Hot Chick

(Any views expressed in the below are the personal views of the author and should not form the basis for making investment decisions, nor be construed as a recommendation or advice to engage in investment transactions.)

Last summer, I travelled to the mecca of doosh doosh (house music) in Ibiza. It was a specialist mission consisting of myself and three homies. The organizer of the jaunt was one of my boys from university, who has resided in London since graduating. He lives for the European summer and organized one hell of a trip.

On our first night, my boy got us an invite to a bougie private party at a villa on the island. Picture the clientele at Chiltern transported to the Balearic islands. Two of the homies live in London and knew people at the party; my former Hong Kong roomie and I knew no one. The two of us made our way to the bar and proceeded to get LIT.

A few hours later, we made our way to the hot, cramped room where Carlita was spinning hot fire. As we were vibing to the tunes, Leonardo DiCaprio was led in by a leggy baddie. We witnessed something genuinely hilarious. That is, Leo’s chick was pitching him on why he should take her home. We could overhear snippets of the conversation, and it was highly entertaining. I don’t know if she succeeded in her quest to bed a movie star, but she damn well tried her best.

This story is apropos of crypto because a would-be emperor of Pax Americana, The Orange Man Trump, suddenly cares about crypto. A few thousand voters will decide the US presidential election in key swing states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Florida. Courting the young, politically active, and nouveau riche crypto cohort could hand Trump the election. As a result, Trump is burnishing his pro-crypto credentials by saying all the right things. An example was his proclamation that he would pardon Ross Ulbricht, the former head of the Silk Road trading platform. Ross is currently serving life in prison for running an online marketplace that used Bitcoin as its primary form of payment.

Unfortunately, this newfound political attention has gotten to the heads of many in our industry. The political hot chicks are trying to take us home instead of the other way around. These feelings are misplaced. Crypto dudes and dudettes are not movie stars but are schmucks standing on the outskirts of the party.

I am dismayed that many crypto pundits who should know better are now blindly throwing fancy fundraisers for the Trump campaign. They erroneously believe that Trump is sincere and that if they just donate enough money, Operation Chokehold Crypto will vanish. That is poppycock. Trump is an astute politician. He will say whatever to whoever is to be re-elected. Once in office, anything related to crypto will be a distant memory.

How can American pro-crypto voters capitalize on the need for swing votes of team Democrat and team Republican? Is there a way to turn the roughly 50 million American adults who hold crypto into a single-issue voting bloc? Is there a strategy that requires zero campaign contributions but ensures that a positive piece of crypto legislation is enacted BEFORE the election? Absolutely. But it won’t come easy. 

Before I get into my strategic idea, I want readers to analyze a prophetic speech by Malcolm X. I will use this speech as a foil to illustrate how oppressed American crypto holders/voters can achieve their goals due to the fractured political environment.

After we listen to Brother Malcolm, I want to discuss a simple piece of legislation that crypto voters should require their chosen political representative to enact as law before election day. It is quite disheartening that there is all this effort by crypto luminaries to support pro-crypto politicians when all these politicians will do is erect a regulatory moat around Coinbase and Blackrock. If voters are going to become pro-crypto voters, the legislation enacted in their name should actually benefit the industry as a whole and bring crypto jobs and opportunities to Pax Americana. Corporate grift shouldn’t be on the menu.

Finally, I will dive into the numbers and show how it is mathematically possible for single-issue pro-crypto voters to decide which party controls the House of Representatives, Senate, and, most importantly, the presidency.

Before I jump into things, I want to explain why separating money from the state should be the number one issue for any voter regardless of all the other pressing issues that could determine for whom to cast a ballot. When the state and its governing bodies must routinely come to the citizenry to raise taxes, they will be cautious in what they request lest they be voted out of office. Many of the issues with the state stem from an overactive government using an inflation tax to do more than is necessary. For example, there is no way that the current global level of military spending, which invariably leads to conflict, would be sustained if the government used direct taxes to pay for it. What do you want: free healthcare or more AK-47s? Free university education or a fleet of F-16s? Affordable public transport or another nuclear missile-armed submarine? If the taxpayer decided, different types of public goods would be produced, leading to a better quality of life for many people.

I will refer to Slow Joe Biden as the presumptive nominee of the Democratic party. However I don’t believe he will ultimately be the party’s presidential candidate after his disastrous debate performance. It’s Joe-ver, but rather than speculate on who will replace him, I will assume he is the candidate for simplicity’s sake.

