In my view, ideological pressures have shaped scholarship and made certain questions difficult to examine openly. This is not a new problem. When I visited the Museum of the Bible and spent time with the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition and related high-level books on the formation of the biblical canon, the transition from earlier Near Eastern traditions to the exclusive worship of Yahweh, and the pre-Israelite cultures of Canaan, I kept encountering the same pattern: ritual practices involving fertility, sacrifice, and the role of women were either minimized or reframed in ways that avoided uncomfortable historical realities. The same tendency appears in discussions of pre-Columbian copper-working cultures around Lake Superior, where evidence of large-scale indigenous mining dating back thousands of years is accepted, yet contemporary academic assumptions often constrain questions about broader cultural contacts, religious practices, or the nature of those societies.
I wanted to test one specific question with direct observation rather than theory alone. The question concerned how women, particularly those in childbearing years, respond under sudden fear, and whether that response retains traces of older cultural and biological patterns. Ancient Near Eastern sources, including biblical condemnations of Canaanite practices, describe fertility cults associated with deities such as Baal and Asherah/Astarte. These involved sexual rites intended to stimulate agricultural and human fertility through sympathetic magic. While modern scholarship has become more cautious about the precise scale of “sacred prostitution,” the biblical texts themselves (Deuteronomy 23, Hosea 4, 2 Kings 23) treat the practices as real and objectionable enough to prohibit. Parallel patterns appear in accounts of other cultures that used sexual signaling or ritualized access to women as a means of managing powerful or dangerous forces.
An Observational Method: Playing Jason at Kings Island
In the fall of 2026, I auditioned for and worked as Jason Voorhees in the Jason: Blood Reign attraction at Kings Island’s Halloween Haunt. The role placed me in a controlled environment where thousands of guests moved through a maze under strobe lights, timed sound effects, and deliberate jump scares. I was often at the curtain, where timing and speed produced consistent reactions. Over multiple eight-hour shifts, I observed a broad cross-section of Cincinnati and southern Ohio residents. The hockey mask created a psychological barrier that made sustained observation easier than face-to-face interaction.
Men and women reacted differently under the same stimulus. Men often stiffened, tried to project toughness, or positioned themselves protectively. A noticeable subset of women in the approximate age range of the late teens through the early fifties—the years when sexual signaling capacity is highest—responded by flashing, winking, sticking out their tongues, making explicit sexual gestures, or saying some version of “Jason, I love you.” I estimated this at roughly five percent of the women who passed through under direct scare conditions, with a larger group showing subtler eye contact or flirtatious recovery behaviors once the immediate fright subsided. These were not isolated incidents. They repeated night after night across a large sample.
Historical and Biological Context
The pattern is consistent with both historical fertility practices and with findings in evolutionary psychology. Anne Campbell’s work on sex differences in fear, and the broader “staying alive” literature, documents that women on average exhibit stronger fear responses and more self-protective strategies than men. Self-protection carries higher fitness value for women because of the demands of pregnancy and dependent offspring. Sexual signaling is one available tool for reducing threat or securing protection in unstable conditions. In a modern haunted attraction, the threat is theatrical, yet the first-order physiological reaction appears to draw on older circuitry.
The same logic appears in non-theatrical settings. Women at rock concerts and at Mardi Gras flash as a status display and a way to seek access from high-status males in the room. The behavior is not random. It is a calculated or semi-automatic use of a resource historically exchanged for security, resources, or reduced danger. Ancient temple practices formalized a version of the same exchange. Contemporary culture has largely removed the religious framing while retaining the underlying bargaining pattern.
Why the Observation Matters
I do not claim that five percent of women will behave this way under every form of stress, nor that the behavior defines women as a class. I do claim that the frequency is high enough, and consistent enough across a large public sample, that it cannot be dismissed as noise. It also cannot be fully explained by “just having fun in a haunted house.” The guests knew they were in a commercial attraction. The response still emerged when fear was suddenly activated. Evolutionary and historical accounts predict exactly this kind of residual pattern; much current academic and political discourse treats the pattern as either nonexistent or unmentionable.
The biblical narrative of Eve and the serpent is one ancient attempt to describe a recurring vulnerability: a point of entry through which external influence can operate by appealing to desire rather than force. Cultures that later restricted women’s formal political or economic roles often cited long observation of this dynamic, not abstract misogyny. Whether those restrictions were justified in every case is a separate question. The observational record, both ancient and modern, shows that a non-trivial minority of women will use sexual access as a primary tool for securing safety or advantage when other tools feel unavailable. Pretending the pattern does not exist does not make the underlying incentives disappear.
This short account is the observational core of a longer project. The data come from repeated, structured exposure to the same stimulus across thousands of people in a single season. Further controlled work would be useful. What I observed at Kings Island in October 2026 is not an outlier. It is a visible remainder of patterns that ancient texts, archaeological records, and evolutionary psychology have all described from different directions. The question is whether contemporary scholarship is willing to look at the remainder directly.
Footnotes
1. Museum of the Bible hosted an authenticated Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition in partnership with the Israel Antiquities Authority beginning in November 2025, distinct from earlier forged fragments previously associated with the museum.
2. Lake Superior copper mining by indigenous groups is documented from roughly 9,500–6,000 years ago onward, with thousands of pits and cold-hammered artifacts recovered from Isle Royale and the Keweenaw Peninsula.
3. Biblical prohibitions on cultic sexual practices appear in Deuteronomy 23:17–18, Hosea 4:14, and the Josiah reforms in 2 Kings 23:7. Scholarly debate continues over the precise institutional form of these practices, but the texts treat them as real and objectionable.
4. Anne Campbell and subsequent work on the “staying alive” hypothesis document consistent sex differences in fear intensity and self-protective behavior across multiple threat domains.
5. The five-percent figure is an observational estimate based on repeated shifts in the Jason: Blood Rain attraction; it is not a formal statistical sample but reflects consistent patterning across a large public throughput.
Bibliography
• Campbell, Anne. Sex Differences in Fear Response: An Evolutionary Perspective. Springer, 2021.
• Benenson, Joyce F., et al. “Self-protection as an adaptive female strategy.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2021.
• Lipiński, Edward. “Cult Prostitution and Passage Rites in the Biblical World.” The Biblical Annals, 2019.
• Pompeani, David P., et al. “Copper mining on Isle Royale 6500–5400 years ago.” The Holocene, 2015.
• Scientific American reporting on lead-isotope evidence for Archaic copper production in the Lake Superior basin.
• Museum of the Bible / Israel Antiquities Authority materials on the 2025–2026 Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition.
• Biblical texts: Deuteronomy 23, Hosea 4, 2 Kings 23; Ugaritic mythological texts on Baal and Anat.
• Herodotus, Histories (on Babylonian temple practices); comparative ancient Near Eastern sources collected in Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament.
• Buss, David M. and related evolutionary psychology literature on female threat management and sexual signaling.
• Hoffman, Rich. Prior essays and podcast material on the politics of fear, institutional incentives, and the limits of contemporary academic framing.
Rich Hoffman is an author, political consultant, and strategic advisor based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the creator of The Politics of Heaven—a unique framework that connects biblical theology, ancient history, and modern power structures to explain how moral alignment and spiritual forces shape global events. Blending real-world political experience with deep research into archaeology, UFO phenomena, and suppressed historical narratives, Hoffman offers compelling commentary on topics ranging from ancient civilizations and the Dead Sea Scrolls to modern populist movements, paranormal continuity, and leadership strategy in chaotic environments. As the author of The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business and the forthcoming Politics of Heaven, he brings a grounded yet provocative voice to media discussions, supported by firsthand experiences and a cross-disciplinary approach that bridges science, history, and theology. For interviews, speaking engagements, or expert analysis, visit richhoffmanbooks.com or contact directly by email at rhoffman@richhoffmanbooks.com. If you’ve seen the movie, Disclosure Day and want to talk about it and the implications of Presidnet Trump’s UAP disclosures, let me know and we can bring some color to your coverage. https://richhoffmanbooks.com/media-inquiries-broadcast-topics-and-contact-info/?frame-nonce=ad51e7ecba I do have a firsthand UFO encounter to discuss.
The 2026 midterms delivered a mixed bag across Butler County, the state of Ohio, and the nation. Local officeholders who were on the ballot largely held or won, and I was never truly worried about my good friend Michael Ryan’s commissioner race once the early numbers started coming in. Republicans had reason for concern as the night progressed in other races, and the tighter margins reflect new voter groups, split-ticket voting, and a failure at higher levels to deliver the results people can feel in their wallets. What I said for years about Pauline, gerrymandering, jury-mandering, and the need to treat Democrats as the opponent they are proved true. Socialism was on the ballot. Democrats ran on free stuff and big government without clearly defining the costs, and a lot of insecure or younger voters bought it because Republicans did not smash-mouth them hard enough or show decisive victories on the things that matter most: gas prices, the cost of goods, and a quality of life people can actually live with.
Election Night at the Michael Ryan Watch Party and the Precinct Math
I was at Michael Ryan’s watch party with a table set up to break down precincts, the numbers behind the numbers, state races, and national races. Warren Davidson was there; he was fine locally but the early tightness everywhere put people on edge. We called Ryan’s race around 9:30 or so once enough precincts reported that his opponent could not catch him mathematically. Ryan ran a great campaign over a couple of years with strong endorsement support—this is exactly why voters need to believe in their party in Ohio instead of treating every race as an independent free-for-all. He defeated longtime incumbent Cindy Carpenter in the May primary by 72% to 28%, a historic margin according to local GOP leaders, then carried the general with roughly 57.2–57.3% (around 78,000–82,000 votes) over Democrat Mike Miller’s 42.7–42.8%. Miller, a Fairfield Township resident and first-time candidate, ran as a community volunteer focused on “bad news and controversies.” Ryan, a former Hamilton City Council member and vice mayor who works as a life insurance underwriter, emphasized economic development, lower taxes, and bringing technology and innovation to the county. Nancy Nix held the auditor’s seat with about 59% over Amy Hines. Turnout in Butler County sat near 60%. These were real wins for people who showed up and worked the ground game.
Butler County Still Leans Republican—But the Margins Tell a Story
Ramaswamy carried Butler County in the governor’s race by roughly 52.4% to Amy Acton’s 44.5%, and Warren Davidson held Ohio’s 8th District (which includes much of Butler) with about 52.1% to Vanessa Enoch’s 47.9%. That is far closer than Davidson’s previous margins of 25–38 points. Redistricting added more Democratic-leaning areas from Hamilton County, but the broader pattern is clear: even reliable Republican territory is seeing tighter races. Younger voters under 40 who have been taught that big government will give them free stuff, plus demographic shifts from people who recognize big-government tactics from places they left, are changing the math. I talked to plenty of folks beforehand who said they were not voting or would go for their guns if Democrats won big; some split tickets or stayed home because they had lost faith in the system after years of feeling the pocketbook smash. My own kids in their 30s are still conservative enough, but they did not feel passionate enough about the national tickets to put yard signs out. They blamed high gas prices on Trump and the administration. That is the real-world performance review.
Statewide Ohio: Affordability Wins the Night for Democrats
Amy Acton (D) defeated Vivek Ramaswamy (R) for governor, taking roughly 52% (about 2.4 million votes) to his 44% (about 2.04 million). She becomes the first Democrat elected governor of Ohio in 20 years and the first woman elected to the office. Sherrod Brown (D) beat incumbent Jon Husted (R) for the U.S. Senate by about 50% to 45%. Other statewide races were mixed and often close—Attorney General, Auditor, Secretary of State, Treasurer, and Supreme Court seats all saw competitive results with some Democratic gains or near-misses. Ramaswamy had Trump’s endorsement, strong name recognition from the 2024 primary and DOGE work, and a chance to look strong on the trail. Independents and some conservatives peeled off; he was painted as rich and out of touch, and a late attack ad featuring Acton’s estranged mother backfired hard with many Republicans. Acton, the former Ohio Department of Health director during the early COVID response, ran on affordability, ending corruption, and tax cuts for working families. Socialism’s populist platform—free stuff, nanny state, big taxes—won the argument where Republicans did not counter it decisively. I said all along that Vivek needed to come down to the trail and connect on results; the national and state numbers show why.
