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Conservatives are fond of invoking the Ring of Power from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings as a symbol of government power. It's easy to see the attraction that metaphor holds for them. Having raised individual liberty and limited government to cardinal virtues, a talisman of ultimate control fits their image of the shadowy, vaguely superhuman bureaucracy in Washington.

In Tolkien's masterpiece, the plot was a type of anti-quest wherein the heroes had to overcome long odds--not to recover some powerful artifact, but to destroy it. Meanwhile, a Dark Lord seeking world domination was after the same prize. The spoils were winner take all with no silver medal for second place. Those conditions set a nuclear doomsday clock-sized timer that kept the tension high.

Conservatives' penchant for equating the One Ring with government explains itself when you consider that it lets them cast themselves as the underdog Fellowship striving to destroy the source of tyranny--or in their case, return America to Constitutional government. It's a highly flattering image.

There are a couple of problems with that allegory, though. First of all, the Fellowship's goal wasn't placing checks on the Ring. They were out to destroy it, specifically because its power was illimitable. Following the analogy to its logical conclusion, Conservatives actually propose something more along the lines of Frodo's original idea: managing the Ring by keeping it out of the wrong hands. Due to its corrupting influence, that also meant refusing to use it himself.

Tolkien staunchly resisted attempts to frame Lord of the Rings as an allegory, and here we have a good reason why. Plugging "government" into the story for all values of the Ring results in something more like anarchism. The story itself contradicts this reading, since one of the good guys' victory conditions is crowning a new king. Tolkien's opus can more readily be seen as two groups of monarchists slugging it out with a small faction of distributists deciding which monarchy wins.

The other issue is that it's far too late to destroy the Ring. Proposing a return to the Constitution is closing the barn door after the horses have not only left, but have been shipped to China for stew meat.

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The Conservative project might've had merit while there was still a chance of bringing the state to heel through grassroots organizing and voting in the right people. Now, by their own measure, Conservatives are about as relevant as the Whigs. The folks running establishment Conservatism know this. That's why their operation has shifted toward milking Boomers for cruise money while pushing butt stuff on college kids.

Point this out to Conservatives, and they'll often quote from Lewis' Abolition of Man or Tolkien's line about fighting the long defeat. That attitude makes sense coming from British men of letters who held a vestigial fondness for pagan stoicism and who'd seen the two apocalyptic 20th century wars. One wonders what they'd say if they saw that England will be minority English by next century and heard that the state can rip children from their fathers' arms for summary castration.

Tolkien never showed us what would happen if Sauron won. Now we're seeing it firsthand. Clown World thwarts the Ring metaphor.

Perhaps an alternate timeline sequel to LotR would have seen a daring burglar stealing the Ring back from under the Dark Lord's nose. 2016 actually gave Conservatives the chance to play out that scenario--to try Boromir's way and use the Ring now that all bets are off--or else destroy it. They squandered their last chance to do both. The urge to languish on the sofa and sigh about the long defeat proved irresistible.

Conservatives' utter and repeated failure has taught us at least one thing: The Ring can be wrested from its wielder's hand. Unlike Tolkien's preternatural talisman, government is a human institution meant for human use.

The rising tide of dissenters won't make the same mistakes. Our task is to slowly scale the mountain until we stand where Boromir did. And this time, we'll use the Ring.

For a story where the heroes put this strategy into practice, check out Combat Frame XSeed: CY 40 Second Coming.

It is equally ironic and predictable that Liberal democracy would end in an orgy of tyranny to make a decadent French nobleman balk. Democracy thought to solve the problem of tyranny by letting the people replace their leaders, but our leaders circumvented that check by replacing the people.

It's no coincidence that nobody pays more lip service to democracy than the Leftist Death Cult. Having just completed a century-long project designed to insulate them from the consequences of their depredations, the Left are feeling their oats and accordingly embarking upon a totalitarian spree once reserved for Soviet puppet states.

After spending the past few decades constantly testing boundaries like sociopathic toddlers, the Death Cultists are now confident that they will face no serious pushback against their insane edicts and will suffer no punishments for their enormities.

You can tell because they're not even bothering to hide the election tampering, treason, and human sacrifice anymore. The Epstein debacle was the final proof. You had an international scumbag who furnished child sex slaves to other international scumbags and lived like a pharaoh until he slipped up one time too many. Then his former benefactors pushed a button on him with matching sloppiness.

Time was, the ruling party would put some effort into coming up with a cock and bull story to mollify the NPCs. Now, instead of lone gunmen and magic bullets, we get tacit admissions that foul play is afoot but zero follow up action from law enforcement. That's why the Cult didn't offer up the usual ablative meat shields over the coup against Trump. No need to sacrifice scapegoats when there are zero consequences for ignoring the cries for justice.

This casual wickedness has even trickled down from the thrones in Washington to the Cult's Hollywood priesthood. In just two years, Kevin Spacey has gone from facing jail time for alleged shenanigans with an underage boy to flaunting his case's dismissal in a bizarre Christmas video.

More than bizarre, Spacey's message took on a sinister new subtext when one of his accusers died in an apparent suicide the day after it was posted.

Is it a coincidence that Spacey's accuser died one day after the disgraced star invited viewers to kill detractors with kindness? Possibly, but if so, it's the most uncanny example of prophetic TV since Quantum Leap called the 96 Super Bowl.

Now consider that Spacey has close ties to the Clintons, including at least one trip with Bill aboard Epstein's Lolita Express.

It's hard not to see one epic humiliation ritual behind the whole sordid affair. And the meaning of that ritual is clear: "We're in charge. Our control is total. We can do anything we want, and we can lie, cheat, and kill with zero repercussions, so think twice before getting in our way."

Our rulers have moved beyond simple corruption and into the chilling realm of supervillainy. Voting won't stop them any more than it would stop Lex Luthor or Keyeser Söze. Democracy is based on negotiation, and there's no negotiating with people who are in a position to dictate terms.

It's worth remembering, though, that the ruling classes of old adopted noblesse oblige out of enlightened self-interest as much as Christian charity. Our current rulers have neither Christian virtue nor the practical sense to give the mob a few token concessions. If history is any guide, they may learn to their sorrow that their predecessors practiced a degree of restraint for their own protection.

For a glimpse at a future conflict against an aloof, tyrannical state, check out my military thriller series Combat Frame XSeed.