The Ballot or the Bullet

Travel back with me to 1960’s America. The niggers were getting restless and demanding political change. One such firebrand leader pushing for altering the status quo was Malcolm X. He gave a speech entitled “The Ballot or the Bullet” on 3 April 1964 in Cleveland, Ohio. The topic was how the Black community could leverage their power as a voting bloc to determine who would be the next president and what they should get in return for their loyalty. The incumbent, Lyndon B. Johnson (Democrat), was running against Barry Goldwater (Republican). Johnson won re-election.

I am going to excerpt a few passages relevant to this discussion. For the record, I don’t agree with everything Malcolm X said or did. Still, his observations are astute and relevant for politically oppressed minorities, crypto hodlers, who wish to extract political gains in a system where the simple majority rules.

Malcolm begins by setting the stage for why black folks should put aside their differences and unite to achieve political goals that benefit all:

“Although I'm still a Muslim, I'm not here tonight to discuss my religion. I'm not here to try and change your religion. I'm not here to argue or discuss anything that we differ about because it's time for us to submerge our differences and realize that it is best for us to first see that we have the same problem, a common problem, a problem that will make you catch hell whether you're a Baptist, or a Methodist, or a Muslim, or a nationalist. Whether you're educated or illiterate, whether you live on the boulevard or in the alley, you're going to catch hell just like I am. We're all in the same boat and we all are going to catch the same hell from the same man. He just happens to be a white man. All of us have suffered here, in this country, political oppression at the hands of the white man, economic exploitation at the hands of the white man, and social degradation at the hands of the white man.”

In crypto, whether you are a Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, etc., maxi is irrelevant. Actually, if you own Cardano, go fuck yourself ;). Most importantly, whether you are a centralized exchange shareholder of Coinbase or just a regular hodler, there is no need to dwell on these differences. The “man,” or in this case, the state, has it in for anyone who is a disciple of Lord Satoshi.

What are the parallels between the 1964 and 2024 elections?

“1964 threatens to be the most explosive year America has ever witnessed. The most explosive year. Why? It's also a political year. It's the year when all of the white politicians will be back in the so-called Negro community, jiving you and me for some votes. The year when all of the white political crooks will be right back in your and my community with their false promises, building up our hopes for a letdown, with their trickery and their treachery, with their false promises which they don't intend to keep.”

2024 is an important election year in Pax Americana. Pax Americana is at a crossroads. Should it accept a multi-polar world order, dig in its heels, and fight the challengers economically and militarily? The next emperor will have a significant say in how America navigates this changing world order. Given that a few thousand votes will decide the election in a handful of states, Trump and the Republican party are speaking pleasantries about crypto. I, just like Malcolm in 1964, doubt the sincerity of Trump. He cares about getting elected and will say whatever it takes to get your vote. If Biden and the Democrats were pro-crypto, Trump would be anti-crypto. It’s just good politics.

Malcolm then discusses why and how a disenfranchised minority wields tremendous political power.

“These 22 million victims are waking up. Their eyes are coming open. They're beginning to see what they used to only look at. They're becoming politically mature. They are realizing that there are new political trends from coast to coast. As they see these new political trends, it's possible for them to see that every time there's an election the races are so close that they have to have a recount. They had to recount in Massachusetts to see who was going to be governor, it was so close. It was the same way in Rhode Island, in Minnesota, and in many other parts of the country. And the same with Kennedy and Nixon when they ran for president. It was so close they had to count all over again. Well, what does this mean? It means that when white people are evenly divided, and black people have a bloc of votes of their own, it is left up to them to determine who's going to sit in the White House and who's going to be in the dog house [or a jail cell if you are Trump or a Trump supporter].”

According to Coinbase, 50 million Americans (20% of the population) own crypto. If this cohort votes together, they could easily decide which clown ascends the throne. The country's equal division between Democrats and Republicans presents a unique opportunity to extract significant political concessions. The important thing is to realize that putting political party affiliation above Lord Satoshi will only lead to failure.

Malcolm goes on to excoriate tokenism. We should take heed of this warning. American crypto holders shouldn’t settle for a few meaningless Biden or Trump administration government positions. The only acceptable thing is pro-crypto legislation that is signed into law.

