God save the republic

---

Why Do So Many of Us Keep Giving Away Our Vote?

I still don’t get it.

Today Kansans had a chance to take back the power to choose their own Supreme Court justices. Instead, voters overwhelmingly said no. They chose to keep the current system where a nominating commission—dominated by lawyers chosen by other lawyers—picks the short list, and the governor picks from that list. The people only get a yes-or-no retention vote later, which almost never removes anyone.

In other words, we voted to keep letting someone else decide who sits in judgment over us.

I keep asking the same question: Why would free citizens ever choose to abdicate their own authority? Why hand your vote, your voice, your free will over to a small group of insiders when you have the chance to exercise it yourself?

This wasn’t some obscure technical change. It was a straightforward question: Do the people of Kansas get to elect the justices of the highest court in the state, or do we continue letting a closed process do it for us? The answer that came back was a decisive “no, thank you—we’d rather not.”

Even more baffling is who lined up to defend the status quo. Outside money, including funding connected to George Soros’ network, flowed into the “Vote No” campaign. The same people who constantly talk about “protecting democracy” spent heavily to make sure Kansas voters would not get a direct say in who sits on the Kansas Supreme Court. That should tell you something.

We’ve seen this pattern before. Too many people have been trained to believe that governing is too complicated for ordinary citizens. Better leave it to the experts, the lawyers, the commissions, the people who “know better.” It’s quieter that way. It’s safer for the people already in charge. And it’s a quiet form of surrender.

I refuse to accept that this is the best we can do. A republic only works if the people insist on keeping the power. Every time we vote to give that power away—whether it’s judges, school boards, or local development decisions—we make the next surrender easier.

So how do we wake people up?

We stop assuming they already understand what’s at stake. We explain, calmly and repeatedly, that a retention election after the fact is not the same as choosing the person in the first place. We point out that the current nominating system is the only one in the country where lawyers hold a majority of the seats. We keep showing who is funding the effort to keep voters out of the process. And we refuse to let the conversation stay abstract. This is about who decides the rules that govern your property, your schools, your rights, and your community.

People respond when they see the pattern clearly. Most of them are not stupid or evil. Many are simply busy, or they’ve been told for years that “the professionals” should handle these things. Our job is to make the trade-off impossible to ignore: either you keep the power yourself, or you keep handing it to people who will never give it back voluntarily.

I’m not interested in accepting the result and moving on. I’m interested in making sure the next time this question comes around, more people understand exactly what they’re being asked to give away.

The authority belongs to the citizens. The only way it stays there is if we insist on keeping it.

— Henry McClure Topeka

Vote

Hey! 1 day left! We are asking supporters to blast this text out to their network via text/email/Facebook ! Let’s flood the internet! 

I am voting for Philip Sarnecki for Governor tomorrow. Will you vote for him as well? 

Philip Sarnecki is a successful business leader who has never run for office before. Philip has had a career of success in the business world, and I believe we need that successful experience in the Governor’s office. 

We are getting crushed by out of control taxes. Our kids are leaving Kansas and people can’t afford their property tax bill. The career politicians continue to spend more and more of our money with no help in sight. They had their chance, and they have failed. 

Philip wants to get real results. He wants to lower taxes, create jobs, and provide immediate property tax relief for Kansans. With his business experience, I know he can get it done. 

I hope you will join me in voting for Philip and I hope you will tell your friends to vote too!

Henry McClure

785.383.9994 

Sent from my T-Mobile 5G Device
Get Outlook for Android

The American form of government is a republic.

. Form of Government: Republic, Not Pure Democracy

• Opens with Noah Webster’s 1828 definition: a republic is a commonwealth in which sovereign power is exercised by elected representatives; it differs from a pure democracy in which the people exercise power directly.
• Cites Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution: “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government…”
• Notes the Pledge of Allegiance’s reference to “the Republic for which it stands.”
• Quotes Noah Webster (via Hall & Slater) that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the Bible, especially the New Testament.
• Benjamin Rush (signer of the Declaration) argues that the only way to establish and perpetuate republican government is universal education of youth in the principles of Christianity through the Bible; he links biblical teaching to equality, respect for just laws, and the “sober and frugal virtues” that form the soul of republicanism.
• Jedediah Morse (“Father of American Geography”) asserts that civil freedom and political/social happiness derive from Christianity; if its genuine effects diminish, freedom recedes, and republican government itself will fall.
• Rush further contrasts “simple democracy” with a balanced republican system, citing Fisher Ames’s comparison of pure democracy to a volcano containing the materials of its own destruction, and recounting a Swiss citizen’s rejection of pure democracy as “the devil’s own government.”

