Trump, Paul, and Sanders
These days I am often asked, “What do you think about Trump?” I have a lot of thoughts, as do most of us, about the current president. But I wanted to write part of this essay to talk through what I think about Trump in relation to the Independent Online Political Evolution on VoterDirected Network.com…
There are two foundational principles worth establishing before talking about Trump—or any elected official, senator, representative, or executive. First, all of these individuals, every single one of them, are simply human beings in offices. That’s all a white-collar worker is. White-collar workers are human beings working in offices; blue-collar workers are human beings working outside of offices. That’s it. Their individual power, their personal power, is extremely limited. What’s their mile time? How much can they bench press? How loudly can they project their voice? What can they individually do with their bodies and minds? Those are some of the limited powers of an individual.
Yet white-collar workers—including elected officials—become extremely powerful because of the systems they have access to and control. They gain power not because of who they are as individuals, but because of the economic, institutional, and political systems they can access and command. And that’s where our focus must be. We spend far too much time obsessing over individuals, and not nearly enough time examining the political, economic, and institutional systems those individuals operate within. It is these systems and structures that exist for decades- sometimes centuries. It is these broken, flawed, corrupt, and violent systems that are passed from generation to generation of voters. It is the systems that wield the true power. It is the social, political, and economic systems that must be systemically changed, improved, and evolved in order to see better social, political, and economic outcomes for all U.S. Voters and our children.
Secondly, individuals are not systems. Systems are not individuals. I discuss this in greater depth in the Questions on Individuals essay.
And the Online Political Evolution on VoterDirectedNetwork.com—the entire Voter Directed movement—is not about individuals at all. It is purely, relentlessly, myopically focused on systemic Online Political Evolution. On evolving the system itself. On moving beyond broken, flawed, immensely corrupt, increasingly authoritarian, often violent, incredibly divisive party-driven political systems and into honest, transparent, modern, evolved online democratic republics.
So my message to all individual voters—which includes every elected official and Trump—is always the same:
Have you considered joining Voter Directed Network?
Have you considered pivoting away from decades of dysfunction, corruption, and authoritarian party-driven politics toward online democratic republics that are modern and evolved, logical and intuitive, honest and transparent, collaborative and cooperative?
Have you considered the Online Political Evolution?
Because right now, in this moment, elected officials at all levels of government have the greatest deal of their lives in front of them. This is by far the greatest deal an elected official could ever offer their voters in any modern democratic republic. Elected officials have the opportunity to pivot away from decades of intensifying authoritarianism and instead support a system that empowers voters, reduces political corruption, provides transparency and accountability, modernizes our democratic republic, and unifies the country.
It is a little surreal that Trump, along with every other party driven, party controlled elected official occupying office today, just so happens to be in power at the moment when this opportunity exists. It’s simply timing. VoterDirectedNetwork.com is ready now. And Trump, by timing alone, happens to be one of the individuals who can choose to support this evolution into online democratic republics via Direct Implementation. He can modernize and evolve the executive branch of the federal government- the White House- with a stroke of the pen.
Because let’s be honest: the United States has grown more and more authoritarian since the 1970’s. Every decade has pushed us further from the real Will of the People and deeper into authoritarian party-driven control as wealth and corruption has increasingly captured our democratic republic. And yet—it is precisely in this moment of maximum authoritarianism that the opportunity to end that authoritarian crescendo has been created. That is the strange, almost absurd truth of the moment.
Furthermore, what made President Lincoln great, in the most profound sense, was his ability to lead the country to unprecedented levels of political unity and political freedom. That is what defined the positive parts of his legacy. That is why he stands as one of our greatest presidents.
And that exact same opportunity now exists again.
Any voter, any elected official who chooses the better deal, who chooses to modernize and evolve our political system, who chooses Independent online democratic republics over corrupted, authoritarian party-driven politics, will be leading the country toward greater political freedom and greater political unity than the nation has ever known.
That is the opportunity in front of all U.S. voters. This is the same decision all voters have to make. And when you choose courage and feel ready to support the online political evolution and help our country modernize and evolve our political system, please join us on Voter Directed Network. All voters are always welcome.