National Results: Democrats Seize the House and Senate
Got to talk to Willie today about many things, especially the elections. Have a listen!!https://t.co/s6oncS293h
Democrats took control of both the U.S. House and Senate in a historic blue wave. They flipped Senate seats in places like Kansas (first Democratic senator since 1932), Texas, Iowa, South Carolina, Ohio (Brown), and others, ending up with a clear majority (projections around 54 seats). In the House they flipped more than two dozen seats, many in Trump-won districts, and are projected well above the 218 needed. Mike Johnson was reelected in his Louisiana district but the majority is gone; his future as the top House Republican is uncertain as others position for minority leader. This is what happens when you do not protect the turf. Johnson and the leadership did not treat voter problems—especially gerrymandering fights and the need to fight hard on redistricting and election integrity—seriously enough. They played softball while Democrats played smash-mouth war-room politics. You cannot let the enemy stick around and then complain when they smash your mouth. People wanted action: Fauci still free, no real accountability on past COVID and election issues, and no decisive delivery on costs. Trump’s rallies and tough talk are not big-time wrestling. When you are in the White House, voters hold you to results. Gas prices stayed high years into the administration; people blamed the Iranian conflict (the U.S.-Israel actions beginning in late February 2026 that disrupted oil through the Strait of Hormuz and sent prices soaring), refinery capacity issues, and what looked like price-gouging. Promising money or blaming others does not substitute for lower costs of living. Democrats sabotaged where they could, then ran a campaign blaming Republicans—just as they once managed to pin slavery on the party created to end it. The midterms became a performance review, and Republicans did not get the grade they needed.
Gas Prices, the Iranian War, and Why Pocketbooks Overrode Everything Else
National average gas prices rose roughly 40% or more after the Iran conflict began, with Ohio seeing increases in the 35–48% range in key reporting. Average prices sat well above $4 a gallon in many places heading into Election Day; diesel spiked even harder in some periods. Inflation ran around 3.7% year-over-year in recent reports, with energy, groceries, and housing all elevated. Ohio households faced hundreds of dollars in extra gas costs alone from the war-related surge, on top of broader cost pressures. Trump’s administration had mechanisms—refinery capacity explanations, pressure on oil companies, clear defense of why the Iranian actions were necessary against a terrorist, Marxist, Muslim-fundamentalist regime that suppresses its own people—but they did not hammer those points hard enough or long enough for average voters. Bill Riley and others had been warning about this forever. People understand that Brent crude and gasoline are too high; complex geopolitics is harder. They ran on bringing prices down. Two years later the sabotaging by Democrats was coming to fruition, and Republicans cried foul instead of delivering smash-mouth victories people could point to. Victims look weak. Winners who lower the cost of filling the tank and putting food on the table keep their majorities.
Demographic Shifts, New Faces, and the Socialism Taught in Schools
Butler County still delivered for local Republicans, but the closer-than-usual margins at the start of the night were a scare for people used to double-digit wins. New faces less invested in long-time county politics, younger voters steeped in public-school socialism (“big government will give you stuff”), and people from places where they already lived under heavy government recognize the Democratic playbook and vote accordingly—even if their English is limited. Split-ticket voting was real. Many traditional Trump supporters showed up but without the enthusiasm of past cycles because they had not seen the results they were promised. Democrats ran a base campaign focused on affordability grievances without owning the sabotage that helped create them. Christianity and traditional measures are under pressure from a strategy that tries to hijack the language while embracing far worse ideologies; I have been covering the value of Christianity against this for a reason. We are told to abandon strong resolutions against evil while embracing something far more dangerous. That ridiculousness was on the ballot, and voters looking for a strong government that lowers costs chose the option that promised free stuff.
Party Unity, Smash-Mouth Politics, and the Path Forward
Republicans need to pull together, put differences aside, and build a party people invest in and feel good about. Do not primary your own candidates two or three days before an election. Get behind the people on the ballot for statewide races. Defend the turf on issues like FirstEnergy-style deals or redistricting instead of playing defense after the fact. Deliver real victories—low gas prices, controlled costs, accountability—that people can watch and believe. Crying foul and drawing offside penalties does not move the ball. When you lose the big seats, the punching comes too late. Locally we had wins worth being proud of: Michael Ryan’s campaign and victory, Nix’s hold, Davidson’s narrow retention. Statewide and nationally the lesson is clear—socialism’s populist platform (the one Bernie Sanders showed could work) is now mainstream Democratic strategy, and it advances when Republicans fail to give people something better to invest in. Elections are always interesting; they show you what your society has become. We have learned that the high costs in the background will hurt for a long time if Democrats now put the screws to everything. The people who wanted results and strength did not get enough of them from the national ticket. That is why the midterms of 2026 went the way they did.
Footnotes
1. Unofficial Butler County Board of Elections and Journal-News reporting: Michael Ryan 57.2% over Mike Miller 42.8%; primary win over Cindy Carpenter 72–28. Commissioner oversees ~$563 million budget and nearly 1,900 employees. Salary ~$112,502 in 2027.
2. Nancy Nix (R) ~59% over Amy Hines (D) ~41% for auditor.
3. Butler County turnout reported just under 60%.
4. Ohio Secretary of State / local results: Ramaswamy carried Butler County ~52.4% to Acton’s ~44.5%. Statewide Acton ~52% (≈2.4M) to Ramaswamy ~44% (≈2.04M); first Democratic governor in 20 years and first woman elected.
5. Warren Davidson (OH-8) ≈52.1% to Vanessa Enoch ≈47.9% (unofficial). Previous margins far larger; redistricting noted as a factor.
6. Sherrod Brown (D) ≈50% over Jon Husted (R) ≈45% for U.S. Senate.
7. National projections (AP, CNN, Axios, Politico, Ballotpedia summaries as of Nov. 4, 2026): Democrats control House (projections 220+ to well above 218) and Senate (≈54 seats after multiple flips including Kansas, Texas, Iowa, South Carolina, Ohio). Mike Johnson reelected in LA-4 but loses majority.
8. Gas price and inflation context: National averages rose ~40%+ post-late-February 2026 Iran-related conflict (Strait of Hormuz disruptions); Ohio increases in the 35–48% range reported; prices commonly above $4/gallon. CPI ~3.7% year-over-year in recent data. Multiple outlets (Fox, NBC, Reuters, Washington Post, Joint Economic Committee analyses) linked affordability/gas to midterm voter anger.
9. Acton background and campaign: Former Ohio Department of Health director; campaign focused on affordability and working-family relief. Controversial Ramaswamy ad featuring estranged mother widely reported as backfiring.
10. Local Butler County results page and Journal-News confirm Ryan, Nix, and related county outcomes. Statewide numbers consistent across WKRC, Dispatch, Ballotpedia, and Secretary of State feeds as of early Nov. 4.
Selected Bibliography / Further Reading
• Butler County Board of Elections unofficial results and Journal-News coverage of commissioner and auditor races (Nov. 3–4, 2026).
• Ohio Secretary of State election night results and county-level feeds.
• Economic context: AAA/EIA gas price data, CPI reports, and analyses from NBC News, Fox News, Reuters, and congressional Joint Economic Committee materials on Ohio household costs.
• Campaign and candidate background pieces from Journal-News (primary and general), Cincinnati Enquirer, and statewide outlets on Ramaswamy-Acton and Brown-Husted.
• Historical comparisons on Ohio gubernatorial and Senate control (last Democratic governor 2006; prior Senate patterns).
Rich Hoffman is an author, political consultant, and strategic advisor based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the creator of The Politics of Heaven—a unique framework that connects biblical theology, ancient history, and modern power structures to explain how moral alignment and spiritual forces shape global events. Blending real-world political experience with deep research into archaeology, UFO phenomena, and suppressed historical narratives, Hoffman offers compelling commentary on topics ranging from ancient civilizations and the Dead Sea Scrolls to modern populist movements, paranormal continuity, and leadership strategy in chaotic environments. As the author of The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business and the forthcoming Politics of Heaven, he brings a grounded yet provocative voice to media discussions, supported by firsthand experiences and a cross-disciplinary approach that bridges science, history, and theology. For interviews, speaking engagements, or expert analysis, visit richhoffmanbooks.com or contact directly by email at rhoffman@richhoffmanbooks.com. If you’ve seen the movie, Disclosure Day and want to talk about it and the implications of Presidnet Trump’s UAP disclosures, let me know and we can bring some color to your coverage. https://richhoffmanbooks.com/media-inquiries-broadcast-topics-and-contact-info/?frame-nonce=ad51e7ecba I do have a firsthand UFO encounter to discuss.
I picked up one of my favorite shirts at the White House. I love that place, and I love what the Trump administration has done and continues to do. It makes me think about continuity, about practical people who get results, and about the kind of energy we need in the states. I’m excited about Vivek Ramaswamy in Ohio. The race is competitive—recent polls have shown leads within the margin of error and prediction markets have favored his opponent more strongly—but I look at the internals, the trajectory, and the opportunity, and I believe he can win. Assuming that path, Ohio has a unique chance to lead the country on something that matters more to ordinary families than almost anything else: the crushing cost of healthcare, starting with cancer treatments.
I’ve been thinking about this for years. Friends have faced cancer. I’ve watched the bills, the delays, the sense that the system is designed more to manage disease than to fix people. The way for Republicans to win on healthcare in 2028 is not another tax credit or block grant that sounds like accounting. It is a concrete story: we cut the price of the most expensive treatments by attacking the cost-plus culture that has defined medicine the same way it once defined aerospace. We make advanced care available faster and cheaper. We fix people.
SpaceX is the right frame. Elon Musk and his team did not invent rockets. They applied vertical integration, rapid iteration, and a ruthless attack on cost-plus assumptions that had been baked into the industry for decades. NASA’s Shuttle delivered payload to low Earth orbit at something like $54,500 per kilogram. Falcon 9 brought that down toward $2,720 per kilogram—an order-of-magnitude improvement driven by reusability, in-house manufacturing of critical components, and a culture that squeezed suppliers and eliminated layers of markup. Roughly 80 percent of Falcon hardware was built in-house at Hawthorne. The “idiot index”—raw materials representing only a tiny fraction of final cost—forced first-principles thinking. That is the model. Cancer care is stuck in the opposite posture: academic timelines, slow FDA pathways, venture capital that demands multi-year runways before it moves, and pricing that treats every new therapy as a custom, high-margin product.
Ohio already has the raw material. Two weeks ago the James Cancer Center at Ohio State published a Phase 1 trial in Blood Cancer Discovery. Researchers tested a point-of-care manufactured trispecific CAR-T product targeting CD19, CD20, and CD22, enhanced with an OX40 costimulatory domain. Sixteen patients (median age 64) who had already burned through a median of three prior therapies received the cells. In the B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma subset, the complete response rate was 83 percent. There was no severe cytokine release syndrome and no neurotoxicity. Median vein-to-vein time was about seven days. That is not incremental. That is the kind of result that can rewrite parts of the treatment algorithm when it scales.
Around the same time, Ohio State licensed next-generation dual-payload antibody-drug conjugate technology to BiFormyx BioPharma. The company is moving its headquarters to Columbus and is targeting an Investigational New Drug filing in early 2028 for programs aimed at aggressive solid tumors such as triple-negative breast cancer. The entrepreneurs are not hypothetical. They are already in the state, building on James Center infrastructure that no pure startup can match.
A Ramaswamy administration would not need to invent cancer research. It would need to do three practical things. First, treat the James Center and Cincinnati Children’s as anchor tenants the way SpaceX treated Hawthorne—build the surrounding ecosystem of suppliers, manufacturers, and trial capacity around them instead of scattering small grants. Second, compress the state’s role in clinical trial siting and IRB approvals so Ohio becomes the fastest place in America to run a first-in-human study. A state-level regulatory sandbox that allows expanded access for therapies that have cleared Phase 1 while the national FDA process continues would put desperate patients on a plane to Columbus instead of Europe or Mexico. That builds both the clinical data and the political testimony at the same time. Third, use the governor’s office and the congressional delegation to push FDA pathway reform specifically for cell and gene therapies, while launching a manufacturing initiative so advanced therapies are built here. That sounds like jobs. It is jobs. It also happens to cure people.