2. The Revolution, Independence, and Christianity

• 1854 House Judiciary Committee report (Rep. No. 124): Every colony sustained religion in some form before the Revolution; had the people suspected an attack on Christianity, the Revolution “would have been strangled in its cradle.”
• On the same day Washington’s army fought (and lost) at Brandywine (Sept. 11, 1777), the Continental Congress voted to import 20,000 Bibles from Scotland and Holland because their use was “so universal and important.”
• John Quincy Adams (1837 oration) links the Fourth of July to the birth of the Savior: the nation’s birthday is “indissolubly linked” with the Redeemer’s mission; the Declaration organized the social compact on the foundation of Christianity and fulfilled biblical prophecy.
• Declaration of Independence language: “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.”
• William Blackstone (Commentaries, 1765): Man is subject to the laws of his Creator (the law of nature); the revealed or divine law is found only in the Holy Scriptures; these two foundations (nature and revelation) undergird all human law, and no human law should contradict them. The document presents this as the intellectual basis for the Founders’ separation from England.

3. The First Amendment and “Separation of Church and State”

• Quotes the actual text: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
• Emphasizes that the phrase “a wall of separation between church and State” does not appear in the Constitution. It originates in Jefferson’s 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists.
• Cites a New York court (Baer v. Kolmorgan) declining to treat Jefferson’s metaphor as constitutional text and insisting on the plain language of the First Amendment and state constitutions.
• 1852–53 Senate Judiciary Committee report: The Amendment was intended to prohibit an establishment like the English church, not to create an irreligious people or to impose “atheistical apathy.” The Revolution and Continental Congress had been conducted with continual appeals to the Supreme Ruler of the world.
• 1854 House Judiciary Committee report: At the adoption of the Constitution and amendments, the universal sentiment was that Christianity should be encouraged (not any one sect). Attempts to level or discard all religion would have been met with universal indignation. The goal was to prevent rivalry among Christian sects, not to substitute Judaism, Islam, or infidelity.
• References Runkel v. Winemiller (1799, Maryland): “By our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion,” with all Christian sects placed on equal footing and entitled to protection of religious liberty.

4. Religion, Morality, and the Health of the Republic

• Poses the practical question: What does moral failure (crime, drugs, family breakdown, white-collar crime, etc.) cost society economically and psychologically?
• James Madison is quoted (via secondary sources) as saying the future of American civilization is staked on the capacity of the people to govern themselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.
• George Washington’s Farewell Address (1796): “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports.” No one who labors to subvert them can claim the tribute of patriotism.
• U.S. Supreme Court, Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States (1892): After surveying numerous precedents, the Court declared “this is a Christian nation.”
  • Supporting citations include preambles and clauses from the Illinois, Massachusetts, Mississippi, and Delaware constitutions requiring or presupposing belief in God, public worship, or Christian profession for office-holding.
  • State cases (Updegraph, People v. Ruggles, Vidal v. Girard’s Executors) affirming that general Christianity is part of the common law of Pennsylvania and New York, and that the Bible (especially the New Testament) may properly be taught for its moral principles.
• Benjamin Franklin’s famous speech at the Constitutional Convention (June 28, 1787): After weeks of deadlock, he urged daily prayer, noting that the Convention had forgotten the “Father of lights,” that God governs in the affairs of men, and that “except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.” He recalled the daily prayers of the Continental Congress and the “superintending Providence” that had aided the Revolution.

5. Education, Public Schools, and Public Religion

• Columbian History of Education in Kansas (1893, compiled by Kansas educators for the Columbian Exposition): Free public schools grew out of the parochial and pastoral schools of Puritan New England. If the Bible and Christian principles are excluded from state schools, “the good of the State would be better served by restoring all schools to church control.”
• Continental Congress proclamations (multiple years, 1777–1784) routinely invoke “Almighty God,” seek forgiveness “through the merits of Jesus Christ,” ask for the spread of the knowledge of Christianity, and request blessing on schools and the gospel of peace.
• Patrick Henry is quoted: the nation was founded “not by religionists, but by Christians… not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
• John Jay (first Chief Justice and co-author of The Federalist): “It is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.”
• 1780 Continental Congress resolution recommending that the states take measures to print correct editions of the Old and New Testaments and regulate printers to prevent misprints.

Overall Character and Purpose of the Document

The document presents a sustained historical and legal argument that:

• The American form of government is a republic, not a pure democracy, and that republicanism historically depended on Christian moral formation.
• Christianity (understood non-sectarianly) was the assumed moral and cultural foundation of the founding generation, the Revolutionary Congress, early state constitutions, and 19th-century judicial understanding.
• The First Amendment was designed to prevent a national established church of the English type and to protect free exercise, not to secularize public life or treat Christianity as constitutionally irrelevant.
• Religion and morality remain practical necessities for self-government, social order, and economic health.

