How would you react if your wife walks into the bedroom at 10 at night and says: “Err, I have a BIG favor to ask you!”?
The wise man says, “Whatever you need, darling!” You don’t have to be Aristotle to know: Happy Wife, Happy Life.
Was I needed to clear a bunged gutter before bedtime? Was a hornet’s nest in need of urgent neutralization? Hardly.
My wife is the Chief Election Officer for our district in the Commonwealth of Virginia. At the same time, she recently volunteered for the local GOP to mobilize as many voters as possible in the off-cycle election by organizing door-knockers targeting hundreds of homes in our county.
As such, she had a very prosaic request: “We don’t have enough volunteers for tomorrow morning’s election and while I’m inside the polling station running things, we need someone to greet voters outside and hand out sample ballots. Will you do it?” Answering that request was not hard. “That’s it? Sure!”
Look, I’ll openly admit, I am not a morning person. I’m a night owl. I’m usually awake till the wee hours, long after my bride is deep asleep. Then she’s up before the sun and I see her at a more reasonable hour over my morning cup of industrial-strength British Typhoo Tea and her second cup of Java Joe. Nevertheless, this was an easy call. Well, kind of.
You see, I’m a bit of a misanthrope. Or at least I like to think I am! One of my favorite slogans is: “Most people are overrated,” and I’m so grateful that whilst I’ve had jobs as a furniture remover and security guard, I never really worked in the service industry. Because I know I probably would have socked someone after an idiot patron just pushed my patience too far. But I survived my morning working the polls. And after my hours outside the school greeting total strangers, I can now say: “Good morning! Do you need a sample ballot!” and even do it with a smile. And it was quite the experience.
From the lovely older woman you parked at the main entrance for her handicapped husband to vote curbside, who suddenly saw me, jumped out of her minivan and ran to say hi because she recognized me from television and insisted on giving me a big hug. (Thank you Betty!)
To observing the drone-like Democrat voters troop in to vote in clusters. The worst of them? The family who brought their young daughter, maybe 8 years old, who they’d dressed in a T-Shirt portraying Ruth Bader Ginsberg. I think Antonin Scalia was one of our greatest jurists – and patriot – but to parade my young son or daughter in a T-shirt with his visage? They really are a cult. And that mindless groupthink is why I did what I did this morning. And it’s why Katie does what she does. Because it’s OUR Republic.
How did the radicals steal our country? Those who believe 900,000 abortions a year are not enough? Those who think borders are “bad,” or that men should be allowed to compete athletically against women and use their changing rooms? How did such radicals win? Because they took Tip O’Neil’s slogan “All politics is LOCAL” seriously. And we did nothing.
Yes it’s cool to work in the White House, trust me, or to be a Senator or Congressman, but America is really built upon our local communities. Just read the greatest book on the USA, de Tocqueville’s On Democracy. The real power is in the hands of the local District Attorney or the local schoolboards. The radicals took those from us and we just lurched for the snooze button.
We have a year until the next election. This time it truly will be the most important one in your lifetime. And in the life of our Republic. If you think just voting and making a donation will save America, you just don’t understand.
If you love America and want to save it, run for local office, volunteer, become an election official, a poll worker.
Just do SOMETHING.
Before they’ll be nothing left to save
Sebastian Gorka, Ph.D. is host of SALEM Radio’s AMERICA First and The Gorka Reality Check on NEWSMAX TV. A former Strategist to President Donald Trump, he is a member of the National Security Education Board of the Pentagon. His latest book is The War for America’s Soul. Follow him on his SubStack page and website.