Will Trump pivot the country away from decades of broken, flawed, immensely corrupt, and increasingly authoritarian party-driven politics and lead our country to a better future for all voters by choosing Independent online democratic republics that are modern and evolved, honest and transparent, collaborative and cooperative, peaceful and non-violent?
Only Trump knows the answer… but I give it a give it a .001% chance. Beyond and more powerful than Trump and all individual party controlled elected officials is the party driven political system. And the current 2026 Republican Party that has control over most of the three branches of the Federal government is creating one of the most authoritarian domestic administrations we have ever had and that is saying something. In relation to the social, political, and economic policy of Team Red the authoritarian fear-mongering propaganda, violence, greed, and hatred fueling this new brand of corruption and violent party politics is unconstitutional and evil. MAGA is an entirely party driven, party controlled, party financed, party promoted, and party implemented divide and conquer platform. It has found authoritarian success because of the corruption and inherent authoritarian nature of political party machinery and structure. And, like many people have said for a long time, Trump’s personal character and values are increasingly proven to be greedy, violent, and hateful in many horrific and evil ways. For many U.S. Voters, Trump is the worst president we have ever had.
And MAGA? I feel so bad for them. My heart truly breaks for them. There is so much anger and hostility. This is how party driven government systems have always oppressed, exploited, and controlled voters. This is nothing new. Our party controlled political system oppresses voters immensely politically (taking away 99% of voter power despite what the Constitution says and democratic republicanism is all about) and oppresses voters economically by keeping the vast majority of voters, children, and families in or near poverty. This creates immense political and economic frustration, hostility, and depression. Once a party driven political system has a population of voters politically and economically oppressed, angry, and frustrated those voters can be manipulated, misinformed, and propagandized into turning their anger and depression towards other oppressed, disempowered voters via negative Identity Politics. Also, both parties of the U.S. party driven political system blame the other party for the corrupt and violent social, political, and economic systems that have existed for decades and both parties are responsible for perpetuating. This has been the same “divide and conquer” game plan that all major political parties in the U.S. have always used to oppress and control voters. If you can see the corruption and violence of only one of the two major political parties in the U.S. you are literally half way there to seeing the full truth. This is the half truth that keeps some voters trapped in and believing in the party driven political system. If you see that they both have different brands of corruption and violence and most of the time oppressed U.S. voters can only, at best, choose “the lesser of the two evil” political parties to empower- you’re fully there. You see U.S. party controlled politics clearly.
My goodness. Where is the truth, love, kindness, compassion, peacefulness, courage, wisdom, temperance, justice, or any sense of anything deeply positive in party controlled political discourse? All of these virtues and values have NO POLITICAL PARTY, they can all rise in any Independent voter and human being. But these virtues and values could dominate our political discourse when voters choose to evolve beyond party politics via the Independent O.P.E.
Party driven politics has also completely destroyed the libertarian movement and divine masculine and feminine spiritual energy. Voters who prioritize liberation/libertarianism, believe deeply in the U.S. Constitution, and believe in social, political, and economic justice, freedom, and liberty for all voters need the United States’ Second Independence.
And to be crystal clear MAGA is NOT on my People I Hate list. They can choose to come to the Independent side and fight back against the darkness just like those currently oppressed by the Democratic Party. If you are truly libertarian and want freedom, liberty, and justice for ALL voters please join us and work on the progressive libertarian Voter Directed movement. Everyone needs a cause to believe in. Everyone needs a compassionate, supportive, and community-oriented future to hope for.
Choose freedom. Choose political justice. Choose online political community for all.
Choose free thinking and true mental, emotional, and political Independence! Work for real, true, modern and evolved online democracy. Real political freedom for all. ALL Power to ALL Voters.
