The Protest Vote That Wrecks Your Portfolio
Frustrated with President Trump and the Republicans? Exhausted by nonstop political noise, drama, and emotional appeals? Fed up with campaign fundraising pleas like “Gimme money, pleeease!”? You’re not alone. But…
Get over it, Pilgrims. Election Day is just two weeks away, and voting has already started. Ballots are being cast nationwide, ready to be counted once the polls close. As my colleague Jim Rickards points out, turnout will be critical in this election.
Many Democrats will undoubtedly vote with vigor because they loathe Trump.
Meanwhile, numerous Republicans, Independents, and some traditional Democrats might stay home because Trump… Congress… the Supreme Court… and You-Name-It… have let them down. They’re upset about the Iran conflict, oversized government spending, soaring fuel and food prices, creeping inflation, immigration issues, foreign visas, and more.
But staying home or casting a protest ballot carries no weight in the political arena. Not voting means you lose twice: your silent protest surrenders influence to the Hard Left, which will intensify America’s challenges.
Indeed, abstaining from voting isn’t a winning strategy since political power never remains empty. When the day ends—Election Day—someone claims control over Capitol Hill, governors’ mansions, municipal offices, and courthouses. It’s only a matter of which faction commands authority.
For Example, Look at Britain
In July 2024, British voters were (to borrow a phrase) p!ssed off. They tossed out an incompetent Conservative government. Millions either abstained or chose Labour, aiming mostly to penalize the Tories rather than endorse a revolutionary agenda.
However, the combination of abstainers and protest voters handed Keir Starmer an overwhelming parliamentary majority. Now, Britain’s left pushes for increased taxes, open borders, disdain for British culture and heritage, and broad economic regulation. And if you protest too loudly, the authorities might come knocking. (Look it up.)
Boatloads of migrants arrive on British Beaches. Credit BBC.
Britain today serves as a cautionary tale of protest elections: voters rejected one party only to allow the Hard Left to seize control, declare a radical mandate, and relentlessly push for higher taxes, expanded regulation, industrial closures, mass immigration, and hallmark left-wing reforms.
Two weeks from now, America risks the same misstep if Republicans, Independents, and moderate Democrats stay on the sidelines. Non-participation will hand the House to a coalition increasingly influenced by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)—a group far from traditional FDR, JFK, or LBJ liberalism.
DSA openly espouses communist ideals. Their platforms demand eliminating the Senate, bolstering government power via the House, packing the Supreme Court, nationalizing health care, defunding law enforcement, socializing major industries, and… well, it’s a long story.
The DSA positions are so extreme 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 endorsing DSA candidates against incumbent Democrats. The message is clear: DSA uses the Democratic Party as a vehicle to gain power but intends to remain indefinitely once in office.
France: 45 Years Down the Road to Serfdom
Britain offers a near-term warning; France presents a long-term example. For about 45 years, left-wing and hard-left administrations expanded spending, taxation, regulation, subsidies, and labor laws, promising something for everyone.
Each proposal sounded compassionate in a distinctively French manner, benefiting politically favored groups. The tax burden always fell on “someone else.” The promises felt great until the costs caught up.
Today, France shoulders enormous, unmanageable debt and persistent deficits. Its daily operations teeter on insolvency. New business formation is practically non-existent. Skilled workers and capital flee. Housing prices have escalated dramatically. Industry struggles. Public services misfire despite record expenditures. Meanwhile, rioters rampage, setting historic landmarks ablaze.
Limoges, France: Oct. 17th, city hall burned by rioters. Credit AFP.
Did French voters consciously pick decline? Not explicitly, but repeatedly they elected officials promising more controls, subsidies, and shifting the tax load elsewhere. That’s how bloated states grow. Failures rarely end government initiatives; often, they become the pretext for new spending boondoggles.
Putting Britain and France in perspective for America reveals how radical politics eventually drains public finances. High taxes worsen returns. Bureaucratic delays stall projects. Energy shortages hike costs. Ultimately, poor policies break essential systems.
