After almost thirteen years of writing Frugalron articles, this will be the last one. This website started out with three promises. The first was to promote real conservatism and the second was to point out political hypocrisy. The third was to use real data and research results to back up what I wrote. I’m proud that over the years I’ve adhered to these promises.

However, times have changed. Following are the reasons for ending Frugalron:

1. There will not be another presidential election to prepare for. I am convinced Donald Trump will die in office. Trump already has his loyalists in charge of the Justice Department, the FBI, Homeland Security and the IRS. He has cleared out obstacles for his rule in the highest levels of the military and put loyalists in charge. The purges continue throughout the federal government. The Supreme Court gave Trump immunity for any crimes he commits while exercising presidential powers. Trump ignores adverse rulings from federal judges, because he can. I can’t imagine a power hungry, dictator wannabe like Trump walking away from all this power in 2029. We, and future generations, will find it much more difficult to restore our democracy than it was to lose it.
2. These columns don’t change anyone’s vote. Trump voters are immune to facts, common sense and reality. Once a person commits to Trump, there is nothing I can write or do that will change that. On the other side, intelligent, moral voters don’t need reinforcement from my columns. As Trump’s presidency unravels (again), he provides all the reinforcement needed.
3. I will no longer have accurate data. This website is dependent on accurate information from government agencies such as the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and others. Trump’s purges of these agencies of long tenured professionals lowers their credibility. Putting a Trump loyalist in charge makes the data useless.

A couple last points about where we are as a nation

First…

Life sometimes imitates art. Idiocracy is a movie released in 2006 that I can’t get out of my head. The premise of the film is couples with high IQs postpone having children and often never have a family. At the same time, intellectually challenged people are breeding like rabbits. (There are lots of rabbits in the movie.)

The movie takes us 500 years into the future. By this time, due to breeding patterns continuing from the early 21^st Century, the world is populated entirely by idiots. Hence the title, Idiocracy. And, the idiots can’t fix anything.

When listening to Donald Trump and his cabinet of conspiracy crazed half-wits and realize over 77 million people voted for this crap-show, we are already living in an idiocracy. Only idiots would vote out the party that created the economy with the highest number of people employed in our history, with the highest annual inflation adjusted incomes in our history and in 2023,  the largest number of new business startups in our history.  https://www.frugalron.com/the-strongest-economy-in-us-history/  Unfortunately, we created this idiocracy about 480 years faster than the movie’s writers predicted.

Taking this a step further, standardized international reading, math and science scores for U.S. students are consistently below scores many other counties achieve. And, the gap is widening. Most politicians blame teachers and schools.

This blame is misplaced. Considering the intelligence level of the Trump voters and of the close to 90 million people who didn’t vote at all, we shouldn’t be surprised their children bring our average scores down.

Things don’t look much better for the future. Forty-five percent of college educated single women say their relationship status is largely due to their inability to find someone who meets their expectations. https://ifstudies.org/blog/the-college-dating-divide

Not hard to figure out when 55 percent of men voted for Trump. If a college educated woman wants a white man, she’ll likely eliminate the 60 percent that voted for Trump. Not good odds for reproducing.

Second

The 2024 election made clear that a majority of voters don’t know right from wrong. I place the blame for this on Christian preachers and church people. Before going further, I want to emphasize this does not apply to all Christians. Many Christians embody what Jesus Christ taught while on earth. These folks would undoubtably never vote for Donald Trump.

However, for those who claim to be Christians but voted for Trump, I don’t believe they read the same Bible I read. The Trump voters calling themselves Christians focus their hatred towards abortion and anyone that is not heterosexual. Regular racism all the way to white supremacy is their other major focus. https://www.frugalron.com/decision-2024-christianity-or-trumpianity/

About abortion, in Genesis 2:7, the Bible states life begins when God “breathed into him (Adam) the breath of life, and he became a living being”. I don’t know if it could be clearer. According to God, life does not begin at conception, it begins at first breath. Claiming abortion is a sin is derived from rules made by man, not by God. For more detail, read https://www.frugalron.com/the-texas-abortion-law/

Homosexuality gets plenty of condemnation in the Old Testament. However, most theologians give more weight to the New Testament when there is a conflict. And, what does the New Testament say about homosexuality? Not a word. Jesus completely ignored homosexuality during his time on earth.

Note: For those of us who care, a hallmark of real conservatism is laissez faire. This is the belief that if a person is doing something that isn’t adversely affecting anyone else, government has no right to interfere. If a person is LGBTQ+, being themselves is not adversely impacting anyone else. Government has no right to interfere with their sexual orientation.

What Jesus emphasized was charity for the poor, kindness to strangers (people from other countries) a condemnation of materialism and “True Righteousness” (coming from the heart, not outward rituals). One would logically think people calling themselves Christians would follow the same principles.

Complicating this, white Christians are far more racist than the population as a whole. https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/racism-among-white-christians-higher-among-nonreligious-s-no-coincidence-ncna1235045

If someone wants to recruit people to attend a white supremacist rally, a church parking lot on Sunday morning is a far better than average location. Again, this does not apply to all Christians. But, data indicates it applies to a majority of people who call themselves Christian.

Real Christians who recognize right from wrong would vote to stop a vile creature like Donald Trump who promises to take food, medical care and housing from the poor while reducing taxes for the rich. Real Christians who know right from wrong would vote to stop Trump from creating suffering for immigrants and the oppressed. Real Christians who know right from wrong would never let a convicted felon, a convicted fraudster, someone convicted of sexual battery (that the presiding judge called, “Rape by any definition of the word”) an adulterer, a thief and a pathological liar lead their country.

Trump supporters pretend their hero was setup for all his convictions. However, just like his lies of winning the 2020 election, there is no evidence. Hypocrites lie to themselves and to each other.

On November 5, 2024, hypocritical Christians let their racism, homophobia and transphobia prevent them from discerning right from wrong. When Christians needed to standup for what is right, these people rushed for the exits.

Wrapping up…

Usually, I like to point out problems and offer a solution. That is not going to happen today. We lost our democracy to a vile, narcissist with incredibly low intelligence. Because of this, we will ignore global warming at our peril. We will marginalize science and education. We will forget about doing onto others as we would have them do onto us.

I can look at myself in the mirror and say I did all I could to prevent this. This is not the world I wanted to pass down to my children and grandchildren.