In other words, party politics, party controlled politics, party driven politics require voters to passively or actively adopt evil, fear-based, and violent “fight and win” and “divide and conquer” political mentalities. The Independent, free thinking Online Political Evolution, however, requires an “evolve and solve” political mentality. Evolve our practices of democratic republicanism away from the corruption and violence of party politics by declaring our 2nd Independence and bringing our democratic republics fully online. Then voters vote on everything and inform every political decision like our Constitution and real democratic republicanism demands and voters then have the political power needed to work together to solve our many systemic social, political, and economic problems.
And that is what I think about all elected officials, Trump, MAGA, and the Democratic Party.
Voters also ask me if there are any current federal-level U.S. politicians I trust. Sometimes I say there are two — though honestly, it’s really just one.
The first is someone I want to trust. Someone whose instincts I deeply admire. Someone who begins his sentences sounding like a pure, principled libertarian — liberty for all, justice for all, freedom for all — and ends those same sentences sounding like a loyal foot soldier for party-driven economic philosophy.
That person is Rand Paul.
Rand Paul fascinates me. In one breath, he speaks genuine, real libertarian philosophy — the kind that prioritizes freedom, limits centralized power, and stands firmly against unnecessary state violence. And then in the very next breath, sometimes in the very next sentence, that beautiful instinct gets corrupted and bent back into the narrow ideologies of the party-driven system.
And the funniest part? It is exactly what happened with his father. Ron Paul was the same way: flashes of absolute libertarian brilliance, immediately compromised or constrained by party driven systems that reward economic conformity over democratic courage and the pursuit of economic liberty, economic freedom, and economic justice for all. Today, the “libertarian movement” is mostly dead, which makes me incredibly sad. Our country needs to be way, way, way more libertarian. The Online Political Evolution- the Voter Directed Movement- is a progressive libertarian movement and will help revive the libertarian movement as well.
But I’ll tell you this — I would love to work with Rand Paul. I truly would. I’d fly down to Kentucky or he could come up to Wisconsin. We could sit down for dinner, talk philosophy for hours, sleep on it, and spend more time the next day building a modern social, political, and economic libertarian framework for the Digital Age. I would then upload the results of our work to VDN for all voters to vote on and respond to. His instincts are there. They are deep within him. He begins with liberty, justice, and freedom for all — and only later does the party-driven philosophy creep back in.
So Rand Paul is the politician I want to trust. I really, really want to. I know a true libertarian is within him. But because so much of his libertarian philosophy and ideology has been swallowed by party-driven ideology, I ultimately can’t trust him. Not yet.
There is, however, one politician I do trust. Completely. Without hesitation.
Bernie Sanders.
Bernie Sanders is a wonderful human being and — as I define it in my political labels essay — a true progressive libertarian. And he has been one for decades.
In our party-driven system, many politicians sound progressive or libertarian, but their actions are regressive, aligned with party driven narrative and goals, and/or increasingly authoritarian. Bernie is an exception. Bernie’s alignment between word and action is extraordinary. He has spent his entire political career working to evolve our social, political, and economic systems to reduce systemic human suffering — the core purpose of progressive philosophy. AND at the same time, he has been wonderfully libertarian, consistently promoting social, political, and economic justice for all, freedom for all, and liberty for all.
And I believe he’s been able to do that for so long because he is literally independent. Independent of the two-party machinery. Independent of the party-driven ideology that corrupts nearly everyone it touches. He caucuses with Democrats, of course, but his voice, his principles, and his heart are independent. He calls out the financially corrupt and violent establishment and structure of the Democratic Party and Republican Party consistently and accurately.
That independence is what allows him to remain honest. Transparent. Consistent. Compassionate. Courageous. He is one of the few politicians whose heart is fully progressive and whose brain is fully libertarian — a combination I deeply admire. There is no single version of “history” for any event. Any single event or time period event can have thousands, if not millions, of different and competing stories told about it. But I believe that any accurate account of political history will see Bernie Sanders as objectively the most successful and the most important Independent U.S. elected official since our first president- George Washington.
I trust Bernie Sanders 100%. Not because I agree with every single idea — nobody agrees with anyone on every detail — but because I trust that he is always speaking honestly, transparently, and with a focus on reducing systemic human suffering and/or liberty, justice, and freedom for all. I trust that, for the most part, he is not captured by the system. I trust that, for the most part, his values don’t bend under pressure from party machinery.
