The Protest Vote That Wrecks Your Portfolio
Are you disappointed with President Trump and Republicans? Tired of all the political hot air, drama and emotion? The campaign solicitations? “Gimme money, pleeease!” Yeah, join the club. But…
Suck it up, Pilgrims. It’s two weeks until Election Day and voting has begun. All across the country, many ballots are already banked, to await their fate on Election Night after the polls close. And as my colleague Jim Rickards has noted, this is a turnout election.
Definitely, many Democrats will vote — and vote hard! — because they despise Trump.
And many Republicans, Independents, and even some old-line Democrats may stay home because Trump… and Congress… and the Supreme Court… and You-Name-It… has disappointed them; they’re angry about the Iran war, blowout spending, fuel and food prices, creeping inflation, immigration, foreign visas and more.
But staying home or casting a protest vote means nothing in politics. In fact, when you don’t vote, you lose twice because your protest pique passes political power to the Hard Left, which will absolutely make America’s problems worse.
Indeed, not-showing-up isn’t really a theory of victory because the thrones of political power never remain vacant. At the end of day – of Election Day – someone always holds the keys to Capitol Hill, as well as governors’ mansions, city-county buildings and courthouses across the land. And it’s just a question of “who” wields power.
For Example, Look at Britain
In July 2024, British voters were (to borrow a phrase) p!ssed off. They rejected a fumbling, bumbling Conservative government. Millions stayed home or voted Labour. Mostly, they meant to punish the Tories, not endorse a radical regime of rule and ruin.
Instead, the stay-homes and protest-voters handed Keir Starmer an enormous parliamentary majority. So now, in Britain, the left pushes higher taxes, open borders, hostility toward Britain’s culture and history, and sweeping economic controls. And if you don’t like it and speak out too loudly, the police will pay you a visit. (Look it up.)
Boatloads of migrants arrive on British Beaches. Credit BBC.
Currently, Britain showcases the danger of a protest election: voters reject one party, then the Hard Left gets in and declares a revolutionary mandate. That, and works overtime to spend, tax, regulate, close industries, import the Third World, and convert temporary popular anger into permanent left-wing policy.
Looking ahead two weeks, America can make the same mistake if Republicans, Independents and moderate Democrats sit this one out. The no-shows will surrender the House to a coalition increasingly guided by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA); definitely not a bastion of old-fashioned, FDR-, JFK- or LBJ-style liberalism.
In fact, DSA is openly communist. Its manifestos call for abolishing the Senate, expanding government power via the House, packing the Supreme Court, nationalizing all health care, defunding law enforcement, socializing major industries, and… ugh (long story).
The DSA agenda runs so far left that Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) [full disclosure: I knew him when he was Mayor of Braddock, PA; nice guy] has criticized Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for backing DSA candidates against sitting Democrats. Which is to say that DSA uses the Democrat donkey only to ride through the gates and into power. Vote them in, and they have no plans ever to leave.
France: 45 Years Down the Road to Serfdom
So, Britain offers an immediate warning; but France supplies the long-term case-study. For roughly 45 years, left and hard-left governments expanded spending, taxes, regulation, subsidies and labor controls while promising nearly everything to everyone.
Each step sounded humane in a French sort of way. And every program rewarded politically important beneficiaries. The tax burden always targeted “someone else.” It sounded great until the bills arrived.
France now carries immense, unpayable debt, and chronic, massive deficits. Day-to-day, France is barely solvent. Business formation is negligible. Productive people and capital leave. Housing costs have soared. Industry struggles. Public services are breaking down despite record spending. And lately, rioters roam the streets while historic buildings go up in flames.
Limoges, France: Oct. 17th, city hall burned by rioters. Credit AFP.
Did French voters consciously choose national decline? Not in so many words; but election cycle after election cycle, they chose politicians who promised more regulation, subsidies and taxes on somebody else. And that’s exactly how the big state grows bigger. Meanwhile, failure rarely kills a government program; in fact, politicians often use failure to justify their next boondoggle.
Just now, the relevance of the U.K. and France to America is that both nations show how unhinged politics eventually wrecks the balance sheet. High taxes reduce returns. Regulation delays important projects. Energy scarcity raises costs. In short, bad policy breaks things.