The honest political caveat is that a pure “cure for cancer” message carries risk. Joe Biden’s moonshot language ran into the reality that many trials exist but the system is slow and expensive. Pharma has incentives to protect high-margin models. The safer, stronger 2028 pitch is not “we cured cancer.” It is “we cut the price by a large fraction and made advanced care available in county hospitals.” Direct medical costs of cancer care were already estimated above $200 billion annually and are projected to climb further; oncology drug spending alone is on a path toward hundreds of billions more by 2030. Families feel the $200 syringe and the six-figure episode. A SpaceX-style attack on the manufacturing and process costs of CAR-T and next-generation ADCs—point-of-care production, standardized platforms, elimination of custom-build markups—turns that into a diner-table number a voter in Dayton can understand.
Day one is not a task force. It is one connector with no ego and a mandate: get the founder, the family office, the hospital executive, and one skeptical journalist in a room every month. I know people who would make powerful patient testimony—friends who have lived the system. Put one of them on camera early. The three-month runway is to assemble the core group, file the sandbox concept, and open conversations with the Trump administration for continuity on FDA reform. The durability beyond any single administration is the real prize. Healthcare is the issue that does not care about team colors. Every cycle Republicans are asked what they will do, and the answer has usually been accounting. “We fix the thing that costs you more than your mortgage” is a different animal. It turns a defensive issue into an offensive one and gives the party a story about results rather than a man.
I have said for years that the person who can talk to anyone, get the money people and the operators in a room, and handle the public relations against the entrenched interests is more valuable than another PhD on staff. That is the SpaceX culture applied to medicine. Ohio can lead it. The technology is further along than most people realize. The politics have been the bottleneck. A friendly administration that treats this like a campaign—speed, visibility, manufacturing, and patient stories—can change the cost structure of healthcare by making advanced treatments practical instead of perpetually expensive.
If you are interested in the kind of first-principles thinking that produced The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business, this is the same mindset applied to the largest cost problem in American life. Ohio has the anchors. A Ramaswamy administration can put the right people in the rooms. The rest is execution.
Footnotes
1. Ohio governor race polling and prediction markets as of late October 2026 (Cleveland.com, State of the Odds / Kalshi-Polymarket data).
2. Vasu S, et al. Safety and Clinical Outcomes of a First-in-Human Trial of Point-of-Care Manufactured Trispecific CAR T Cells Targeting CD19, CD20, and CD22. Blood Cancer Discovery. 2026;7(5). DOI: 10.1158/2643-3230.BCD-26-0186. OSUCCC–James lead.
3. CancerNetwork summary of the same trial: 83% complete responses in the B-NHL subset; no severe CRS or neurotoxicity.
4. Ohio State licensing of next-generation dual-payload ADC technology to BiFormyx BioPharma (October 2026 announcement); IND target early 2028.
5. AACR Cancer Progress Report 2026 and related estimates of direct cancer care costs exceeding $200 billion (2020 baseline figures, ongoing growth).
6. Milliman analysis of oncology drug spending trajectory toward $400 billion by 2030.
7. NASA Shuttle ~$54,500/kg vs. Falcon 9 ~$2,720/kg (various aerospace analyses, including Harry Jones / NASA Ames references); SpaceX vertical integration figures from company and independent reporting.
8. JAMA Oncology viewpoint on rising median monthly launch prices for systemic therapies (2023–2025 data).
Selected Bibliography
• Vasu S, Denlinger N, Song NJ, et al. “Safety and Clinical Outcomes of a First-in-Human Trial of Point-of-Care Manufactured Trispecific CAR T Cells Targeting CD19, CD20, and CD22.” Blood Cancer Discovery 7, no. 5 (2026).
• American Association for Cancer Research. Cancer Progress Report 2026.
• Milliman. “The oncology drug landscape: Spend trends, market dynamics, and the road to 2030” (2026).
• Shah C. “Rethinking Value in Cancer Care in the US.” JAMA Oncology (October 2026).
• Ohio State University Office of Enterprise for Research, Innovation and Knowledge. Licensing announcements for BiFormyx BioPharma dual-payload ADC platform (2025–2026).
• SpaceX and independent analyses of Falcon 9 reusability and vertical integration (Hawthorne manufacturing, cost-per-kilogram comparisons versus Shuttle).
• Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker and related national health expenditure data.
• American Cancer Society and National Cancer Institute studies on cancer-attributable medical costs by phase of care.
Rich Hoffman is an author, political consultant, and strategic advisor based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the creator of The Politics of Heaven—a unique framework that connects biblical theology, ancient history, and modern power structures to explain how moral alignment and spiritual forces shape global events. Blending real-world political experience with deep research into archaeology, UFO phenomena, and suppressed historical narratives, Hoffman offers compelling commentary on topics ranging from ancient civilizations and the Dead Sea Scrolls to modern populist movements, paranormal continuity, and leadership strategy in chaotic environments. As the author of The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business and the forthcoming Politics of Heaven, he brings a grounded yet provocative voice to media discussions, supported by firsthand experiences and a cross-disciplinary approach that bridges science, history, and theology. For interviews, speaking engagements, or expert analysis, visit richhoffmanbooks.com or contact directly by email at rhoffman@richhoffmanbooks.com. If you’ve seen the movie, Disclosure Day and want to talk about it and the implications of Presidnet Trump’s UAP disclosures, let me know and we can bring some color to your coverage. https://richhoffmanbooks.com/media-inquiries-broadcast-topics-and-contact-info/?frame-nonce=ad51e7ecba I do have a firsthand UFO encounter to discuss.
An Academic Reflection from Put-in-Bay and the Kings Island Haunt, 2026
This paper examines how fear functions as a primary mechanism of cultural programming and social control, drawing on personal fieldwork conducted in 2025–2026. It integrates archaeological, anthropological, and psychological perspectives with experiential data from a period of deliberate privation (finishing The Politics of Heaven at Put-in-Bay, Ohio) and embodied performance (portraying Jason Voorhees in the “Blood Reigns” attraction at Kings Island’s Haunt). The argument posits that non-human intelligence—whether framed as demons, interdimensional entities, or residual “software” written into human cognition—operates primarily through fear, peer pressure, and mythic narratives. Observations of gendered responses to terror, connections to ancient shamanic and Canaanite practices, and the broader “Truman Show” constraints of modern society are developed. The work is offered as a foundational paper toward a larger doctoral-scale thesis.
Introduction: Writing Under Privation and the Search for Root Causes
I have long maintained that the written word remains the most durable vehicle for knowledge transfer, even as video and podcast media dominate contemporary communication. My books are intended not merely for commercial circulation but as time capsules—relevant to readers centuries hence. The Politics of Heaven, completed in draft at Put-in-Bay, Ohio, in 2026, addresses the political order of conspirators against God (or Yahweh), using history, archaeology, and anthropology to map the software that programs human intellect and society.¹
Influences include James Frazer’s comparative mythology, the psychology of Jung and Freud, the poetry of T. S. Eliot, and the science fiction of Frank Herbert (Dune), whose Bene Gesserit and later revelations about programmed human destiny illuminate how mythologies function as code.² We live in a constrained existence often analogized to The Truman Show or The Matrix: perceptions are filtered, free will is debated, and destinies are described as “meant to be.” Who writes the program? My working hypothesis, refined through decades of study and travel, is that non-human intelligence—lingering outside or adjacent to dimensional reality—has shaped human software for millennia. JD Vance and others have used the language of demons; Timothy Alberino’s work on the Book of Enoch and related texts has brought these questions into wider circulation.³ I align with much, though not all, of that framing.
Archaeology and anthropology remain central. Periodicals on human settlement, migration, skull cults at Göbekli Tepe (c. 10,000 BCE), copper cultures of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the Windover people of Central Florida (c. 7,000–8,000 years ago), dolmens and shaman caves in the Jordan Valley and near the Sea of Galilee (dating to 14,000–15,000 years ago), and the unresolved questions surrounding the First Temple period in Jerusalem all indicate advanced activity long before conventional biblical timelines.⁴ Graham Hancock’s The Sign and the Seal modeled an adventure-correspondence approach I adapted, though my expenditure of roughly half a million dollars in travel and research produced a more systematic chronology of museums and sites.⁵ The goal was never light entertainment but a serious attempt to order the politics of spiritual adversaries.
Method: Privation, Shamanic Parallel, and the Truman Show
Shamans historically depleted themselves—through fasting, stress, sleep deprivation, or plant medicines such as ayahuasca—to heighten interaction with the spirit world. Jesus’s fasting in the wilderness and Pablo Amaringo’s visionary work (emerging from Hancock’s circles) illustrate the pattern.⁶ I employ a parallel method when finishing major works: deliberate hardship to push perception beyond ordinary constraints.
I finished The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business in Roswell, New Mexico, during a snowstorm after racing from Kansas City through untreated roads. The setting let me research the 1947 incidents, John Chisum’s economic impact, and the Lincoln County War. Similarly, Put-in-Bay provided isolation. Hostile actors—corporate pirates, political adversaries, and those who label dissent “crazy” to enforce social ostracism—create constant vigilance. I have maintained a zero-violence policy while carrying defensive arms and varying routes, informed by early exposure to organized-crime environments in the Cincinnati area (hitmen who preferred chaotic public sites such as stoplights to minimize witnesses).⁷ Put-in-Bay’s limited geography and reduced chaos allowed genuine relaxation for several days, revealing the extent of chronic self-preservation stress. Jacques Vallée’s books, read there, confirmed that readers of my manuscript already recognized the parallel to his hypotheses on non-human intelligence and control systems.⁸
The “Truman Show” is not metaphor alone. Peer pressure, institutional relief valves, and mythic programming keep populations within acceptable bounds. Politics is software input. Questions of free will, destiny, and “God’s plan” require root-cause analysis rather than repetition of received narratives.
Archaeological Foundations and Pre-Biblical Complexity
Göbekli Tepe’s skull cult, beer production, and monumental architecture predate conventional agricultural narratives. Michigan copper sources potentially fueled early Bronze Age metallurgy. Windover bog burials demonstrate sophisticated indigenous cultures in Florida long before 1619-project framings. Near-Eastern shaman caves show continuous use of psychoactive means to contact non-human intelligence. Jerusalem’s stratigraphy—layers of soil obscuring First Temple remains, the Dome of the Rock’s contested holiness, debates over the Ark of the Covenant—illustrates selective historical emphasis.⁹
I contend that when humans return to the Moon and Mars in the 2030s, archaeology will expand into space. Evidence of prior habitation—structures, temples, or genetic serial numbers distinguishing populations—may confirm that modern humanity is either a continuation or an edited product of earlier intelligences. Giants in biblical and extra-biblical texts may reflect lower-gravity origins as readily as Nephilim mating. Erich von Däniken and Zechariah Sitchin, though contested, raised questions that academic orthodoxy often dismisses too quickly.¹⁰ The 1619 Project and related efforts to reframe American founding as purely extractive ignore the long Western-civilizational arc emerging from the Near East through political and religious turmoil into constitutional self-government.¹¹
Fear as the Core Control Mechanism
Fear constructs society. Loss of employment, social ostracism, political realignment, parental authority, spectral threats—all function as relief valves or enforcement tools. Communism and modern institutional capture operate similarly. Haunted attractions, by contrast, offer bounded terror: participants pay to confront fear while guaranteed physical safety.
In September–October 2026, I auditioned for Kings Island’s Haunt. My walk—shaped by decades of executive work, proximity to power without subservience, and early familiarity with violent environments—led casting directors to select me as Jason Voorhees for the “Blood Rains” house, which drew heavily on the first four Friday the 13th films. Six Flags invested substantially in authentic sets, pine scent, rain effects, and practical lighting/sound. I worked Thursday–Sunday nights from mid-September through Halloween, typically 5 p.m. to after midnight, among a cast largely in their teens and twenties. The Saturday before Halloween saw multi-hour lines extending into the mall area; tens of thousands of guests passed through.¹²
Jason does not speak. Presence, posture, and eye contact project threat. I employed every available non-verbal means—strobe activation, machete motion, wall strikes when audio failed—to maximize effect. Physical cost was real: cut hands from repeated machete handling, bloodied knuckles, observed injuries among other performers. The experience supplied a large statistical sample of human response under controlled terror.