“They get all the Negro vote, and after they get it, the Negro gets nothing in return. All they did when they got to Washington was give a few big Negroes big jobs. Those big Negroes didn't need big jobs, they already had jobs. That's camouflage, that's trickery, that's treachery, window-dressing.”

I highly encourage readers to ingest the entire speech. Just remember the racial, economic, and political context of the time Malcolm X was speaking. I’m using his black vs. white rhetoric as a foil to elucidate my point that tens of millions of crypto hodlers in America, should they desire it, can wrest favorable policies from the state because of politicians' overarching desire to get re-elected.

For those who think that it would take too long or be too difficult to achieve substantial progress immediately, remember the moral gymnastics American politicians are currently going through to continue funding Israel in its war against Hamas. Bombardier Bibi “The Bedouin Butcher” Netanyahu is conducting a genocidal campaign which the world is witnessing in real-time against defenseless Palestinian civilians because he wishes to eradicate the ideology of Hamas and a few thousand of its fighters, sworn enemies of the Israeli state. Regardless of their personal views, no American politician is willing to stand up for human life if it means angering the powerful Israeli lobby, which, due to their overwhelming financial resources, can run negative ad after negative ad, reducing a politician's re-election odds. The overarching goal of any politician is to be re-elected, and this self-preservation drive is even more heightened in the capital of the empire because of the stupendous riches that follow a long tenure as a Congressperson or Senator.

Consider House of Representatives member Nancy Pelosi. I learned the following using ChatGPT, which accessed official public disclosures of her net worth. In 1987, when she joined Congress, Pelosi disclosed an estimated net worth of $3.64 million. By 2023, the upper end of her estimated disclosed net worth was $97.7 million, or an increase of nearly 27x. ChatGPT estimates she made $5.7 million in salary as a congresswoman over her 37 years in office. The majority of her wealth is due to her astute investing in the stock and real estate markets. Given that elected members of the House and Senate are allowed to insider trade, it is no wonder she was able to trade better than Stevie Cohen.

Pelosi is the living embodiment of the American political dream for those in office. As a public servant, she has amassed generational wealth. Is it any wonder that a politician will say whatever pleases you to stay in office?

Malcolm X has alluded to the power crypto holders possess as a political minority in a fractured electoral environment, so what should we be agitating about?

What is Money?

Money can be filthy fiat, heavy gold, or glorious Bitcoin, but what is its essential being? The purpose of money is to pass energy over time and space via a physical or digital form of communication. Lynn Alden's ledger theory of money is a great way to think about what money is.

Understanding a blockchain from first principles brings this concept to life. A blockchain is just a sequence of messages cryptographically hashed and sequentially chained together in a publicly readable ledger. Using Bitcoin, we can read and write in this public ledger. Bitcoin is digital speech.

Here is another example of this concept in terms many readers understand a bit too well. TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, etc., are all services that allow you to read and write to the centralized databases containing your and other users’ messages. These messages take the form of video and or text content. These platforms enable digital speech.

In most liberal democratic societies, the government regards the information published and consumed on social media platforms as protected speech. It then follows, and is the reality, that users can speak their minds freely without any government interference. In addition, the companies that offer these services are not held accountable for what is said on their platforms.

Let’s take the example of Facebook during the 2016 US presidential election. Team Democrat claims that the evil Russian Dictator Putin thwarted “Democracy” by using Facebook to influence people to vote for Donald Trump, who, according to them, is a petty tyrant. It follows that Facebook allowed treasonous behavior, and its CEO should be held criminally responsible for the acts of foreign states on his platform. However, that did not happen; Facebook and its senior executives suffered no consequences due to free speech laws.

If the internet and the information contained within is protected speech, why is Bitcoin and any other crypto or token powered by a blockchain treated differently? Both use speech to provide a service. The fact that Bitcoin is a monetary instrument does not invalidate it from constitutional protection from government interference.

This is interpreting a document written over two centuries ago in an age where the steam engine was a novel technology. However, in America, the constitution is analyzed in this fashion. The 2nd Amendment says you have the right to bear arms. In the 18th century, the most advanced weapon was a flintlock musket. In contemporary times, the gun lobby in America and many Supreme Court decisions have taken that to mean you have a right to bear automatic assault rifles. Absurdity is the name of the game in the land of the free.

