⛸️ California GOP Stumbles, Falls, and Leaves the Ice

Imagine an Olympic figure skater stepping onto the ice. The lights are bright, the crowd is watching, and seconds into her routine—she slips. It’s a hard fall, the kind that makes everyone gasp.
But she doesn’t quit. She gets up, finishes her routine, and earns respect not for perfection but for perseverance. Because that’s what professionals do. They keep going. They make people believe again.

Now picture the California Republican Party. They took the ice on Proposition 50—a Democratic power grab disguised as redistricting reform—and the moment things got rough, they didn’t stumble and recover.
They walked off the rink.

When early polls showed Prop 50 could be beaten, GOP leaders promised a fight. Big donors lined up. Kevin McCarthy talked about raising $100 million. Voters were told that the integrity of representation was at stake.

But as the campaign got hard, the party simply disappeared. Spending evaporated. Messaging stopped. The supposed “defenders of fair districts” went silent while Governor Newsom’s Yes on 50 campaign plastered the state with ads.

Charles Munger Jr.’s Protect Voters First committee—once the backbone of opposition—cut spending from millions to mere hundreds. By late October, the so-called opposition had become a rumor.

Meanwhile, ordinary voters—Republican, independent, and Libertarian alike—watched yet another example of political cowardice. Not a tactical retreat. A total surrender.

And for what? To stay “viable” in a one-party state that stopped listening years ago?

When you stop fighting for your principles, you stop being relevant.

The California GOP’s collapse isn’t just about bad strategy. It’s about moral exhaustion—a party that lost faith in its own message. Real reform requires conviction, not consultants. Liberty requires persistence, not polling.

Libertarians have seen this before. When the two old parties play winner-take-all, they forget that what’s worth winning is trust. Californians still want honesty, competition, and courage.

The skater who falls and gets back up earns applause.
The one who quits mid-routine just clears the ice for someone else.
And this time, that someone else might just be us.

🗳️ Prop 50 and the Fight for Fair Representation

By LPCA Chair Loren Dean — full article will be in next week's issue of The Beacon.

Let’s be honest — Sacramento doesn’t want fair elections. Proposition 50 was just the latest power grab, designed to tighten the political establishment’s hold on California voters. As LPCA Chair Loren Dean told CalMatters, “Representatives don’t get to pick their constituents; a system where leaders get to choose who they lead is feudalism, not democracy.”

With help from Lars Mapstead and the Voting Rights Foundation, the LPCA sent nearly 10,000 mailers opposing Prop 50 to Libertarian voters in the counties hit first by this scheme. Prop 50 may have passed, but the campaign proved something more important: Libertarians get back up when others walk off the ice. We don’t quit on principle — and we’re not done fighting for fair representation in California.

🏛️ Power Over Principle — When the Duopoly Feeds on Control

The collapse of Republican resistance to Proposition 50 wasn’t just a political embarrassment — it was a moral unmasking.
Democrats rewrote California’s congressional maps to lock in one-party control, and Republicans, who once promised to defend fairness, walked away without a fight.

Two parties. Two tactics. One goal: power.
Democrats use “reform” as camouflage for centralization.
Republicans use “strategy” as cover for surrender.
Neither side stood for the principle of representation by the people.

And while Sacramento tightens its grip on who draws the lines, Washington proves that the appetite for control doesn’t stop at district maps.
The latest government shutdown is more than budget brinkmanship — it’s a moral failure. When the political class can’t agree on how to spend other people’s money, they treat citizens as collateral damage.

Federal employees become bargaining chips.
Families who depend on federal programs are left waiting.
And both parties point fingers while collecting paychecks.

The two-party system has become a marketplace of coercion.
When government grows large enough to feed you, it grows powerful enough to starve you.

🌍 Free Markets Create Freedom — Not Dependence

Libertarians know that the cure for political greed isn’t a better bureaucracy — it’s a smaller one.
The freer the market, the fewer people need the state to survive.

Here’s how the ten freest economies in the world compare in both liberty and dependency:

¹ Heritage Foundation, 2025 Index of Economic Freedom
² OECD Social Expenditure Database, World Bank, and U.S. Department of Agriculture (SNAP data 2024)

The lesson is unmistakable:
Economic freedom reduces dependency.
When people control their work, property, and choices, they don’t wait for government permission to eat.

🕊️ Liberty Is the Only Safety Net

Both parties promise compassion while weaponizing dependency. They treat welfare as political leverage, not moral duty.

But markets reward efficiency.
Communities reward trust.
And voluntary charity rewards conscience.

Libertarians reject the false choice between chaos and control.
We believe that freedom — not fear — feeds a nation.

If government can feed you, it can starve you.
If it can shelter you, it can cage you.
And if it claims to protect you, it will eventually own you.

California’s Prop 50 proved how easily politicians redraw boundaries for their own gain.
The shutdown in Washington shows what happens when they redraw the boundaries of our lives.

The answer to both is the same: less power for them, more power for you.

🗽 Divided We Fall – A Libertarian View

Taken from, and condensed from

https://democracysos.substack.com/p/divided-we-fall-part-ii-whats-causing

America’s political violence isn’t just about bad tempers or “the other side.” It’s a symptom of broken systems—both political and technological.

1. Winner-Take-All Politics.
Our entire election structure—one winner per district—encourages division. It rewards fear, not freedom. Every race becomes a zero-sum game: one side takes all the power, the other gets nothing. Most voters live in “safe” districts where the outcome is already decided, so only a handful of swing voters choose the direction of the country.

Libertarians have long said this system isn’t democracy—it’s a monopoly. Competition in business produces innovation; competition in ideas should too. Alternatives like ranked-choice voting and proportional representation could finally give independent and Libertarian voices a fair hearing.

2. The Algorithmic Echo Chamber.
At the same time, our digital public square has been sold to the highest bidder. Big Tech profits by keeping us angry and addicted. The “unsocial” media feeds outrage because outrage sells ads. Instead of an open marketplace of ideas, we get data-mining and emotional manipulation.

The solution isn’t censorship or government “fact-checking.” It’s restoring individual responsibility and digital freedom—letting people own their data, choose their sources, and think for themselves.

3. The Way Forward.
Polarization thrives when power is centralized. The more Washington decides, the more the stakes rise—and the uglier the fight gets. Real peace and civility start when power returns to local communities and individuals.

As Libertarians, we believe the cure for division isn’t more control—it’s more liberty.

📅 LPCA ExCom In-Person Meeting

When:
November 15, 2025 (all day, America/Los Angeles time)

Where:
Handlery Hotel
950 Hotel Cir N
San Diego, CA 92108

We hope to come up with solutions and strategies to make the LPC more effective. Who’s answering the phone? Who’s supporting candidates? Stay tuned!

In Conclusion

I took a gamble last week with Libertarian Jesus vs. Republican Jesus. I got one favorable response, one negative response and one full of profanity that had to be written by a 4th grader.

One fair criticism, and I failed to appreciate this: this email is written by me, Pat Wright. It doesn’t necessarily reflect the views of anyone else. I do hope it comes across as solid, but still my views as a Libertarian.

I am open to other people’s views and contributions.
In fact, I’d love a guest editor as I’m off to Switzerland shortly. I can do the Beacon from Mexico, but doing it in Switzerland would be a challenge.

As I say of my other email newsletter, never perfect, but always on time.

Thank you,
Pat Wright