Gendered and Developmental Responses to Terror
Males (boys and men) predominantly sought engagement: “Hi Jason,” fist-bump requests, verbal acknowledgment that affirmed survival and status. Females, especially adolescents (roughly 15–18), frequently defaulted to sexual display or verbal seduction—“I love you, Jason,” blown kisses, tongue gestures, exposure—under hive conditions in groups of six or more. This was not universal but patterned and striking. I remained fully in character and found the behavior revealing rather than gratifying.
These responses map onto older fertility and goddess-cult practices. Academic literature sometimes underplays the sexual dimensions of Canaanite religion—temple prostitution, fertility rites offered to deities. Under uncertainty (future, status, survival), young females appear to test sexual capital as appeasement. Parallel questions arise regarding high-school relationships with older authority figures: the same calculus of power and fear can and do operate. Once reproductive and household realities set in, the pattern typically attenuates.¹³
Haunted-house guests emerge smiling, having survived bounded terror. The certainty of the scare itself provides relief from the more diffuse fears of ordinary life. People want to locate the monsters and the pecking order.
Canaanite Cults, Shamanism, and Western Counter-Narratives
Why did populations worship Canaanite deities with sexual and sacrificial rites? Fear and the desire for fertility or protection. Shamanic caves throughout the region, continuous with Göbekli Tepe traditions, indicate long interaction with non-human intelligence. The Protestant Reformation’s debates over the Apocrypha (Luther et al.) and the Bible’s selective time-capsule nature leave room for pre-Adamite or edited human populations.¹⁴ Western civilization, emerging through Christian and classical synthesis, largely rejected the more destructive cultic practices even while retaining fear as a social tool.
My observations in the Haunt supplied modern ethnographic data: under acute fear, sexual appeasement and status-seeking appear as default strategies. This does not require endorsement of any particular theology; it requires acknowledging that non-human intelligence (or residual programming attributed to it) continues to exploit fear. In The Politics of Heaven, Yahweh faces ongoing conspirators; human beings are both targets and potential representatives.
Implications for Programming, Free Will, and Future Archaeology
Stories and folklore write software. Families, companies, political parties, and nations transmit it. Elon Musk’s enterprises (SpaceX, Tesla, Starlink) illustrate an engineer bringing science-fiction templates into hardware; the same logic applies to cultural templates. Disclosure discussions around non-human intelligence remain constrained by institutional incentives.
When archaeological work reaches Mars and the Moon, prior human or human-intelligence presence will force timeline revisions. Genetic distinctions among populations may be re-read as creator “serial numbers.” Fear will remain the primary enforcement mechanism unless deliberately countered by clearer understanding of the program and its authors. Bounded experiences of terror (haunts, controlled shamanic methods) can illuminate the mechanism without surrendering to it.
Conclusion
The 2026 season—completing The Politics of Heaven under conditions of hostility, reading Vallée at Put-in-Bay, and embodying Jason Voorhees for tens of thousands of guests—functioned as an extended field experiment. Fear governs more of human society than is commonly admitted. Gendered responses, ancient cultic parallels, and the architecture of the Truman Show all converge on the same point: non-human intelligence, or the residual code it left, continues to shape outcomes. Academic archaeology, anthropology, and psychology supply tools; personal privation and embodied performance supply data. Further work will expand this foundation into a fuller thesis. The Haunt was excellent service; the learning exceeded any wage.
Jason: Blood Reign and the Quiet Proof of Leadership
I went into the 2026 Halloween Haunt at Kings Island deliberately choosing the hard, less-visible work. For a long time the projects I’ve been around have tended to succeed, and it can become difficult to know how much of that success you actually carry with you versus how much simply arrives because you’re standing next to it. So I picked something outside my usual wheelhouse—seasonal work as Jason Voorhees inside the new licensed Friday the 13th maze, Jason: Blood Reign—and treated it as a personal experiment. Could I still move the needle when the assignment was physically demanding, the hours long, the setting unfamiliar, and the success of the night depended on people I had to help form into a team under real pressure?
It was hard. Very hard on the body and on the schedule. But the result was clearer than I expected. Blood Reign became one of the headlining mazes of the season. Kings Island ran seven haunted mazes in 2026 (Blood Reign and Metal Massacre new; Order of the Dragon, Alien Abyss, Killmart, Slaughter House, and the separate add-on Conjuring experience). Blood Reign was the line people planned around. Early in the run it regularly posted 60-minute medians on Fridays and Saturdays and hit 180 minutes on at least one Saturday. Guests who waited still came out talking about it. Reviews from park regulars and content creators repeatedly called the production a step up for the park—strong sets that moved between woods and camp scenes drawn from the franchise, effective scares, and actors who kept the tension alive rather than just jumping out. Multiple people described it as “S-tier,” “some of the best production I’ve seen at Kings Island,” and worth the extra Haunted Attractions Pass. The same maze ran at two other Six Flags parks this year (SCarowinds and Great Adventure’s Fright Fest); at Kings Island the long lines and the volume of positive guest reactions after they exited were the clearest local verdict.
What I take from it is not the mask or the machete. It is the confirmation that my strongest lever is still team-building and culture. When you can get the people around you to raise their game, stay consistent under fatigue, and care about the experience the guest is having, the maze performs. There were the usual background conversations about what actually makes a good haunt—staffing, pacing, the difference between a cheap jump and a sustained sense that something is hunting you—and the group that formed around the maze worked through those. Six Flags supplied a budget and the licensed concept; the actors and the people supporting them turned it into something guests wanted to stand in line for and then recommended to others. Tens of thousands of people moved through that experience across the roughly 22 operating nights. The ones I saw leaving were generally happy with what they had just paid for.
That outcome matters to me for 2027. It was not my normal environment. It was physical, seasonal, and outside the usual executive or advisory frame. Yet the same pattern held: get the culture right, elevate the people doing the work, and the thing tends to succeed. That is the blank check I was looking for. Whatever projects I put my name next to next year—whether they look familiar or deliberately difficult—I now have another clear data point that the method travels. The lines, the reviews, and the team that held together through the hard nights are the evidence. I’m proud of the contribution. More than that, I’m satisfied that the experiment worked.
My daughters and one of my grandsons while I was working as Jason
I was especially happy to hear the guys at Tower Topics—Don Helbig and Ryan Suhr—talk about Jason: Blood Reign on their podcast. Around the four-minute mark of the episode where Ryan reviewed this year’s Haunt (“Ryan Went to Haunt So Don Didn’t Have To”), he specifically described what he ran into at the curtain. That’s where they put me most nights—about 80% of the time. I’m fast, and I developed a way of timing the button that triggers the sound effect and the light visuals so the jump lines up exactly when I rip the curtain open.
I call it the Jack-in-the-Box effect. You know the jump is coming. You can see me twisting the knot and the handle just a little, building the anticipation, but you still don’t know the exact second. Ryan came through multiple times—I recognized him once I saw him on the podcast—and he kept coming back through the maze the way a lot of people do once they’ve been scared. Across the hall from the curtain there’s a little graphic animation of Jason killing someone in shadow. Guests lock onto that. While they’re looking at it, I come out behind them. Even when people have already been through several times and know I’m standing there, the timing still gets them. A lot of them fall down. Some crawl out of the room on their hands and knees. Others jump so hard they pull the people in front of them down with them. It happens often enough that I’m sure there will be reviews mentioning the safety side of it, but the reaction is real.
Groups of thirty or so would come through. I’d get the first couple, then people four or five back would see me and still get hit when I timed the jump. They’d say “I knew you were behind that curtain—I just went through here” and then admit I still scared them. I never broke character. They’d try to get you to talk or react, but I stayed locked in. The goal every night was simple: they paid good money, so give them everything you’ve got. Don’t hold back. Don’t phone it in.
We had a strong group—mostly younger people—and we built a positive, high-energy culture. I challenged myself by stepping into something outside my normal element, injecting energy and creativity day after day, and treating every guest like they deserved the full scare. It was a tough, physical job with long hours, but being part of making it succeed felt good. Hearing Ryan Suhr, who has been through a lot of haunts and isn’t easy to impress, talk about Jason: Blood Reign as one of the best in the country made me proud of the part I played in it. These guys do a half-hour to hour-long show and still came away with a genuinely positive take. That meant something.
I’m happy they had a good experience, and I’m glad Ryan recognized the work we put in at the curtain. It was a successful season, and I was glad to contribute to it.Notes
Rich Hoffman, The Politics of Heaven (manuscript, 2026).
Frank Herbert, Dune series (1965–1985); James G. Frazer, The Golden Bough (1890–1915); C. G. Jung, Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (1959).
Timothy Alberino, Birthright and related lectures on Enochic literature; public statements by JD Vance on demonic language.
Klaus Schmidt, Göbekli Tepe: A Stone Age Sanctuary in South-Eastern Anatolia (2012); reports on Windover archaeological site (Florida); copper provenance studies linking Lake Superior to Near Eastern Bronze Age.
Graham Hancock, The Sign and the Seal (1992).
Pablo Amaringo and Luis Eduardo Luna, Ayahuasca Visions (1991); biblical accounts of Jesus’s wilderness fasting (Matthew 4; Luke 4).
Personal observational data from Cincinnati-area environments, 1980s–1990s; general criminological literature on witness behavior in chaotic public spaces.
Jacques Vallée, Passport to Magonia (1969) and Dimensions (1988).
Standard stratigraphic reports on the City of David and Temple Mount; debates summarized in Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, The Bible Unearthed (2001), read critically.
Erich von Däniken, Chariots of the Gods? (1968); Zechariah Sitchin, The 12th Planet (1976).
Critical responses to the 1619 Project, including those emphasizing continuity of Western legal and philosophical traditions.
Kings Island Haunt operational data and personal field notes, September–October 2026.
Comparative material on Canaanite religion in William G. Dever, Did God Have a Wife? (2005); ethnographic parallels in fear and fertility rites.
Martin Luther’s prefaces to the Apocrypha; standard introductions to biblical canon formation.
Selected Bibliography for Further Reading Alberino, Timothy. Works on Enoch and related pseudepigrapha. Amaringo, Pablo, and Luis Eduardo Luna. Ayahuasca Visions. Dever, William G. Did God Have a Wife? Finkelstein, Israel, and Neil Asher Silberman. The Bible Unearthed. Frazer, James G. The Golden Bough. Hancock, Graham. The Sign and the Seal; Fingerprints of the Gods. Herbert, Frank. Dune series. Jung, C. G. Collected works on archetypes and the unconscious. Schmidt, Klaus. Göbekli Tepe. Sitchin, Zechariah. Earth Chronicles series. Vallée, Jacques. Passport to Magonia; Dimensions; Confrontations. von Däniken, Erich. Chariots of the Gods? Additional primary archaeological reports on Göbekli Tepe, Windover, Michigan copper, and Levantine dolmens and caves; criminological studies of public violence and witness behavior; psychological literature on fear conditioning and gender differences under stress (e.g., works descending from Freud, Jung, and modern terror-management theory).
Rich Hoffman is an author, political consultant, and strategic advisor based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the creator of The Politics of Heaven—a unique framework that connects biblical theology, ancient history, and modern power structures to explain how moral alignment and spiritual forces shape global events. Blending real-world political experience with deep research into archaeology, UFO phenomena, and suppressed historical narratives, Hoffman offers compelling commentary on topics ranging from ancient civilizations and the Dead Sea Scrolls to modern populist movements, paranormal continuity, and leadership strategy in chaotic environments. As the author of The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business and the forthcoming Politics of Heaven, he brings a grounded yet provocative voice to media discussions, supported by firsthand experiences and a cross-disciplinary approach that bridges science, history, and theology. For interviews, speaking engagements, or expert analysis, visit richhoffmanbooks.com or contact directly via phone at 513-307-5815 or email at rhoffman@richhoffmanbooks.com. If you’ve seen the movie, Disclosure Day and want to talk about it and the implications of Presidnet Trump’s UAP disclosures, let me know and we can bring some color to your coverage. https://richhoffmanbooks.com/media-inquiries-broadcast-topics-and-contact-info/?frame-nonce=ad51e7ecba I do have a firsthand UFO encounter to discuss.
