Dana Blankenhorn

Why Democracy Works

Democracy works because people are stupid.

I’m stupid. You’re stupid. The smartest are stupid in some ways. Everyone is stupid (except Dolly Parton).

But in a democracy the stupid balances itself out. The collective stupid of every citizen yields enough intelligence that we get by. Even when stupid wins, as in 2016, the beauty of democracy is getting a chance to correct it.

I’ve seen on Twitter that most people think other people are stupid. They’re right. But so are the people making the accusation. We all have our blind spots, our prejudices, our absolutes. They’re different. In the end they balance out and we muddle through.

What’s most dangerous to democracy is the assumption, on the part of all elites, that everyone else is stupid. They are. But you are, too. It’s when elites achieve authority that they can be deluded about this. I don’t care if you’re in the media elite, the intellectual elite, the scientific elite, the business elite, or (God forbid) the political elite. Once you assume authority your stupidity will be laid bare.

What To Buy Today

If you have money to invest, here’s an obvious truth.

We’re at or near the bottom of a bear market.

Everything is down. Some stuff has been crushed. Some of my stuff has been crushed.

But don’t despair, friend Investor. Bear markets end. Even with the worst of them, the average stock has gotten back to even in just a few years.

If you have taxable income you want to hide, and a taxable investment account, then feel free to dump your garbage. Anything that won’t come good in 3-4 years – take the loss. Dump the SPACs, dump the crypto, dump the stuff that’s losing money faster than it’s growing, or that lacks the cash to wait 2 years for another injection of money.

Now, because I write for Investorplace I’m going to tell you what to buy.

Propaganda for Good

Russia thought it was attacking a Russian province.

Turned out it was attacking Europe.

Europe is a state of mind. It’s egalitarian, but it’s fractious. It’s united, but not entirely. It’s western civilization in microcosm – messy, slow to anger, but mighty when provoked.

The invasion revealed that Putin’s Russia wasn’t even a nation-state. It was a medieval Empire, gilded by 20^th century ideologies, wealth, and technologies.

What makes this Empire so dangerous is that it has used all it had to attack America. Until recently it was successful. Putin ran our government, through Trump. Had we not beaten Trump he would be sitting in Kiev right now.

The Putin threat to this nation is still alive. It can still win. That’s because Trump was never Putin’s most dangerous puppet.

Rupert Murdoch is.

Without Fox News, Trump would have gone nowhere. Without Fox News, racism could not still be rising. Putin is a King. He won’t be satisfied until he rules everything. Murdoch is an oligarch. Rich man wants to be King.

Find me three issues on which Murdoch and Putin fundamentally disagree. I’ll wait.

I’ve written this before. It is time for Americans to become Ukranian in the defense of our heritage and rights. I’m not talking about grabbing guns and heading for Kentucky. I am talking instead of using what Ukrainians have taught us, in their hour of need, about propaganda.

The video above teaches this lesson. The song is about mothers, how they grow gray but still treat us like children, protecting us. What we see are women soldiers rushing into the war zone to take children to safety.

Then note the twist. These aren’t their own children they’re saving, or not just their own. When the children are safe, the women go back to the war. They seek their faith. They go on. They are soldiers. Everyone is a soldier.

What America is going through is a struggle. It’s a struggle that can be won. But it will take every weapon at our disposal, including propaganda. We have 5 ½ months and, if we win this time, anything is possible. If we fail, nothing may be possible for a long, long, long time.