Zito’s Lesson: Voting is Not Love
Recently, the insightful writer Salena Zito wrote about how the Gilded Age transformed America economically but left many behind. Railroads, factories, oilfields, and electricity reshaped the nation, yet financial crashes wiped out banks, businesses, jobs, farms, and entire industrial sectors.
In 1888, Republicans narrowly took Congress and treated it as a sweeping mandate. They spent heavily, nearly bankrupting the country—a big deal before the Federal Reserve existed to print “money” and mask financial troubles.
Voters rejected these results in 1890, handing Republicans significant defeats. Then, Democrats seized Congress and the presidency in 1892 and pursued their own agendas, only to lose 125 House seats by 1894.
This cycle shows voters don’t fall in love with parties; they simply oust those who disappoint. The same pattern persists today: the House shifted in 2006, 2010, 2018, and 2022. Americans routinely punish incumbents when dissatisfied but recoil when successors use frustration as a green light for extreme policies.
Political scientist Morris Fiorina calls this an “unstable majority.” Put differently, Americans rarely grant true mandates—they keep politicians on a short leash. However, abstaining from voting this year risks empowering the DSA, which treats victory not as probation but as a green light for their crypto-Bolshevik revolution.
Your Portfolio Runs on Power
On the investment side, this election will influence America’s upcoming industrial expansion: mines, mills, factories, aerospace, shipbuilding, electronics, computing, networks, data centers, and more.
Such growth hinges on energy: oil, natural gas, fuels, uranium, electricity; plus essential materials like copper, steel, and critical metals.
Beyond extraction and refining, artificial intelligence (AI) intensifies demand. Data centers and AI require transformers, chips, cooling equipment, switchgear, and miles of wiring. The future merges steel with software, copper with semiconductors, and algorithms with gigawatts.
Looking forward, America must develop all these sectors. If energy and materials get blocked, technological progress will stall or halt entirely.
California exemplifies how a resource-rich economy manufactures shortages through poor policies: discouraging drilling, shuttering refineries, increasing regulations, and deterring investment for years.
As I covered last April, fuel deficits and refining bottlenecks fuel California’s ongoing energy crisis. Extend that logic nationwide, and a DSA-led House would limit leasing, halt pipelines, obstruct refineries, target conventional power, block mines, and subsidize preferred alternatives.
Additionally, as highlighted repeatedly in our Paradigm Press articles, the Green New Scam restricts reliable energy, finances unstable projects, and blames markets when prices climb.
The Investment Danger
America cannot tax, regulate, and litigate its way to prosperity and industrial dominance. A Democrat-DSA triumph would cause soaring energy prices, sluggish permitting, heavier taxes, and politically driven capital allocation. Simply put, DSA policies threaten your investment outcomes.
DSA initiatives, alongside so-called “Green” policies, drive up the cost of electricity, fuels, transportation, manufacturing, and data processing. Anti-mining stances restrict copper, uranium, and rare earths—critical materials underpinning power grids, reactors, defense, and AI. Project delays strand capital and push investments abroad. Subsidies funnel money to favored technologies instead of stable enterprises and paying customers.
Meanwhile, China will continue mining, refining, manufacturing, and expanding its energy networks—take that literally. Compare China’s integrated power system to America’s, where energy, pipelines, uranium, copper, nuclear power, grid infrastructure, engineering, and data centers interconnect. Weaken one link, and the entire chain falters.
Anger Is Not a Portfolio
So here we stand, two weeks from Election Day. Trump has disappointed plenty of voters. Understood.
But voting isn’t a romance; it’s a responsibility. And boycotting the vote won’t repair Washington’s problems. Sitting it out only hands the reins to a DSA coalition intent on stifling energy, materials, and infrastructure vital to the U.S. economy and your investments.
It’s okay to feel disillusioned or cynical (trust me, I get it). We all want improved governance. But seriously… Show up. Don’t protest so hard that you hand control to the leftist extremists of the DSA.
That’s all for now. Thank you for subscribing and reading.
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