Elon Musk has said he will give every child in America one share of SpaceX stock next year, routed through the Trump Accounts program. At recent prices, that is roughly a $10.5 billion transfer to about 72–73 million kids, drawn from a company now valued near $2 trillion after its June 2026 IPO. The gift is real enough to matter. It is not large enough, by itself, to paper over decades of reckless public spending, structural medical overcharging, or the permanent administrative class that treats other people’s money as an infinite resource. Politics is management. The managers we choose will decide whether this windfall is invested or squandered.
The SpaceX Share and the Limits of Private Generosity
Musk posted the pledge on X on October 19, 2026: one of his SpaceX shares to every kid in America, “the first of many.” The shares were trading near $146–148. SpaceX had just reported third-quarter revenue of $14.6 billion, up 161 percent year-over-year, and the company carries a market capitalization around $2 trillion. The transfer is large by ordinary standards and small relative to Musk’s holdings. It is also downstream of policy. SpaceX’s explosive growth came after regulatory barriers fell. Private capital and engineering solved problems that public aerospace processes had treated as permanent. The same sequence will have to occur in medicine if the cost structure is ever to break.
Gifting stock to children does not repeal the obligation of fiscal discipline at every level of government. Butler County has maintained that discipline for years. Nancy Nix, first as treasurer and now as auditor, and Mike McNamara as treasurer have kept the books in the black. I have disagreed with Nancy on restaurants, cars, sweaters, and larger political questions including Trump and Vance. None of that changes the observable fact that she understands money. When we talk about county finances, I get clear answers. That is what an auditor is for. Preference arguments can wait until after the numbers are settled.
Local People, Hard Times, and the Test of Character
I have known George Lang for a long time. He is one of Ohio’s stronger state senators and has been through serious political and legal pressure. Years ago, when I was in the middle of one of the more public controversies that have followed me, I held a strategy lunch at LaRosa’s in Liberty Township. Fifteen to twenty people showed up. George came. At the time he was a West Chester trustee, not yet a state representative or senator, and he had every conventional reason to stay away. Conventional wisdom said a rising figure should not sit down with the local radical. He came anyway, ate pizza, and talked. I have not forgotten it. In adult life, I have found that the people willing to show up when the cost is real are the ones you can trust later. Most others reveal themselves under pressure.
The same pattern appears with other local figures. I have had hard conversations with Ann Becker and with Darbi Boddy. Their positions have moved; mine have stayed more constant. I still speak with both when the subject is county or party direction. Art Sauerwein, the new Butler County Republican chair, is navigating a party that is shifting toward clearer Trump alignment after twenty years of more mixed leadership. That shift will be permanent or it will not. The practical question is whether the party represents the voters who show up or protects an internal preference for moderation those voters have already rejected. Sheriff Jones and I differ on operational style; I still recognize competence where it exists. Roger Reynolds, Thomas Hall, Jennifer Gross, and Michael Ryan each bring different vantage points. Good government requires finding the overlapping work that must be done even when the people involved are not identical in every preference.
My own operating rule has been consistent. People who threaten me, send letters, or try to force me into their preferred lane discover that the cost is not free. I cannot think of a case in my adult life where someone who moved against me didn’t eventually pay a price. That reputation is not an accident. It is the same discipline I applied while working the Jason Voorhees role at the Kings Island haunt: guests are protected by the attraction’s rules, yet the job is still to function within those constraints and produce the intended effect. Public life has similar constraints. I defend the position. The threats continue from people who treat disagreement as license for antagonism. The work continues anyway.
The Medical Cost Structure and the Coming Reckoning
The medical industry in its current form is not sustainable. Hospitals routinely bill hundreds of dollars to push a syringe that can be purchased for a few dollars at a retail pharmacy. One documented case involved $722 charges for each IV push; the medication itself was billed separately. Facility fees, chargemaster markups, and billing the same service at hospital rates when performed in an office setting have produced multiples of Medicare reference prices. Large health systems have built entire hillsides of facilities—visible near Bridgewater Falls looking toward the Cincinnati airport—on the assumption that the current reimbursement model continues indefinitely.
I have turned down high-paying offers inside that system because continued public criticism of it was worth more to me than the salary. Many people take the money. The salary structure rests on the post-2010 Affordable Care Act architecture and the expectation of perpetual third-party payment. X-ray technicians and other roles routinely clear six figures. The economic incentive is to keep patients in treatment pathways rather than to eliminate the underlying condition. Shopping malls once looked permanent too. When the cost structure became indefensible, and alternatives appeared, the physical footprint emptied. The same sequence is available in medicine once competitive models are allowed to scale.
Cures for major cancers are closer than the current billing regime admits. Recent work at UCLA and elsewhere has shown methods for producing renewable, off-the-shelf engineered immune cells that can attack solid tumors, reprogram stem cells to generate ongoing T-cell responses, and reduce the cost and customization barriers that have limited CAR-T approaches. These are not yet standard of care. They are evidence that the technical path exists. The political and reimbursement path does not. Radiation and chemotherapy remain the default for many late-stage patients because the payment system rewards ongoing intervention. Friends of mine who are in stage-three and stage-four treatment have been told to hold on. The practical advice is the same: stay alive long enough for the competitive models to clear the regulatory and payment obstacles. That clearance requires elected officials who will not protect the existing revenue streams.
Good People, Hard Conditions, and the Management of Growth
Easy money has corrupted incentives across multiple sectors. People who know a three-dollar item is billed at two hundred dollars and still collect a paycheck participate in a system that delays better outcomes. The same pattern appears in any protected administrative layer: the work becomes the protection of the process rather than the production of the result. SpaceX grew because it lowered barriers and enforced engineering standards. Medicine will require an equivalent reduction in barriers and an equivalent insistence on measurable outcomes.
Good government comes from good people who have already survived hard conditions. The LaRosa’s lunch, the haunt work, the machine-shop years, and the periods of public controversy all tested the same question: who shows up when the cost is real and who disappears. Butler County has a concentration of people who have demonstrated fiscal competence and willingness to absorb political heat. Nancy Nix’s record on the numbers is one example. George Lang’s decision to attend an unpopular meeting is another. Those traits are not universal in politics. They are also not optional if the SpaceX-era wealth is to become lasting productive capacity rather than get absorbed by the next round of administrative expansion.
Trump will not be in office indefinitely. The question of continuity—whether through Vance or another figure—will be settled by whether the underlying incentives have been altered. A county party that aligns more closely with the voters who delivered the recent results is better positioned to defend those changes than one that treats them as temporary. The medical cost collapse will arrive whether local officials prepare for it or not. The difference will be whether replacement models are allowed to form here or whether revenue protection continues until the facilities empty, as the malls did.
The private gift of SpaceX shares is a useful transfer. It does not replace the requirement for managers who can keep public books in the black, tolerate disagreement without treating it as grounds for destruction, and clear the path for competitive innovation in sectors that have been protected too long. You can identify those managers by their behavior under pressure. The rest is preference. The numbers are not.
Footnotes
1. Musk’s October 19, 2026 statement on X committed one SpaceX share per American child, to be delivered via Trump Accounts. Census estimates place the under-18 population near 72–73 million. At contemporaneous share prices of approximately $146–148, the notional value was roughly $10.5 billion. SpaceX’s post-IPO market capitalization has fluctuated near $2 trillion.
2. SpaceX’s third-quarter 2026 revenue was reported at $14.58 billion, a 161 percent year-over-year increase. Analyst targets vary widely; Bernstein raised its target to $268, while the stock traded near $149 in late October.
3. Documented hospital billing examples include $722 charges solely for the act of an IV push (medication billed separately) and systematic multiples of Medicare rates through facility fees and chargemaster pricing. Hospitals have also billed office-based services at hospital outpatient rates, producing large differentials on identical procedures.
4. UCLA and related groups have published methods for generating renewable engineered immune cells from stem cells, off-the-shelf CAR-NKT and similar platforms capable of attacking solid tumors, and approaches that reduce per-patient customization costs. These remain largely preclinical or early-stage; they illustrate technical feasibility rather than immediate clinical availability.
5. Butler County’s multi-year record of operating in the black under Nix (treasurer then auditor) and McNamara (treasurer) is a matter of public financial reporting. Preference disagreements on non-fiscal questions do not alter the observable management of county resources.
6. The LaRosa’s Liberty Township lunch occurred during a period of elevated local controversy. Attendance by a then-township trustee who later became a state senator is cited as an instance of behavior under conditions where conventional incentives favored absence.
Bibliography & Further Reading
• Hoffman, Rich. The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business.
• Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Axios coverage of the October 19, 2026 Musk SpaceX share pledge and Trump Accounts mechanism.
• SpaceX public financial reporting and analyst notes on Q3 2026 results (revenue, market capitalization).
• NPR and KFF Health News reporting on hospital chargemaster practices, IV-push fees, and facility-fee differentials.
• Patient Rights Advocate and related analyses of medical billing error rates and markups relative to Medicare reference prices.
• UCLA Health and OncLive summaries of stem-cell-derived and off-the-shelf engineered immune-cell platforms for solid tumors (2025–2026 publications).
• Ohio Auditor of State and Butler County financial reports on multi-year operating balances.
The private capital is arriving. Public managers will decide whether to use or consume it. In the age of disclosure, the distinction remains measurable.
Rich Hoffman is an author, political consultant, and strategic advisor based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the creator of The Politics of Heaven—a unique framework that connects biblical theology, ancient history, and modern power structures to explain how moral alignment and spiritual forces shape global events. Blending real-world political experience with deep research into archaeology, UFO phenomena, and suppressed historical narratives, Hoffman offers compelling commentary on topics ranging from ancient civilizations and the Dead Sea Scrolls to modern populist movements, paranormal continuity, and leadership strategy in chaotic environments. As the author of The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business and the forthcoming Politics of Heaven, he brings a grounded yet provocative voice to media discussions, supported by firsthand experiences and a cross-disciplinary approach that bridges science, history, and theology. For interviews, speaking engagements, or expert analysis, visit richhoffmanbooks.com or contact directly via phone at 513-307-5815 or email at rhoffman@richhoffmanbooks.com. If you’ve seen the movie, Disclosure Day and want to talk about it and the implications of Presidnet Trump’s UAP disclosures, let me know and we can bring some color to your coverage. https://richhoffmanbooks.com/media-inquiries-broadcast-topics-and-contact-info/?frame-nonce=ad51e7ecba I do have a firsthand UFO encounter to discuss.
I received another round of texts and calls this week from people at the place where I spent twenty-five years. One of them came from a man I hired years ago, a man from Ghana who later introduced me to his children and, in time, began to treat me as a father figure in America. He is not the only one who has reached out. Several people have asked when I am coming back, whether I can fix what has become a nightmare, and whether there is any path for a return to the way things used to be. I appreciate the respect and the loyalty. It is an honor when someone from another continent decides you are the person he trusts that way. At the same time, the honest answer I need to give him—and everyone else who has written—is straightforward: go back and watch The Lion King. That is the clearest picture of what is happening, and it explains why I have no plans to return.
Twenty-Five Years and the Obligation to Set Everyone Up
I spent years trying to put people in a position where the paychecks would keep coming. That was the practical obligation. Mortgage payments, car notes, and ordinary life do not pause while leadership changes. I did what I could to arrange sustainable arrangements so that people who stayed would continue to receive regular pay for a year, two years, three years, or longer. From my side of the transaction, that was the success criterion. I left because the situation had become miserable for me personally, not because I wanted to abandon anyone. There are many ways to make money in the world; staying in a place that drains you is not required once the basic obligations have been met. I feel that I fulfilled those obligations as thoroughly as the circumstances allowed.
The man who considers me his American father was a leader on the machines and someone with whom the professional relationship grew into something more personal over time. When he told me years ago that God had directed him to come see me, I took that seriously. People of genuine faith do not say such things lightly. The same respect he showed then is present in the way he has reached out now. I value that. I also know that affection and loyalty do not change the structural facts of the place I left.