In fact, a few times over the years, my wife and I would be talking late at night — about politics, the world, the suffering people are experiencing, all the chaos and noise of our current era. And then the next morning, she’d wake up and say, “I have to tell you something.” And I’d ask, “What? What happened?” And she’d say, “I donated again to Bernie Sanders.”
And I’d laugh and say, “Sweetie… I get it. I really do. When the world feels chaotic, supporting Bernie Sanders feels like doing something good in response.” But now, of course, we can’t do that anymore — because all political donations are political corruption because all political donations come with an expectation. No one gives money to any one for anything without an expectation. That’s one of the core truths of Voter Directed Democracy. But I completely understand why she did it and why millions have done it even as the vast majority of us know that political decisions in a democratic republic at any level of government should always be COMPLETELY SEPARATE from political donations- and all political decisions should be perpetually consistent with the real Will of the People. Nevertheless, Bernie is the only candidate I ever rallied for. Bernie is the only elected official I ever donated to before I wrote the Voter Directed Democracy book and we built the Voter Directed Network platform.
Because Bernie is honest. He’s transparent. He’s independent. He’s compassionate. And he’s courageous.
And that’s the truth: in a political landscape dominated by a broken, flawed, immensely corrupt, incredibly divisive, often violent, and increasingly authoritarian party-driven system, Bernie is the only federal-level elected official I fully trust.
But to be fully honest and transparent, there is one enormous problem I have with Bernie Sanders. It’s the one thing that has held him back for decades, it’s the one thing that has limited his influence, and it’s the one thing that breaks my heart and the hearts of the millions of us who support him.
His messaging is flawed.
Not his compassion. Not his integrity. Not his philosophy. His messaging.
Let me give you two examples.
1. “Democratic Socialist” — A Beautiful Idea, But Only 25% of the Full Truth
Almost everyone that follows U.S. politics and the man himself associates Bernie with two words:
“democratic socialist.”
And to be clear, there is nothing wrong with identifying as a democratic socialist. The problem is that it is only one-fourth of a full economic philosophy. It is only 25% of what needs to be explained.
Bernie never gives the complete framework, and because of that, his messaging is misunderstood, distorted, and weaponized. What he should be doing — what he needs to be doing — is explaining the full structure of how economics and economic philosophy should work inside the democratic republic we have that is created by the U.S Constitution.
Our economic system, in reality, has four components:
Democratic Capitalism
Political decisions aligned with the real Will of the People that support private ownership and private enterprise.Authoritarian Capitalism
Political decisions not aligned with the real Will of the People that support private ownership and private enterprise.
(What we have far too much of today.)Democratic Socialism
Political decisions aligned with of the real Will of the People determining:
• what taxes the government collects
• what taxes the government does not collect
• and how the tax revenue is used
All socialism is in the context of a democratic republican political system is a tax system. A public investment system.Authoritarian Socialism
Political decisions not aligned with the real Will of the People determining the tax system.(What we also have far too much of today.)
Bernie’s flaw is that he only names the one component he likes — Democratic Socialism — without explaining the full map. And without that full map, people confuse democratic socialism with Authoritarian Socialism and believe that he doesn’t also support Democratic Capitalism. They confuse a democratic socialist tax system with an authoritarian command economy and authoritarian political system.
If Bernie explained all four components of democratic republican economic philosophy —Democratic Capitalism, Authoritarian Capitalism, Democratic Socialism, and Authoritarian Socialism — more voters would understand him with clarity and his message would be less vulnerable to manipulation by authoritarian capitalists and their media. This is what I attempted to do in my On Capitalism essay.
But because Bernie only gives one-fourth of the full economic philosophy, he is perpetually misunderstood and his labels are used against him.
It breaks my heart. Because the truth he stands for is so much bigger than the label he uses.
2. The Second Flaw: He Drifts from Systems to Individuals
The second flaw in Bernie’s messaging is even more significant.