Let me put forward a simple statement that should re-align crypto policies towards the adherence to free speech:

“Cryptographic currencies and tokens that reside on or are powered by a blockchain are forms of protected speech. All laws applicable to the protection of free speech are applicable to crypto users or intermediaries. Any law or regulation that restricts the ability of an individual or duly formed entity to hold or transfer crypto is not applicable.”

That’s all we need to clarify the regulatory status of crypto completely. Let’s dig into the practical implications if such a law was passed.

Crypto Clarity

If this simple bill is enacted into law, it would have profound ramifications for how crypto is treated by various regulatory agencies. Questions on whether this or that alphabet letter agency has jurisdiction over crypto-related behavior would abound. The only way to clarify the boundaries would be through legal precedent achieved through adversarial public court cases. This is how it should be. The judges appointed to adjudicate the laws passed down by elected representatives will determine the scope of the speech freedoms afforded to crypto.

But while that is happening, Pax Americana would become the most favorable place to do “crypto.” Doing crypto could mean opening your own exchange, creating a new DeFi protocol, building decentralized infrastructure, or pooling funds to invest or trade. It means permissionless innovation. The type of innovation that Pax Americana die-hards wax nostalgic about. Did John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, or Henry Ford beg and plead with government officials to revolutionize the oil, steel, or automobile industry? Fuck no, they just got shit done and built entire industries and industrial processes and put agrarian America on the path to becoming an empire. 

For the politicians who vote to make this happen, it means taking credit for high-paying job creation. It means using their privileged position on subcommittees to buy stocks of publicly listed crypto exchanges and miners before anyone else, thus feathering their nest like Congresswoman Pelosi. If they want to insider trade, at least they can do it alongside an explosion of crypto businesses. 

It sounds like it's happy days for crypto hodlers and politicians. Would anyone be upset by these developments?

The Opposition - Terrible TradFi

TradFi would be upset if crypto were considered protected speech, but fiat currencies weren’t. Their lobbyists would fight intensely to torpedo any such crypto free speech legislation. Therefore, I invite them to join us on this journey.

The reems of financial regulations enacted over many decades do not serve to protect the consumer; they serve to politically absolve bureaucrats from the various bailouts continuously given to the financial sector. After each blow-up, politicians need to appear to be doing something and hoist more nonsensical rules and regulations on TradFi institutions.

Fiat money, like dollar bills, and commodity money, like gold, should also be considered speech and thus protected. As mentioned, these are both forms of money that communicate who holds how much energy over time and space. There should be an equal and level playing field amongst all forms of money.

Let’s amend the proposed bill a bit:

“Any form of money defined as government-issued currencies, precious metals such as gold and silver, and cryptographic currencies and tokens that reside on or are powered by a blockchain are forms of protected speech. All laws applicable to the protection of free speech are applicable to crypto users or intermediaries. Any law or regulation that restricts the ability of an individual or duly formed entity to hold or transfer crypto is not applicable.”

There is one catch. Because most financial regulatory apparatus will become null and void, fractional reserve banks and other highly levered TradFi intermediaries could engage in risky activities. All financial government bailout schemes should be removed to mitigate the cost to the public.

Let’s amend the bill again:

“Any form of money defined as government-issued currencies, precious metals such as gold and silver, and cryptographic currencies and tokens that reside on or are powered by a blockchain are forms of protected speech. All laws applicable to the protection of free speech are applicable to crypto users or intermediaries. Any law or regulation that restricts the ability of an individual or duly formed entity to hold or transfer crypto is not applicable.

No public money shall be used to bail out any financial institution in any way, shape, or form. No public financial institution, [comprehensive list of all the relevant entities] is allowed to receive any funding from the federal government.”

The government should not guarantee any amount of banking deposits. Instead, it should mandate that banks put fiat currencies on a public blockchain to make triple-entry accounting possible. If all fiat travelled on a public cryptographic ledger, a prospective depositor could verify the health of any financial institution in real time.

Central banks and any other public financial institution like residential mortgage policy banks (e.g., Fannie Mae, Ginnie Mae, and Freddie Mac) are not allowed to receive any funding from the central government if they become insolvent. The central bank can print all the money it likes, but if its losses eviscerate all its equity capital, the central bank fails. This would diminish the public trust in the fiat currency, but the goal is to ensure all financial institutions, whether public or private, have skin in the game and cannot tap the public purse when they run into trouble.