Zito’s Lesson: Voting is Not Love
Recently, a great writer named Salena Zito wrote about how Gilded Age transformation enriched America while it also left millions of citizens on the outside looking in. Railroads, mills, factories, oilfields and electric power remade the country; but financial panics destroyed banks, businesses, jobs, farms and even entire industrial sectors.
In 1888, Republicans narrowly won control of Congress and treated victory as a massive mandate. They spent heavily and nearly bankrupted the country, which mattered quite a bit in the days before the Federal Reserve could just print so-called “money” to wallpaper the problems.
Voters didn’t like what they saw, and punished Republicans in 1890 with significant losses on Election Day. Then in 1892, Democrats captured Congress and the White House, and went wild in their own ways. So, two years later in 1894, Democrats lost 125 House seats.
Which is to say that voters didn’t fall in love with either party; they just kept evicting whoever failed. And that political pattern continues today. The House changed hands in 2006, 2010, 2018 and 2022. When Americans don’t like what they see, they tend to vote against incumbents; but then they recoil when the winners mistake popular frustration for ideological consent to engage in mega-overreach.
Political scientist Morris Fiorina calls these arrangements “unstable majorities.” Or stated another way, Americans rarely grant mandates; they hire politicians on probation. But a stay-home protest this year carries high risk because the DSA is not your father’s Democrat Party. And DSA won’t govern on probation; it will regard a win as permission to proceed with their crypto-Bolshevik revolution.
Your Portfolio Runs on Power
On the investing front, this election will shape America’s next industrial buildout: mines, mills, factories, aerospace, shipbuilding, electronics, computers, networks and data processing, and much else.
All that buildout requires energy: oil, natural gas, refined fuels, uranium and electricity; plus materials such as copper, steel and innumerable critical metals.
Downstream from rigs, pipelines, mines, mills and refineries, we have artificial intelligence (AI) that intensifies demand. Data centers and AI require transformers, chips, cooling systems, switchgear and miles of wire. The future joins steel with software, copper with semiconductors, and algorithms with megawatts.
Looking ahead, America must build out everything; and if you impede energy and materials, the future of technology slows or stops.
Along these last lines, California shows how a resource-rich economy manufactures scarcity via bad policy. In essence, for many years the (formerly) Golden State has discouraged drilling, closed refineries, tightened regulation and repelled investment.
As I discussed last April, fuel shortages and refining constraints drive California’s ongoing energy crisis. And let’s apply that mindset nationally, because a DSA-driven House would restrict leasing, slow pipelines, obstruct refineries, harass conventional power, block mines and subsidize favored substitutes.
Plus, and as we’ve noted near-countless times in our articles here at paradigm Press, the Green New Scam constrains dependable energy, funds unreliable projects and blames markets when prices rise.
The Investment Danger
America can’t tax, regulate and litigate its way to wealth creation and industrial leadership. A Democrat-DSA victory would bring higher energy costs, slower permits, heavier taxes and more politically directed capital. In short, DSA policy will hit you straight in the investment side of life.
That is, DSA and so-called “Green” policies raise costs for electricity, motor fuels, transport, manufacturing and data-processing. Anti-mining policies constrain copper, uranium and rare earths, the very materials behind the grid, reactors, defense systems and AI. Project delays strand capital and send development elsewhere. Subsidies steer money toward favored technologies instead of durable businesses and paying customers.
All along, China will keep on mining, refining, manufacturing and building its power systems, and I mean that in every sense of the phrase. Contrast China with how America’s energy, pipelines, uranium, copper, nuclear, grid equipment, engineering and data centers form one system. Weaken one link and the whole chain suffers.
Anger Is Not a Portfolio
So, yes… Here we are… Two weeks from Election Day. And Trump has disappointed many voters. Okay… Understood…
But voting isn’t like getting married out of love. And stay-home protests won’t fix what’s wrong in Washington. Sitting this one out only empowers a DSA coalition that is prepared to choke the energy, materials and infrastructure of the U.S. economy; to harm what your investments require to function.
It’s alright to be disappointed, and even cynical (ask me how I know). We all want “better” governance. But c’mon, man… Show-the-hell-up. Don’t protest so hard that you give the keys of power to the lefty-lunatics in the DSA.
That’s all for now. Thank you for subscribing and reading.
Comments: