more.

We are not perfect. Teachers, firemen and everyone middle-class pays a much greater percentage of their income in taxes than wealthy citizens pay. Millions of college graduates were persuaded to borrow so much money they are now trapped with so much student loan debt it is impossible to marry and start a family. While our health care system is capable of amazing things medical debt is our greatest cause of bankruptcy. While inflation here is among the lowest in the world it is still too high for comfort. A very few families control more money than everyone else combined and income inequality always eventually creates resentment of the haves by the have nots.

Frustrated people look for scapegoats. Immigrants, who speak and worship differently from people already here, are the current easy target which is ironic given everyone here is an immigrant or descended from one.

Ironic because immigrants are usually more appreciative of our freedom and liberty than are natives who take that for granted. Knowing the difference between the oppression they fled, and freedom and liberty here, immigrants are much less likely than native born citizens to commit crimes.

Ineligible to receive benefits themselves money is deducted from immigrant's pay checks to fund programs our government uses to support native citizens too young, too old or otherwise unable to support themselves. We also need immigrants because persons born and raised here are not having enough babies to maintain our population and keep our economy growing.

We also become frustrated because we want problems fixed now. It is a fact that in a liberal democratic republic, in which many representatives have a say, the conversations required can make decision-making excruciatingly slow. Kings issue edicts to instantly make things happen.

Family is our frame of reference and many of us have a primal preference for a traditional family, led by a strong decisive authoritarian father who is supported by a nurturing mother who loves us with food and care. This may be an ideal way to raise a family. However what works for families does not work when millions of unrelated people live next to each other. There has to be governance and the simple solution is to anoint a king.

About five thousand years ago, according to the book of Samuel, elderly judges governed the Israelites. When Samuel grew too old to govern they begged him to appoint a king. He reluctantly gave in and did as they wanted. As he predicted it ended with the King taking everything from them, making concubines of their daughters and their sons being drafted into the army where many were killed. Today leaders formerly referred to as "King" are now called Authoritarian, Strongmen, or a Dictator.

Only about 20% of everyone on earth lives in a free country. According to the Cato Institute 60 nations declined in freedom last year, only 25 became freer. As of today 38% of the global population lives in Not Free countries, the highest proportion since 1997.

Most nations are governed by an Authoritarian originally elected by the people. Once in office he (almost always a male) claimed theological authority and political authority. Authoritarians dominate by controlling what citizens are allowed to know, by concentrating power around themselves, by controlling or eliminating fair elections and by forcing citizens to do as ordered. Authoritarians use surveillance to oppress resistance and armed force to remain in power.

The United States of America is an anomaly. Having been capriciously ruled by the mentally ill King of England our forefathers were cynics. The distrusted the ability of men to resist the temptation to use government office, and access to the national treasury, to enrich themselves. They created a tripartite liberal democratic republic government with "Checks and Balances" and amended The Constitution to separate government and religion. Their goal was to keep persons chosen to govern focused on serving the citizens of the nation instead of personal enrichment. Our liberal democratic republic, based on protestant work ethic culture, is uniquely successful.

The Heritage Foundation was founded by extremely conservative Catholics in the early seventies. A nephew of mine was a University of Illinois Law School student when they tried to recruit him. Recruiters made it clear it was founded in response to Supreme Court ratification of the right to abortion. While The Heritage Foundation's mission is "to promote human flourishing by restoring self-governance to the American people" in reality it promotes Christian Nationalism. Among other things The Heritage Foundation advocates "Unified Governance": a modern name for "King".

Heritage Foundation vetted Republican judges now control the Supreme Court of the United States of America. Last session it ruled that The President of the United States of America, like a King, cannot be constrained by law when performing official duties.

Project 2025, was written by Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts in collaboration with former President Trump's Staff. A few stated goals include…

1. Replacement of our Protestant work ethic based democratic republic government legally constrained President with an unconstrained Unified Executive. (King)
2. Staffing all top-level appointed positions with people loyal to Unified Executive instead of to the Constitution.
3. Replacement of all nonpartisan Civil Servant experts with employees loyal to the Unified Executive.

Vice-President Candidate J.D. Vance wrote the introduction for a forthcoming Project 2025 book.

It is safe to assume that Project 2025 accurately states
what Republicans plan to do if they win control
of the Presidency in 2024.

Most Americans are oblivious to what it will mean for our government to transition from being a protestant work ethic based liberal democratic republic with "Checks and Balances", and "separation of church and state" to an illiberal democracy ruled by a "Unified Executive" (aka King).

After the 2017 White Nationalist riot in Charlottesville The Economist learned only one out of five Americans pays attention to politics. Our government has been stable for a long time and most Americans could not imagine their freedom and liberty being taken away until the United States did exactly that when the Supreme Court of the United States ended the constitutional right of a citizen to abortion. More people are now paying attention and 60% of all United States citizens now have an unfavorable opinion of the Heritage Foundation Christian Nationalist influenced Supreme Court.

After decisively losing reelection in November 2019 President Trump fomented a January 6, 2020 insurrection in an attempt to overthrow our liberal democratic government and remain in office. Participants in the insurrection were a mixed bag.

• Many were simply naïve not knowing that trying to violently overthrow our government is a felony.
• Some were "Useful Fools" unwittingly responding to calls from enemies of this nation to create chaos and make it appear our liberal democratic republic government is less capable of governing than their autocracy.
• Many "True-Believers" responded to President Trump's call to force Congress to overturn his loss to Joe Biden and to restore him to the Presidency.

Hundreds of insurrectionists have been convicted, sent to prison and will be pardoned if Donald Trump returns to the Presidency..

The people leading the Christian Nationalist movement towards Authoritarianism will do anything to grasp political power. They nominated a felon to be President of The United States of America. A felon convicted of 34 crimes by a jury of his peers, indicted for multiple felonies and who visibly fomented a conspiracy to violently overthrow our liberal democratic republic government.

The 20% of the electorate who belong to the Trump cult will vote for him and endorsed candidates no matter what he says or does or even if he is in prison. The 20% of the electorate with solid democratic views will vote for Kamala Harris no matter what is said about her.

True believers are too few to win elections. It is how the 40% of citizens who claim to be Independent, but usually vote one way or another based on what they hear and see, and the 20% who are truly independent, who win elections. Independents want change NOT chaos.

Donald Trump is the king of chaos. He is also famous for endorsing candidates based more on their loyalty to him than competence or electability. Most lost in 2022 general elections when that should have been a Red Wave year.

Kamala Harris has reminded us of our love for freedom. liberty and change. An attractive middle-aged highly educated electable woman, with a highly successful husband and normal college-aged stepchildren, she has won every general election in which she has run.

As I write the Blue base is energized like I have never seen in my 80+ years. Kamala Harris is driving a hope-based campaign based on all Americans having freedom and liberty to make their own dreams come true. It is still one-hundred days until the 2024 general election, and the Electoral College system multiplies votes cast by citizens in low population rural states, so a lot can happen over the next three months but

I'm hoping for a big Blue Wave.