The Opposition - Crypto Crony Capitalism

The other source of opposition would come from within. Many US firms and individuals with significant private crypto business interests would love to use this opportunity to push through legislation creating regulatory moats for their businesses. These Uncle Toms need to be publicly vilified by their clients if they are seen engaging in such horse-trading. No one should not support any crypto business that uses the political process to enrich them singularly at the expense of financial freedom for the collective.

Are There Any Rules?

Of course, there are. If you steal or commit fraud, you will fall afoul of the law. If you publish false statements over the internet with the intent to deceive for some personal gain, you will get punished. The same will hold true for crypto. The industry doesn't need any new laws to punish already illegal behavior.

Getting it Done

The best time to get concrete results is before the November election. My proposed bill is 113 words long. It is short for a reason. It’s easy to understand; anyone can read it in a few minutes. That means every elected representative can instantly digest the bill's content, and it has a smaller chance of getting hijacked by aides who are conduits for highly paid lobbyists.

The bill needs congressional and senatorial sponsors to bring it to the respective floors for discussion and, ultimately, a vote. The crypto lobby can choose a few politicians in each chamber who are running in tight re-election campaigns. The message is: sponsor this bill, and the crypto voters in your district will support you.

Once the bill is live, it’s time to pressure Democrats and Republicans to support it. The same carrot and stick apply: Support this bill, and the crypto voters in your district will vote for you; if you don’t support it, they will vote for your opponent.

Finally, Grandpa Slow Joe must sign the bill into law, assuming it has passed in the House of Representatives and the Senate. American voters don’t have to stay within one party for their votes for congresspersons, senators, and presidents. Therefore, a voter could vote for a Republican congressperson or senator in their district who supported the bill and Biden for president even though Biden is a Democrat.

This is more effective than hoping that Trump keeps his word about various pro-crypto policy proposals because this bill could become law in weeks. Look how fast legislators act when it’s time to approve more weapons for Ukraine and Israel. When they are motivated by self-interest, meaning their defense industry stock portfolio, things magically happen at warp speed.

After the election, pro-crypto voters lose all leverage. The next election is two years away and primarily concerns congresspersons elected to two-year terms. Biden or Trump won’t expend the same political capital supporting crypto policies because it doesn’t directly affect their re-election chances or the majority of elected officials within their respective parties.

Keep in mind that post the election, the drumbeat of war will intensify. The only reason why Iran and Russia haven’t been targeted more directly by the US and NATO is that Biden doesn’t want the price of oil to go up before election day. Trump assassinated the leading general in the IRGC, Qasem Soleimani, in his first term. He will have no qualms about bombing Iran at Israel’s behest. All this is to say, the issue about crypto monetary freedom will be quickly forgotten once bombs start flying.

The Electoral Maths

It’s great to dream, but is there a chance this could become a reality? Using ChatGPT, I created a model to analyze the ability of single-issue pro-crypto voters to decide congressional, senatorial, and presidential elections.

Assumptions:

1. The biggest assumption is that every one of the 50 million adults who hold crypto is registered to vote and is a single-issue pro-crypto voter.

2. The split of Democrats and Republicans among the voters who hold crypto is 50/50.

3. The 2024 voter turnout, at 69.40%, matches the 2020 voter turnout.. I used 2020, as it was the last presidential election year.

4. As Coinbase did not provide granular data on the number of crypto holders state by state, I will allocate voters state by state proportionally to the number of registered voters in the 2020 presidential election.

5. Finally, I assume that in a previous election, the voter voted along party lines. That means I am only concerned with voters who cross party lines in the 2024 election. For example, if a Democrat won a congressional race by a 1,000-vote margin over a Republican in 2022, in order to flip the election in 2024, I only care about registered crypto-holding Democrats voting Republican.

The Strategy

The Democrats control the Presidency and Senate. They obviously want to do whatever is necessary to maintain control of the Presidency, which allows them vast control over the various organs of the US government. The message to the party leadership is simple: enact this piece of pro-crypto legislation, or else the pro-crypto lobby will put the Republicans in charge of all three branches of government. If the Democrats play ball, the pro-crypto lobby can deliver all three branches of government instead to the Democrats.

Because the Democrats do not control the House of Representatives, a few at-risk Republican members, four to be exact, must be threatened with expulsion if they don’t cross party lines to vote for the bill.

