I've been screaming warnings for months and everyone calls me a panican. The Old Guard is not going to be able to successfully lead this movement. If they don't embrace the youth then all is lost.

The vote is neither a right nor a reward nor a privilege. It is an office. This is Heinlein's point. One who wields force on behalf of the state is an "officer". He is not someone who has been rewarded with the power to wield violence. Nor is he someone who wields violence as a right or privilege, because he has no right whatsoever to do so beyond the exact scope of his duties. Wielding this violence is his job. His office. And he is appointed to that office by reason of being qualified and verified according to a set of criteria. And if wielding discretionary violence on behalf of the state is an office, so is deciding the policies and guidelines which define the scope of that officer's duties. Thus, representative is also an office. And if representatives are elected by vote, and are ultimately to be accountable to voters, then to be a voter, to be a member of the "demos" from which the word democracy derives... that, too, is an office. There can be no question that the cutesy phrases modern leftists use to describe the vote, such as "exercise your rights", and "make your voice heard" are illegitimate and unjust. To vote is to exercise control over the actions of others, and no one has a right to a "voice" in what others do. The only legitimate reason for that control is to restrain others from anti-social action, which is a practical necessity, not an individual right. Thus, the vote is an office, which must be held by those who are qualified — proven capable and willing to set aside their own interests and exercise power solely on behalf of the group. This is Heinlein's point, elegantly and irrefutably argued. This is why Heinlein is the greatest philosopher of the 20th century, and it is also why leftists hate him. Because what is leftism? It is a rebellion against civilization itself, motivated by the desire to tear open and loot the storehouse, to gut the accumulation of stored effort, wisdom, and self-control, the inheritance of all future generations, in an orgy of hedonistic consumption. Leftism is the rats convincing the farmers that cats are fascists. But just as cats were necessary for creating civilization, the officers of the demos, the citizens who can put aside their own desires and act in the interest of the republic, are necessary for preserving it. The majority of the human race cannot or will not see beyond their own desires for more wealth, more pleasure, more status, and less work. They must be restrained even by the most libertarian of civilizations, because without that restraint, there is no civilization, and without civilization, no liberty. America would be better off with only 10,000 voters, vetted for intelligence, prosocial attitudes, loyalty or America, and skin in the game. Perhaps even 1,000 would suffice. Failing that, pretty much any test of competence, loyalty, or worth applied as a filter on the vote would improve America immensely. Net worth, ability to pass an algebra or reading comprehension test, anything. The Constitution has no language forbidding any prerequisite for voting, other than sex, race, or the payment of a poll tax. But first we must tear down the delusion that the vote belongs to everyone. Heinlein got us started.

Western civilization has brought unprecedented technology, health, and prosperity, not just to ourselves, but the entire human race. How? Not just by being smart. European-descended people are smarter than the average human, but not uniquely so. What the European-descended peoples of western civilization have going for us is that we cooperate with each other. We don't universally and always play well together, but we do have a far greater tendency to care about being fair to strangers than any other civilization and it's not even close. (It's probably because we spent close to a thousand years hanging every generation's sociopaths.) What this means is that Westerners are far more able to cooperate and work together on large projects, and to embrace the visions of our own geniuses and work to make them real. This is something that @elonmusk is probably quite familiar with, since when he showed up and said "let's build reusable rocket stages", and a whole bunch of people said "what an excellent idea, I want to go work on that", instead of "he is not from my extended family, I must make sure he fails", or "how can I extort bribes from him?" Picture the West as a vast pack of human Golden Retrievers. They don't want to bite each other, they just want to play. This made the West stronger than any other race and culture (and it wasn't even close), until other cultures learned how to turn this strength into an attack surface. By demanding the same cooperation and trust Westerners give to other Westerners, while not extending it to anyone but their own tribe. This is what "suicidal empathy" means. Infinite compassion for those who not only have none for you, but frequently plan to rob or destroy you. Let's take an example, not of a prominent politician or pundit, but your typical third world rando: "Oh, no! Halp! I r being genocided!", she cries, rolling about on the grass in feigned agony, like a soccer player trying to draw the penalty card. And her user name is endthewest67. You can't make this stuff up. Seriously, as a science fiction author, if I made this character up, you'd give me bad reviews for being too blatantly on the nose. But if the scarecrow is walking around the cornfield, screaming "death to the farmer", it's not a strawman, is it? In fact, if she proposes to end us and our whole civilization, why shouldn't we kill her? What reason is there left not to? The very principles of compassion she appeals to are those of the civilization she wishes to destroy.