Scar’s Conspiracy and the Ruined Pride Lands
The Lion King (1994) remains one of the clearest popular stories about what happens when someone schemes for a title he cannot actually carry. Scar, Mufasa’s brother, conspires with the hyenas, engineers a stampede, and kills the king so he can seize the throne. Once he has the position, the Pride Lands deteriorate. The grass dies, the herds leave, and the remaining lions live under scarcity and fear. Scar’s rule is not an improvement; it is a slow collapse. The film makes the point without subtlety: taking the title does not confer the competence, the loyalty, or the capacity to sustain the kingdom. Ambition organized around grievance produces depletion rather than abundance.
That pattern appears in real organizations more often than people like to admit. Someone decides he can do the job better, works in the background to undermine the person currently holding it, and eventually obtains the role. The immediate result is often not improved performance but declining morale, reduced trust, and a workplace that feels worse for the people still inside it. Research on leadership transitions consistently shows measurable drops in engagement, trust, and retention after a change at the top. One global study found that after a reorganization, 88 percent of senior leaders believed the new structure would succeed while only 36 percent of employees agreed; only 22 percent of employees said they received adequate support to adapt. Other data indicate that poorly managed transitions can reduce employee performance by roughly 15 percent and that a substantial share of executive transitions are later judged failures. Communication often falls by about 20 percent in the first months after a CEO change as uncertainty rises. None of this is abstract when the people living it are calling and texting.
The Reality of Leadership Transitions
I have told people who reached out that I did my part. I arranged what I could so that paychecks would continue. Beyond that, I have no capacity or intention to re-enter the situation. I am busy. I am also taking time to recover from years of long hours and physical demand—time that was unavailable while I was responsible for keeping everyone paid. The desire for the former leader to return is understandable. Employees who trusted the previous arrangement naturally hope the person who made the place function will come back and restore it. In the film, Nala and others eventually find Simba and urge him to return. The difference is that Simba does return, confronts Scar, and restores the land. I am not that figure, and I have not left any door open for that role.
There is no Simba waiting to take the kingdom back. The place will continue in its current direction or it will not; that is now outside my control. People who need a regular paycheck can stay and work under the existing conditions. Those who find the conditions intolerable have the same option I exercised: they can leave and find another arrangement. I do not say that lightly. Changing jobs is disruptive. It is also sometimes necessary when the alternative is remaining in a declining environment run by people whose primary qualification was the desire for the title.
Why There Is No Simba Coming Back
I have no plans to return and save the pride from Scar. The years spent trying to set people up were already costly in personal terms. I did that work out of loyalty and a sense of obligation. Repeating it would not be healthy, and I have no desire to reopen that chapter. Greatness, for me, is now located elsewhere. Scar-type figures exist in many organizations; they scheme, obtain the position, and then discover that competence and care for the people under them are not automatically transferred with the title. The remaining employees have to navigate that reality themselves.
I appreciate every message that expresses affection or asks me to come back. It is good to be missed. It is also important to be clear. I fulfilled the practical duty of arranging sustainable pay where I could. I am not available to re-enter the role, and I do not expect that to change. For the man who calls me father in America, and for everyone else who wrote, the clearest reply remains the same: watch The Lion King again. Scar takes the throne through conspiracy. The Pride Lands decline under his rule. Simba eventually returns in the story. In this particular case, that return is not available. The circle of life continues either way, but it continues without me in that particular pride.
Notes
1. The Lion King, directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff (Walt Disney Pictures, 1994). The film’s plot centers on Scar’s conspiracy to murder Mufasa, seize the throne, and the subsequent ecological and social collapse of the Pride Lands under his rule.
2. Standard plot summaries of The Lion King (1994) detail Scar’s alliance with the hyenas, the engineered stampede, the betrayal of Mufasa, and the later return of Simba. See also analyses of Scar as an archetype of toxic or subtractive leadership that obtains power through deception but cannot sustain the conditions that made the kingdom viable.
3. Bain & Company research (reported 2026) on organizational restructuring found large gaps between leader confidence and employee experience; only 22 percent of employees reported receiving sufficient support. Related findings appear in Gallup data on engagement declines after disruptive change and in studies of communication volume after CEO transitions (roughly 20 percent drop in the initial months). McKinsey and other sources have estimated that successful transitions reduce attrition while failed ones can reduce performance by double-digit percentages; estimates of transition failure rates commonly range into the 40 percent range within two years.
4. Leadership literature on succession and toxic leadership frequently uses narrative examples such as Scar to illustrate the difference between obtaining a title and possessing the capacity to lead. See also research on Leader-Member Exchange and engagement drops following top-level change.
Bibliography
Allers, Roger, and Rob Minkoff, dirs. The Lion King. Walt Disney Pictures, 1994.
Bain & Company. Research on organizational restructuring and employee adaptation (reported 2026).
Gallup. State of the Global Workplace reports and related analyses of engagement, change, and leadership levels.
Harvard Business School Working Knowledge. Studies on communication volume and uncertainty following CEO transitions.
McKinsey & Company. Research on executive transitions, retention, and performance outcomes.
Analyses of toxic leadership and narrative archetypes in The Lion King (various academic and popular treatments of Scar as manipulator versus competent steward).
Additional recommended reading: works on succession planning, employee trust after leadership change, and the practical limits of personal loyalty in organizational settings.
Rich Hoffman is an author, political consultant, and strategic advisor based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the creator of The Politics of Heaven—a unique framework that connects biblical theology, ancient history, and modern power structures to explain how moral alignment and spiritual forces shape global events. Blending real-world political experience with deep research into archaeology, UFO phenomena, and suppressed historical narratives, Hoffman offers compelling commentary on topics ranging from ancient civilizations and the Dead Sea Scrolls to modern populist movements, paranormal continuity, and leadership strategy in chaotic environments. As the author of The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business and the forthcoming Politics of Heaven, he brings a grounded yet provocative voice to media discussions, supported by firsthand experiences and a cross-disciplinary approach that bridges science, history, and theology. For interviews, speaking engagements, or expert analysis, visit richhoffmanbooks.com or contact directly via phone at 513-307-5815 or email at rhoffman@richhoffmanbooks.com. If you’ve seen the movie, Disclosure Day and want to talk about it and the implications of Presidnet Trump’s UAP disclosures, let me know and we can bring some color to your coverage. https://richhoffmanbooks.com/media-inquiries-broadcast-topics-and-contact-info/?frame-nonce=ad51e7ecba I do have a firsthand UFO encounter to discuss.
I found Lyndal Roper’s Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet in a bookstore in Canterbury, a few feet from the cathedral. It was sitting out front, high-quality English paper and binding, the kind of production that assumes people still sit with a serious book. It was not an American edition I could have easily pulled off a Barnes & Noble shelf or ordered in the usual way. I bought it, read it, and have returned to it because Luther remains one of the figures I feel an affiliation with, even while recognizing he was far more rigid than I am. The book does not sanitize him. It presents a medieval monk whose temper, inner conflicts, and absolute refusal to yield altered the course of Western Christianity. That combination of brilliance and destructiveness is worth sitting with.
The Man Behind the Theses
Roper begins with Luther’s upbringing in Mansfeld, a rough mining town. His father, Hans, was an ambitious entrepreneur who had risen in the copper trade and wanted his son to become a lawyer. Luther abandoned those studies after a thunderstorm terrified him into an Augustinian monastery. The decision was a betrayal of his father’s plans. Roper treats the psychological pattern seriously without reducing theology to therapy: the breakthrough on the righteousness of God was, in part, an attempt to resolve anxiety about a demanding father. At Luther’s first mass in 1507, his father attended the feast afterward and publicly questioned whether the storm had been a voice from heaven or an illusion of the devil. Luther carried that rejection for decades.
The posting of the Ninety-five Theses on October 31, 1517, is the moment everyone knows. Roper notes that the theatrical image of Luther hammering the document to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg is likely a later Protestant myth. The actual step was more bureaucratic—an invitation to scholarly debate, standard at the time, sent to his archbishop. What changed everything was the printing press. Within weeks the Latin arguments were translated into German and spread. Luther proved a master of the new medium. He wrote short vernacular pamphlets that spoke directly to ordinary people, bypassing the slow Latin channels of the church hierarchy. It was the sixteenth-century equivalent of going viral. I have made a similar observation about writing and distribution in my own work. The technology changes; the effect of reaching a mass audience that then acts on the information does not.
Christian Freedom and the Peasants
Luther unleashed a language of individual conscience and rebellion against certain authorities. When others applied that language more broadly, his reaction was hostile. During the German Peasants’ War of 1524–1525, peasants used his ideas of Christian freedom to demand relief from oppressive obligations. Luther did not champion them. He wrote Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants, urging the princes to stab and slay without mercy. Roper treats this as one of the darkest chapters and explains the distinction Luther drew: Christian freedom was strictly spiritual. A Christian was free before God but bodily subject to secular rulers whom God had ordained to maintain order. Merging spiritual equality with social equality was, to him, a blasphemous distortion and a recipe for chaos. He was terrified of disorder and needed to distance himself from radical reformers such as Thomas Müntzer. His reformation was not to be a threat to the established political order. Political conservatism became a defining feature of much of subsequent Lutheranism, reinforcing the power of the German princes.
I see the longer pattern. Reformers and rebels appear, some seeking to purify or recover what they believe has been lost, others seeking to dismantle. Luther strengthened certain structures even as he broke others. Later figures, including those in the Marxist line, would try to make their mark by attacking the Christian inheritance more thoroughly. The evolution of those ideas is visible in our own election cycles. Luther wanted to stabilize, not dissolve, the social order under a corrected theology. Replacing the authority of the pope with the authority of the local prince was not a general liberation.
Marriage, Household, and the Limits of Accommodation
In 1525 Luther married Katharina von Bora, a former nun who had escaped her convent. The marriage was unprecedented for a man who had lived as a celibate monk. Roper tracks how it transformed his daily life. The former Augustinian house in Wittenberg became a bustling, chaotic household filled with children, students, servants, and guests. Katharina managed the finances, brewery, cattle, and overall solvency. Luther’s letters show real affection and respect; he sometimes called her his lord or boss. He came to argue that marriage and family life were the highest calling for a Christian, rejecting the medieval elevation of celibacy. I share that valuation of the household. At the same time, his view of women remained traditional and patriarchal. He expected obedience within the boundaries he defined. Liberation, where it occurred, occurred on his terms.
I have written elsewhere about the household division of labor and the pressures that later sought to redefine it. Luther’s position was shaped by his reading of scripture, including the account of Eve. He was not constructing a modern liberal society. He was preparing people for what he believed was the imminent end of the world. That apocalyptic urgency produced absolute intolerance of compromise. Modern readers who judge him solely by contemporary standards of gender roles miss the context and the purpose of the attack that has been directed at the traditional household for a long time.
Antisemitism, Language, and the Cost of Certainty
As Luther aged, his writings against the Jews became increasingly venomous. Roper does not treat this as a minor late-life prejudice that can be set aside. Early on he had hoped that once the gospel was clearly preached, Jews who had rejected a corrupt Catholic Church would convert. When they did not, disappointment turned to obsessive hatred. On the Jews and Their Lies advocated burning synagogues, destroying homes, confiscating books, and forced labor. Their existence as a community that read the same texts but rejected Christ was an intolerable threat to his certainty. The later consequences in Germany are well known and devastating. The same man produced the German Bible translation, widely regarded as a masterpiece that helped forge modern German. Working in the Wartburg after the Diet of Worms, he rendered the New Testament from Greek into German in eleven weeks, aiming for the cadence of ordinary speech—mothers at home, children in the street, men in the marketplace. His hymns, including “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” were memorable, emotional, and participatory. The communicator and the uncompromising polemicist were the same person.
At Marburg in 1529 he and Zwingli could not agree on the nature of Christ’s presence in the Lord’s Supper. Luther carved “This is my body” into the table and refused to yield. That refusal fractured the Protestant movement even as it had been the engine that kept the Reformation from being crushed or reabsorbed. Without the obstinacy, the challenge to Rome would likely have failed. With it, broad coalition became impossible. Anyone who disagreed even slightly was doing the work of the devil.