Is this mathematically possible? Yes, let’s go through the numbers.

Congressional Races

ChatGPT gave me the 2022 results of each congressional race. I tallied for each district the number of votes the winner and runner-up received, along with their respective political parties.

There are 48 seats held by Republicans, which could be flipped to Democrats if every Republican crypto holder in these races crossed party lines. This would flip the House in favor of the Democrats. 

Senate Races

Senators are elected for six-year terms, compared to terms for congresspersons. Therefore, I asked ChatGPT to provide the results for the 2018 Senate races. A person elected in 2018 must stand for re-election this year.

Nine seats are held by Republicans, which could be flipped to Democrats, assuming every Republican crypto holder in these races crosses party lines. This would enlarge the Senate majority the Democrats currently hold. 

Presidential Race

ChatGPT gave me the 2020 results by state. Each state has a certain number of electoral college votes, and a presidential candidate needs 270 to win.

If every Republican crypto holder in a select few states crossed party lines, 115 electoral college votes could be delivered to the Democratic nominee. This would ensure Biden wins. 

If you are interested in my model and supporting data, please contact me; I would be happy to provide them.

The Hard Work

The hard work is not raising money from wealthy American crypto holders. Not a single cent should be donated to a political campaign. The hard work is convincing the vast majority of crypto holders to become single-issue voters and go vote. This is what the millions of dollars raised by various pro-crypto lobby groups should be spent on. 

If Brian Armstrong is serious about being an advocate for pro-crypto legislation, as many puff pieces about his political activism describe, then he should collect digital signatures from Coinbase’s American users in support of the proposed legislation. That way, the politicians know crypto holders are serious about their desire to effect change in an organized fashion.

What I described is not easy, and more importantly, it’s not about a quantum of campaign donation dollars. It is about motivating crypto holders to hold their elected representatives accountable for delivering meaningful change. Doing the hard thing means that any politician who wishes to enter the Washington D.C. gravy train must not cross crypto because they know crypto folks get out and vote their wallet.

Non-Partisan

Some readers may believe this essay is a thinly veiled attempt to poison the minds of pro-crypto Trump supporters. I am not a member of either political party, nor do I care who wins the US Presidential election. The party in power has the means and motive to do whatever it takes to remain in power. This is even more true if the ruling party has done questionable things to block the opposition from taking the reins. That is why it’s more effective to work with the Democratic party. If the situation were reversed, I would advocate supporting the Republicans. The point is that, in a highly polarized two-party system, being partisan is detrimental to achieving your single-issue policy goal.

Copycat

If crypto voters in the US can pass a simple yet profound piece of pro-crypto legislation, it will be highly publicized. As a result, it will politically activate crypto holders in other jurisdictions where a small, vocal, and focused minority voting bloc can achieve legislative results.

Look how quickly Hong Kong and the London Stock Exchanges launched or scheduled launches of Bitcoin spot Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) once the US listed an ETF. Nation-state competition is our friend. Suppose there is a serious effort to use this unique moment in history to push through a transformative, simple, yet effective piece of pro-crypto legislation in the US. In that case, it behooves non-Americans to help the cause.

Helping the cause means shaming individuals and companies that propose legislation that reeks of crypto-crony capitalism. Helping the cause means analyzing and offering feedback on serious proposals. Helping the cause means demanding that those who claim to champion crypto politically in the US not accept the empty platitudes of politicians seeking reelection but demand concrete action now before the votes are cast. And finally, helping the cause means organizing a similar effort in your country if it is a representative democracy featuring highly polarized political parties where no one party has an overwhelming majority.

Ideas Matter

Over a year ago, I wrote an essay about creating a synthetic dollar using long Bitcoin and short perpetual swaps. Ethena took this essay as inspiration, added their flair to the idea, and built the fastest-growing stablecoin ever. They did the hard work; it wasn’t easy. And they are so successful my inbox is full of founders pitching the next “Ethena-killer.”

I don’t believe the ideas presented in this essay are truly original. However, I hope that by putting forward this essay, it will be read by many in the industry and will prompt motivated and savvy political operators to act now. Don’t let this opportunity go to waste. Because if they do, the hot chick at the party will be visiting another bloke. And come November 6^th, the faithful will be back against the wall, watching the world pass them by.