The voters that scare me are the sheep. Here is how to vote, do it this way because I told you to. That is what keeps me up at night.

Those are people with unfertilized minds. The seeds didn't find anything to take root in. Dead turf.

Besides, if you find the right pan, it isn't that uncomfortable. And it keeps that mighty fine looking gray hair perfectly in place.

Because what we have is broken. The two party system that limits our choices to two flavors of the same noise, backed by dark money from both directions that you mostly never hear about. Citizens United didn't just open the door — it took the door off the hinges. The Federalist Society on one side, the Tides Foundation and Priorities USA on the other, and the rest of us standing in the room where the door used to be wondering why it's so cold.

That is not a rhetorical question. It is the most practical question anyone can ask right now.

Seeds need ground. Ground needs memory. Memory needs honesty.

We are running out of all three.

From the Author of The Long View From 1964

The Second Amendment was never about Vinney the desperado riding into town looking for a fight. It was never about bravado or immunity or masks or the performance of toughness by people who have never actually been tested.

The donkey and the elephant. I'm not sure either animal still exists in any form I recognize.

What replaced them nobody has named yet.

From the Author of The Long View From 1964

He is priming the pump AGAIN

'Second String Donny' Feel free to use it. Johnny Appleseed didn't trademark the seeds.

There is no party infrastructure, no primary, no institutional home for the person who looks at both options and says — honestly, clearly, without drama — neither of these fits.

The labels don't fit anymore. And the system was not built for the moment when the labels stop fitting.

From the Author of The Long View From 1964

The first string was either fired or asked to resign. What we have left is the second string. At best.

The game was designed so that nobody wins.

Stop playing.