My Own Difference with Luther, and a Conversation with Edwards
I feel an affiliation with Luther’s firmness and his willingness to stand on what he believed scripture required. I also recognize that I am more accommodating in practice. I have no expectation that people will convert to my view in any lasting way. They will agree to your face and do what they intend behind your back. I do not waste time trying to force the conversion. I state what I take to be the right answer and leave the rest to them. Luther went out of his way to demonstrate that he would not compromise, in part, I suspect, to resolve the old question of the demanding father and to prove the purity of his obedience to God rather than to men. I do not carry that particular burden in the same way. The result is that I can appear to compromise more than I do. The private calculation is different.
In thinking about these questions I have imagined a conversation with Jonathan Edwards, another figure who paid a price for refusing to adjust his convictions to the preferences of his congregation. Edwards was dismissed from Northampton in 1750 after opposing the halfway covenant practices that had grown up under his grandfather Solomon Stoddard. He spent his final years in Stockbridge. The pattern is familiar: the generation that benefits from the disturbance often rejects the person who caused it; later generations build the monument. Edwards, in the exchange I constructed, respected Luther’s boldness on justification and scripture while refusing to defend the writings against the Jews. He noted that rejecting human constructs is not the same as rejecting all order, and that the test remains whether a teaching agrees with the word of God. He also observed that the Anabaptists took Luther’s principle of scripture and conscience further than Luther himself would allow—believers’ baptism only, a voluntary church, no state coercion—and were drowned, burned, or crushed by both Catholic and Protestant authorities, including Lutheran princes. Their descendants include the Mennonites and Amish. The people who suppressed them are mostly forgotten. Edwards added that suffering proves sincerity, not correctness. A prophet who prospers in his own lifetime has usually told the crowd what it wanted to hear.
The Canterbury Book and the Put-in-Bay Recommendation
The physical book I bought in Canterbury still feels different from most American productions. England has its own political leanings, and I have no interest in monarchy, but the culture of serious reading and careful bookmaking remains visible in places. Finding Roper’s biography a few feet from the cathedral, in a bargain bin for five pounds, was a small pleasure. It is the kind of volume that rewards slow reading.
If I could arrange the time, my ideal use of the book would be a ferry to Put-in-Bay on South Bass Island in Lake Erie. An Airbnb or similar place with a porch, two weeks, the book, mornings with coffee or Mello Yello, afternoons with a basket of shrimp at one of the restaurants along the water, and nothing else scheduled. The island is reachable by ferry from the Ohio mainland. The setting is quiet enough for sustained attention. I am envious of anyone who can actually do it. For those who can, I recommend it without hesitation. Take Roper’s Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet, shut out the noise, and sit with the contradictions. The questions it raises—about authority, conscience, the household, the cost of certainty, and why some voices are rejected in their own time—are still live. They connect directly to the longer argument I have been making about how ideas are gated, how comfort is protected, and how the politics of heaven repeatedly collides with the politics of the crowd.
Footnotes
1. Lyndal Roper, Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet (Bodley Head / Random House). Contemporary reviews in The Guardian, The New York Times, and elsewhere describe the biography’s focus on Luther’s inner life, contradictions, childhood in Mansfeld, use of print, response to the Peasants’ War, marriage to Katharina von Bora, German Bible, and late antisemitic writings.
2. Jonathan Edwards was dismissed by the Northampton congregation in June 1750 after prolonged conflict over communion and church membership standards. He spent his remaining years at the Stockbridge mission and died in 1758.
3. Put-in-Bay (South Bass Island, Ohio) is accessible by ferry from mainland ports including Catawba, Port Clinton, and Sandusky. The island supports short-term lodging and waterfront dining.
Bibliography for Further Reading
• Lyndal Roper, Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet (2016).
• Lyndal Roper, Living I Was Your Plague: Martin Luther’s World and Legacy.
• Jonathan Edwards, Farewell Sermon (1750) and accounts of the Northampton dismissal (Dwight’s Life, contemporary council records).
• Standard histories of the German Peasants’ War, the Marburg Colloquy, and Anabaptist persecution in the 1520s.
• Accounts of the transmission of Aristotle through Islamic commentators into medieval Europe and the subsequent use by Aquinas.
• Council of Nicaea and later creedal developments on the Trinity (primary texts and standard church histories).
• Rich Hoffman, The Politics of Heaven (forthcoming) and The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business.
Rich Hoffman is an author, political consultant, and strategic advisor based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the creator of The Politics of Heaven—a unique framework that connects biblical theology, ancient history, and modern power structures to explain how moral alignment and spiritual forces shape global events. Blending real-world political experience with deep research into archaeology, UFO phenomena, and suppressed historical narratives, Hoffman offers compelling commentary on topics ranging from ancient civilizations and the Dead Sea Scrolls to modern populist movements, paranormal continuity, and leadership strategy in chaotic environments. As the author of The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business and the forthcoming Politics of Heaven, he brings a grounded yet provocative voice to media discussions, supported by firsthand experiences and a cross-disciplinary approach that bridges science, history, and theology. For interviews, speaking engagements, or expert analysis, visit richhoffmanbooks.com or contact directly via phone at 513-307-5815 or email at rhoffman@richhoffmanbooks.com. If you’ve seen the movie, Disclosure Day and want to talk about it and the implications of Presidnet Trump’s UAP disclosures, let me know and we can bring some color to your coverage. https://richhoffmanbooks.com/media-inquiries-broadcast-topics-and-contact-info/?frame-nonce=ad51e7ecba I do have a firsthand UFO encounter to discuss.
I have been saying this more and more lately: if you have not yet picked up a copy of the new Jonathan Edwards Study Bible: Experience Abiding Joy in Christ (NKJV), get one. Thomas Nelson released it on August 18, 2026, with Dr. Matthew Everhard as general editor, and it is one of the best things to happen this year. The paper smells wonderful. The binding, the Comfort Print type, the two-color printing, the inclusion of Edwards’ own Resolutions, and the study notes drawn straight from his sermons, treatises, and “Blank Bible”—everything about it invites serious engagement. I already had a solid Bible, but this one is different. It is a tool for the kind of long, disciplined conversations about Christian values and biblical order that I expect to keep having for hundreds of hours in the years ahead.¹
Biblical Foundations for Healthy Families, Churches, and Government
What is really at stake is not merely personal piety. The Bible records how a particular people, and then a wider civilization, survived more than a thousand years of human turmoil by clinging to values capable of building a healthy society. Translation history—from Hebrew and Greek through the Reformation and Martin Luther’s work into new European standards—matters, but the deeper point is functional: those values produce good families, good churches that help form good families, and, from among those people, a portion willing and able to serve in political office.² Good government does not appear by magic or by bureaucratic decree. It is downstream of character. Without good people formed by good families and churches, the supply of those fit for limited, constitutional office shrinks.
I have a granddaughter just over one year old. Watching her, and remembering the same stages with the other grandchildren, sharpens the contrast. Content aimed at children under two is still largely constructive: language, association, positive voices, basic formation. By the time a child reaches eight, nine, or ten, and especially the 10-to-13 and 13-to-16 windows, the cultural message shifts. “Adult” content is coded as sexually charged, reckless, and liberally sprinkled with cuss words. Children who want to be treated as grown-ups learn to associate maturity with those markers. We are careful what we pour into toddlers’ brains; we become careless, or even actively destructive, once they hit double digits. Then we express surprise when people in their twenties, thirties, and forties remain stuck in the same patterns—never growing up, treating foul language and sexualized recklessness as signs of sophistication.³
From Educational Under-Twos to Sexualized Teens: The Cultural Pipeline
This is not abstract. I watch the YouTube videos my teenage grandson (turning 15) chooses when he visits. I pay attention because culture follows what marketers push to each age cohort. Research confirms the scale. A 2025 report from the Children’s Commissioner for England found that 70 percent of young people had seen pornography before age 18, with more than a quarter first exposed by age 11 and some as young as six; social media platforms, not dedicated adult sites, were the dominant source. Common Sense Media, Thorn, and Ofcom data show substantial rates of sexual content and interactions among minors on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and related apps. Ofcom has repeatedly flagged TikTok and YouTube for feeding harmful content to large majorities of teens via recommendation systems.⁴ Algorithms do not merely reflect demand; they amplify it. Creators who want reach—and I know many of them—alter content toward whatever is trending. When the trend is sexualized, vulgar, or adversarial, that is what gets pushed.⁵
Algorithms as the Modern Adversary: Rewarding the Bad
Who controls the algorithm controls the content. TikTok (Chinese-owned), YouTube (Alphabet/Google), and similar platforms systematically reward material that maximizes engagement: outrage, sexualization, cussing, laziness framed as authenticity. Positive, formative, or explicitly “good” content is rarely the algorithmic winner. Internal evidence from whistleblowers and external audits (Center for Countering Digital Hate, academic studies of recommendation systems) shows platforms have repeatedly prioritized borderline or harmful material because it drives time-on-site and revenue. The result is a pipeline that takes children from constructive early programming and, within a few years, immerses them in the opposite. We then wonder why so many adults never exit the pattern.⁶
This is the modern version of an old story. In the Book of Job, the adversary (Satan) is granted permission to test Job’s loyalty. The figure is not a cartoon; the biblical picture includes a divine council and adversarial spiritual powers that operate through deception, cultural capture, and the redefinition of good. Today’s adversaries—whether understood spiritually, institutionally, or both—do the same work through media, education, and policy. Public schools teach compliance with whatever the current policy defines as good. When that definition rewards sexual openness, foul language, and mediocrity while punishing high standards or traditional formation, the output is predictable. “Good” becomes relative, socially managed, and hostile to excellence. People learn that being too good makes others look bad, so they stay mediocre or worse. Corruption, fraud, and waste in public office become rational strategies for advancement rather than moral failures.⁷
The Shortage of Good People and the Case for Small Government
My wife and I hear it constantly during election seasons: we need good people in office who will uphold the Constitution. The practical question is where those people come from. A society that has deliberately removed character formation from schools, rewarded the opposite through media algorithms, and redefined good according to the manipulators’ interests will not produce a deep bench of people capable of limited, constitutional government. Good people still emerge—statistical anomalies of family, church, and personal resolve—but they are scarce. Not everyone is interchangeable. Attributes differ. When we pretend otherwise and lower the standard so that bad people can hold power, the results are devastating.⁸
This is one of the strongest practical arguments for small government. Large government requires a continuous supply of competent, character-bound people to staff it. When that supply shrinks by design, expanding the state simply multiplies failure. The corporate-state complex has spent decades treating people as interchangeable inputs; the results show declining literacy and numeracy (NAEP data showing large shares of students below basic proficiency), eroded character metrics reported by teachers, and a persistent inability to reduce fraud and waste. We taught the next generation that corruption is how you get ahead, then wondered why public office is hard to staff with anyone who will actually fight it.⁹
Political Parties as Sorters of Character
Political parties exist, among other reasons, to sort. A party that attracts and elevates people of genuine character—and refuses to authorize the opposite—will outperform one that does not. I affiliate with the Republican Party in my county precisely because its stated goals still include sorting for better rather than worse. That sorting is imperfect and always under pressure, but the alternative is worse. When “good” is redefined by adversarial forces, the people who remain resolute become rarer and more identifiable. Everyone who is paying attention already knows who they are.
I do not believe God is stupid or passively all-seeing in a way that removes human responsibility. The biblical picture allows for adversarial powers that test, deceive, and exploit the desire to fit in more than the desire to be good. Most people prefer belonging to excellence. The result is a thinner stock of people ready for the duties of self-government. The remedy begins where Edwards began: with deliberate resolve, steady engagement with Scripture, and the formation of families and churches that still know the difference between good and its counterfeit. The new Study Bible is a practical aid to that work. Without returning to making good people on purpose, the vacancies, corruption, and cultural pipeline will continue. The plot to destroy good families, good people, and therefore good government has always been there. The difference now is how efficiently the tools of the age execute it—and how clearly the results are visible.