Bernie starts by talking about systems — the broken system of authoritarian capitalism, the broken system of party-driven democracy, the broken system of oligarchy. This is the correct focus. This is what matters. This is what needs to change.
But then he shifts from systems to individuals. And as I discussed in the beginning of this essay, individuals ARE NOT systems.
The moment you talk about individuals — elected officials, billionaires, CEOs, or any individual — you are no longer talking about systems. You are no longer focusing on structural corruption. You are no longer describing the machinery that produces the suffering.
Talking about individuals directs all the energy away from systemic change. And you can only change whatever you are talking about and focused on. Bernie hasn’t found significant systemic success because he too often stops talking about and loses focus on systems and starts talking about individuals.
A perfect example is the Fight Oligarchy Tour.
“Fight oligarchy” is brilliant. It is consistent with Voter Directed Democracy, which stands against all forms of authoritarianism at all levels of government. It is consistent with real democratic republicanism. Fight Oligarchy, of course, is completely, 100% supported by the U.S. Constitution. It is one of the many correct battle cries you could have against authoritarianism.
But far too often, the messaging during that tour shifted from systems to people.
From oligarchy to specific elected officials.
From systemic corruption to individual behavior.
The moment you shift from a systemic critique to a personal critique, you’ve abandoned the systemic conversation. You’ve traded a transformational message for a partisan or individual-focused one. You’re no longer promoting systemic wisdom, you’re focused on punishing an individual.
And that weakens everything.
It dilutes the philosophy.
It diminishes the clarity.
It fractures the movement.
Bernie Sanders, this wonderful, compassionate, progressive libertarian has but one big flaw: he hasn’t learned how to talk about systems without drifting back into individuals.
But, to be fair, many elected officials, political commentators, and political comedians do the exact same thing. I believe this is simply the result of these humans lacking a viable systemic solution to political corruption and the party driven problem prior to the existence of the Online Political Evolution on Voter Directed Network. But Bernie and others do know the individual solution. They do know how to act honestly, transparently, and democratically as an individual and thus Bernie and others shift their focus away from systems and instead focus on individual behavior and individual solutions.
This often unintentional shift in focus from systems to individuals that we see from progressive, compassionate, liberty-loving, justice-seeking, and freedom-minded humans in and around politics is also why I wrote the entire Voter Directed Democracy book without referencing a single individual. The book is only focused on systemic change and systemic Independent Online Political Evolution. Once you know of and believe in a viable SYSTEMIC SOLUTION to immensely corrupt and increasingly authoritarian, party driven Flawed Democracy, then you can remain focused on the systems instead of falling into the party-driven trap of focusing on individuals or only criticizing one party. And, again, you can only ever change and improve what you put your focus and attention on. Stay focused on systems and systemic Online Political Evolution and we will get there together.
Sanders, Stewart, Colbert, Reich, and many other pro-democracy, pro-democratic republic, pro-compassion, progressive-minded and libertarian-minded humans have the heart, the mind, and the values that our Flawed Democracy desperately needs. These trustworthy humans and the vast majority of voters all know and generally agree about what kind of political system we want and do not want. Nearly all of us do not want anything corrupt and anything authoritarian. Similarly, nearly all voters generally want democracy, democratic republics, honesty, transparency, and the relentlessly sourcing and implementation of the real Will of the People. Voters are not divided on these basic and immensely important democratic republican principles.
And maybe now all voters will see that the Online Political Evolution on Voter Directed Network can get us there. The Online Political Evolution on Voter Directed Network can get our political system to a place of honest and transparency, cooperation and collaboration where the real Will of the People is relentlessly voted on by millions of voters and is implemented consistently at all levels of government- every single day, for every single issue. Evolution is the solution. The Online Political Evolution is the solution to widespread legalized political corruption and the party driven problem.
To fix our broken, flawed, and immensely corrupt party driven system we cannot put energy and focus on any individual. We MUST stay focused on evolving systems. All voters are always welcome on VoterDirectedNetwork.com
Thank you for reading,
AVK