It relies heavily on primary sources (Webster, Rush, Morse, Washington, Franklin, Blackstone, congressional reports, early court cases, and state constitutions) while also drawing on secondary compilations. The tone is didactic and apologetic—intended to recover what the compiler regards as the original, biblically informed understanding of the American constitutional order. 

Trump & Masterson Launch “Kansas River Luxury Cruises”

(Featuring the official flagship)

Look at this beauty.

This is the vessel. The pride of the fleet. The ship that will “never let you down.”

Donald Trump and Ty Masterson have apparently partnered up to launch a brand-new cruise line that will ply the mighty Kansas River. They were originally going to put a casino on it — because nothing says fiscal genius like Trump’s Atlantic City track record — but that idea sank faster than the boat itself. So now it’s just a “luxury river experience.”

And who did they put in charge of boat repair and construction?

Ty Masterson.

The same Ty Masterson whose home-building company, Masterbuilt Homes, collapsed in 2006. The same guy who blamed a former employee for the unauthorized charges and mismanaged projects. The same guy who later filed Chapter 7 with roughly $300,000 in assets against $1.13 million in debts and left creditors with pennies. The same guy who in 2008 told voters he would never declare bankruptcy out of “personal responsibility”… then did exactly that two years later.

Of course they put him in charge of the boat. Look at the holes in the hull. Look at the rust. Look at the way it’s sitting high and dry on the sand like it gave up halfway through the voyage. That’s not a cruise ship. That’s a floating metaphor for Masterson’s business career — and now, apparently, for the economic vision Trump just endorsed for the entire state of Kansas.

Trump once built a television career yelling “You’re fired” at people who failed less spectacularly than this. Now he’s out here co-signing the guy who should have been the first one shown the door, calling him a “fantastic Candidate” who will never let Kansans down.

Never let you down. While the boat is already on the beach. With holes in it. And the repair guy is the one who previously bankrupted a construction company.

Kansans have every right to be angry. This isn’t leadership. This is a punchline with a campaign logo on it.

The flagship has already run aground. The captain has a bankruptcy on his record. And the owner is the same man who keeps insisting this is the best possible choice.

You’re not launching a cruise line. You’re launching another failure. And you’re asking the rest of us to buy tickets.

(A boardroom that never happened, but should have)

 "You're Fired, Ty"

(A boardroom that never happened, but should have)

Scene: The Apprentice boardroom. Trump is in the big chair, hair perfect, scowl locked and loaded. Ty Masterson sits across the table in a stiff suit, trying to look like a serious businessman who definitely did not crater a home-building company and then file Chapter 7.

Trump leans forward.

“Ty. Masterbuilt Homes. Failed in 2006. You blamed a former employee for unauthorized charges and mismanaged projects. Classic. Always the employee’s fault. Never the guy whose name is on the door. Then four years later you walk into bankruptcy court with three hundred thousand in assets and one-point-one-three million in debts. Corner Bank. Emprise Bank. Over a hundred sixty thousand on the credit cards. Case closed in 2012. Creditors got almost nothing. Beautiful.”

Masterson starts the usual speech. Personal responsibility. Buck stops here. Attorneys told me to file but I refused out of principle… back in 2008, while campaigning.

Trump cuts him off.

“You said that in 2008. Then you filed in 2010. That’s not principle. That’s a two-year delay. You told voters the buck stopped with you. Turns out the buck stopped at the bankruptcy trustee. And now you want to run a state? You couldn’t keep a residential construction company from going under and left the banks and suppliers holding the bag. What exactly qualifies you to manage anything bigger than a lemonade stand that already went bankrupt?”

The rest of the boardroom is silent. Even the interns know better than to defend this one.

Trump stands up, points the finger.

“You’re fired.”

Cut to reality, 2026.

The same Donald Trump who would have fired Ty Masterson on national television for exactly this record is now on Truth Social calling him a “fantastic Candidate” with his “Complete and Total Endorsement” to be the next governor of Kansas. “HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN,” the post screamed.

Never let you down. The same guy whose company already did. The same guy who discharged more than a million dollars in debts while preaching personal responsibility on the campaign trail two years earlier. The same guy who traced the whole mess to a former employee instead of looking in the mirror.

This is the “successful businessman” Trump is vouching for. This is the fiscal hawk Kansas is supposed to trust with the state budget. This is the man who will never let you down… after already letting Corner Bank, Emprise Bank, a pile of credit-card companies, and a bunch of subcontractors down for roughly eight hundred eighty-five thousand dollars in unsecured debt.

Trump once built a brand on “You’re fired.” Now he’s out here hiring the guy who should have been the first one shown the door.

Masterson got the endorsement. Kansas gets the punchline.

You’re not fired, Ty. You’re endorsed. And somehow that’s worse.