If your survival hinges on one ballot, you do not live in a republic. You live at a single point of failure.
Design beats virtue. Build systems where:
• Rights sit upstream of votes and are not for sale
• Money sits outside politics and cannot be printed for favors
• Power is sliced, time boxed, audited, and cheap to exit
• Rules are legible, local, and reversible
• The default citizen is untouchable without due process
When exit is real, voice becomes optional. When budgets cannot be conjured, promises must be honest. When rulers cannot ruin you, you can afford to be kind.
The metric for freedom is not turnout. It is the cost of saying no.
