Do not hold on too tightly. Couple yourself to a candidate loosely.When your candidate falls behind. Loses. Drops out. Accept the loss. Look for the next candidate. This will cost you money. Support the candidate you love. If that doesn’t work out, support the candidate you love a little less.

Countries seem to have a vision of themselves as homogeneous. Or as places where the “real people” of the country should dominate. Not a pretty picture.

How can we make the United States Senate more democratic? People from California, Texas, Florida, and New York are underrepresented in the Senate. People from other large states, too. Changing the number of Senators each state has could make representation of the people of various states fairer. That change would require an amendment to the US Constitution. Could the Senate weight each Senator’s vote? Weight a California Senator’s vote as worth 70 times a Wyoming Senators? Thirty-five times a Wyoming Senators? Seven times a Wyoming Senators? Could weighting Senators votes be achieved simply be changing the Senate’s rules? Weighting votes as a way to democratize the Senate without a constitutional amendment. Just as the filibuster gives particular strength to a minority of Senators.

Tony Evers was elected governor of Wisconsin last month. Gretchen Whitmer was elected governor of Michigan. The Republican legislators in both states have plans. Take away the governors' authority. They have time. The election is over, The governors don't take office until January. More insidious than their attacks on the minimum wage or health care or a Governor's authority over corporate benefits are Republican attacks on democracy. The legislatures of Wisconsin, Michigan, and North Carolina claim to represent the people of their state. They don't. The districts have been gerrymandered to ensure that Republicans win.

At ten years old, Samuel Slater went to work in a mill creating yarn in 1778. Four years later when he was fourteen, his father died. Slater became an apprentice in the mill. Seven years later, in 1789, he was free. He was 21. He had learned the business. Britain prohibited transporting the machinery for this work or the designs for the machinery out of the country. They protected their technology. If he had blueprints, Slater could have been arrested. He memorized the entire factory. And left for New York. In America, he wrote to Moses Brown. He promised he could make the factory work. If not, he would would ask for no compensation. Slater's 1790 contract promised that if the factory worked, he would get half the profits and half the capital value of the factory. The factory was operating in 1791 and fully operational in 1793. Slater was an American hero. He and his partners and those who copied their system became wealthy. They made New England into a textile factory powerhouse. They made America great. In October, a Chinese intelligence officer was arrested in Belgium and extradited to the US. The Chinese have been hacking into government and corporate technology to learn our technological secrets. Are technology spies heroes to the Chinese?

Loyalty ......Recently I was asked how my Notes are different from other political writing....1. I write to get you to do something.  Give money to a candidate.  Call your Member of Congress.  I am explicit about what I ask you to do.  Others do analysis....2. Many organizations urge you to give money to them.  They will support candidates or do good works.  I ask you to give money directly to candidates.  Unless you tell me, I don't know how much you give or who you give money to....3. I write about candidates.  Not as much as a full fledged magazine…