Notes
1. Thomas Nelson, The Jonathan Edwards Study Bible: Experience Abiding Joy in Christ (NKJV), general editor Dr. Matthew Everhard (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, August 18, 2026). Features include study notes drawn from Edwards’ works (with source citations to the Yale edition), Edwards’ seventy Resolutions, full-page essays on his theology and the First Great Awakening, and his miscellanies note-taking system. See also Matthew Everhard’s discussions of the project on the Unashamed Truth channel.
2. On the historical transmission of biblical values and their role in social order, see standard treatments such as Diarmaid MacCulloch, Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years (New York: Viking, 2010), and earlier works on the Reformation’s impact on European moral and political standards. Edwards himself argued that true religion produces the highest happiness and ordered life; see his Religious Affections and the Resolutions (1722–1723).
3. Personal observation of age-graded media targeting is consistent with long-term content analyses such as UCLA’s Center for Scholars and Storytellers longitudinal survey of values in children’s television (fame and image rising relative to community and benevolence across decades).
4. Children’s Commissioner for England, reports on children’s exposure to pornography (2023 and 2025 updates); Common Sense Media, research on teens and explicit/AI-generated material (2026); Thorn, Youth Perspectives on Online Safety (2025); Ofcom, findings on harmful content exposure via recommendation feeds for UK teens.
5. Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) reports on algorithmic amplification of harmful content; academic audits of TikTok and YouTube Shorts recommendation systems (e.g., studies showing rapid increase in toxic or misogynistic content after minimal engagement); BBC and other reporting on whistleblower accounts of platforms prioritizing engagement over safety.
6. Same sources as note 5; additional context in Ofcom regulatory findings and ISD Global analyses of search and recommendation bias on TikTok.
7. The Job narrative (Job 1–2) provides the classic biblical example of adversarial testing within the framework of divine sovereignty and a heavenly council. Edwards’ theology of spiritual conflict and the necessity of resolve appears throughout his writings and the new Study Bible notes.
8. Teacher surveys on declining student character (e.g., 2026 data showing majority of educators reporting behavioral and ethical decline); NAEP reading and math trends showing rising shares of students below basic proficiency; historical analyses of the retreat of deliberate character education from public schools after the mid-20th century.
9. On the removal of character and moral formation from public education and associated social trends, see B. Edward McClellan, Moral Education in America, and later data on literacy, civic knowledge, and ethical attitudes among youth (Josephson Institute reports and similar).
Bibliography
Everhard, Matthew D. Holy Living: Jonathan Edwards’s Seventy Resolutions for Living the Christian Life. Hendrickson, 2019 (and related lectures/videos on the Resolutions).
Edwards, Jonathan. The Works of Jonathan Edwards. Yale University Press edition (edwards.yale.edu). Especially Religious Affections, sermons, and the Resolutions (1722–1723).
The Jonathan Edwards Study Bible: Experience Abiding Joy in Christ (NKJV). General editor Matthew Everhard. Thomas Nelson, 2026.
MacCulloch, Diarmaid. Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. Viking, 2010.
Children’s Commissioner for England. Reports on children’s exposure to pornography and online harm (2023–2025).
Common Sense Media. Research on teens, pornography, and AI-generated explicit material (2026).
Thorn. Youth Perspectives on Online Safety (2025).
Ofcom. Regulatory findings on harmful content recommendation to UK teens (multiple reports).
Center for Countering Digital Hate. Reports on algorithmic amplification of harmful and polarizing content.
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Long-term trends in reading and mathematics proficiency.
UCLA Center for Scholars and Storytellers. Longitudinal studies of values conveyed in children’s and teen media.
McClellan, B. Edward. Moral Education in America: Schools and the Shaping of Character from Colonial Times to the Present.
Josephson Institute. Reports on the ethics of American youth.
Additional recommended reading: works on the divine council motif in biblical studies (e.g., Michael Heiser), studies of recommendation-system design and engagement incentives, and historical accounts of the First Great Awakening and Puritan moral formation.
Rich Hoffman is an author, political consultant, and strategic advisor based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the creator of The Politics of Heaven—a unique framework that connects biblical theology, ancient history, and modern power structures to explain how moral alignment and spiritual forces shape global events. Blending real-world political experience with deep research into archaeology, UFO phenomena, and suppressed historical narratives, Hoffman offers compelling commentary on topics ranging from ancient civilizations and the Dead Sea Scrolls to modern populist movements, paranormal continuity, and leadership strategy in chaotic environments. As the author of The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business and the forthcoming Politics of Heaven, he brings a grounded yet provocative voice to media discussions, supported by firsthand experiences and a cross-disciplinary approach that bridges science, history, and theology. For interviews, speaking engagements, or expert analysis, visit richhoffmanbooks.com or contact directly via phone at 513-307-5815 or email at rhoffman@richhoffmanbooks.com. If you’ve seen the movie, Disclosure Day and want to talk about it and the implications of Presidnet Trump’s UAP disclosures, let me know and we can bring some color to your coverage. https://richhoffmanbooks.com/media-inquiries-broadcast-topics-and-contact-info/?frame-nonce=ad51e7ecba I do have a firsthand UFO encounter to discuss.
I think it was always going to be Vivek Ramaswamy. Ohio has moved, and the people who still believe they can turn the clock back to some polite, managed Republicanism are going to be disappointed. But when Amy Acton’s own mother steps forward just weeks before Election Day and calls her daughter a liar—disputing the very childhood story Acton has used to shape her public image—and Vivek’s campaign turns that into an ad, it is not a minor footnote. It is the final stake through a campaign that was already built on overdramatization, emotional appeals, and a refusal to confront reality.¹
The Mother’s Words and Why They Matter
Donna Arthur, identifying herself as Amy Acton’s mother and noting her past work in child and family services, said she loves her daughter but that Acton “has a serious problem. She is a liar. She lies about her past. She says she grew up living in a tent. None of that is true. She’s lied her entire life.” She urged Ohioans not to elect her, warning that life would only get worse.¹
Acton’s campaign and her brother, Philip Stearns, responded by highlighting the long estrangement—dating to 1978 when Acton was twelve—and the fact that her stepfather was indicted for sexually abusing her. Court records and earlier reporting, including Acton’s own 2019 interviews, support key elements of hardship and removal from the home. The mother stayed with the man until his death. That is a tragic family story, and I am not minimizing childhood trauma. But the mother is speaking now, as an adult, about the adult candidate’s character and truthfulness. When your own mother says you have been a liar your whole life and that the tent story is not true, conventional political wisdom says that is a disaster for the candidate. Why would any campaign lean into it if the basic facts were unassailable? It is awkward Thanksgiving material, and it is the kind of thing that sticks with undecided voters who already sense something is off.²
A Pattern of Overdramatization
This is not an isolated episode. During COVID, Acton, as Ohio’s health director under Mike DeWine, was the face of the lockdowns, school closures (Ohio was among the first), and business restrictions that crushed small operators while she and others projected certainty. She became emotional, pushed back against reopening, and ultimately resigned amid protests and legislative pushback, citing pressure to sign orders she opposed. Staff accounts described sensitivity to criticism and emotional reactions. She made a big deal out of everything, turning public health into a personal drama that made insecure people feel temporarily safe while the economic and educational costs piled up.
Vivek Ramaswamy isn’t holding back—launching a $4M ad dropping cold hard truths about Amy Acton straight from her own mother. The left claims to hate fake narratives until their own candidates get exposed. Voters deserve the truth. Ohio is ready for real leadership! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/O2lxoYejLp
More recently, at the Canfield Fair in early September, an armed man pushed through a crowd toward her, knocking people over. He had pistols, a Taser, and brass knuckles but was holding a phone or camera; weapons were not brandished. The campaign’s initial framing was of an armed individual lunging at her. It turned out to be a man who wanted to get closer—possibly for a picture or confrontation—but the overstatement fit the pattern. She has a history of elevating ordinary or mixed situations into crises that serve a narrative.³ ⁴
The Moderate Republicans and the Old Handbook
There are still Republicans in Ohio who wanted a return to the managed, polite version of the party—the Amy Acton types cite the George W. Bush-era playbook and claim Acton was simply following the established pandemic plan. They hoped the post-Trump world would settle back into something familiar where they retained more control. They are wrong. People rejected that approach years ago. They want the clarity and results orientation that Trump represents, not more of the same managerial caution that allowed problems to fester. Vivek Ramaswamy is an extension of that Trump-aligned direction for Ohio’s governorship. The old guard’s preference for continuity was never going to hold.
Democrats, by contrast, often select and elevate candidates who carry significant personal and psychological baggage. Acton is not unique in that regard. The party’s base has long rewarded emotional performance and narratives of victimhood over steady competence. When the candidate’s own mother is on record saying she needs help and cannot help others until she tells the truth, it confirms what many already observe: too many Democrat standard-bearers are not in a position to lead.⁶
The race is close on paper. Some polls have Acton ahead by a few points; others are tighter or show Ramaswamy edges. Betting markets and conventional wisdom have shifted at times, but the fundamentals of Ohio—Trump’s repeated wins and the desire for a break from lockdown-style governance—favor the Republican. This mother’s intervention does not invent new information so much as it crystallizes existing doubts. For voters who were on the fence or who simply do not want another round of overdramatized governance, it provides a clear signal from the person who raised her.⁵
I am not unhappy to hear it. It is rare for a family member to speak so directly, and when she does—even under the complicated circumstances of long estrangement and documented abuse—it carries weight. Acton has overdramatized her past and her present. As governor she would do the same with the state’s problems. Ohio does not need more of that. We need someone who will impose discipline, expand opportunity, and stop treating every challenge as a personal emotional event. Vivek was always the stronger bet. The mother’s words simply make the choice clearer for anyone still paying attention.
Bibliography / Further Reading
• Contemporary reporting on the Acton-Ramaswamy race and the October 2026 ad (Newsweek, Forbes, CNN, Washington Post, PolitiFact, Ohio Capital Journal, and local Ohio outlets).
• Acton’s own prior interviews and official records concerning her childhood and 2020 public health tenure (Youngstown Vindicator 2019; Ohio Department of Health orders; DeWine administration records).
• Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead — for the contrast between producers and those who live through narrative and emotion.
• Works on political psychology and the modern left’s preference for emotional framing (e.g., analyses of victimhood culture and institutional capture).
• Ohio political history and the post-2016 realignment of the Republican Party toward Trump-aligned priorities.
Rich Hoffman is an aerospace executive, writer, and host of the Overman Warrior Podcast / Executive Warrior Podcast, based in the Cincinnati / Butler County area of Ohio. He has written extensively on local and national politics, individual responsibility, and the cultural costs of managerial governance.
Footnotes
¹ Newsweek, “Amy Acton’s mother calls her ‘liar’ in brutal ad as Ohio race tightens,” October 20, 2026; Forbes, CNN, Washington Post, and multiple other outlets confirmed the video and subsequent Ramaswamy campaign acknowledgment of responsibility and $4 million promotion commitment.
² Court records from Mahoning County (1978) and contemporaneous reporting, including Acton’s 2019 Youngstown Vindicator interview and statements from her brother Philip Stearns, document the stepfather’s indictment on rape charges, removal from custody, and estrangement since age 12. See also PolitiFact and Ohio Capital Journal coverage, October 20–21, 2026.
³ Fox News, ABC News, and local Mahoning County reporting on the September 6, 2026 Canfield Fair incident involving Patrick Havas, who was armed with two pistols, a Taser, and brass knuckles but holding a phone/camera; campaign initially described it as an armed individual lunging at Acton.
⁴ Amy Acton served as Ohio Department of Health Director from 2019 to June 11, 2020, under Gov. Mike DeWine. Ohio was among the first states to close schools (March 2020). Stay-at-home orders, business closures, and the postponement of the March 17 primary (via Acton’s signed order) drew significant backlash, protests, and legislative efforts to limit her powers. Acton resigned citing political pressure on certain orders. See POLITICO, Washington Examiner staffer accounts, and contemporaneous Ohio news.
⁵ Recent polling (Marist October 15–18, 2026: Acton 50–43; BGSU/YouGov: 50–44; mixed with some Ramaswamy leads) shows a close race. Election Day is November 3, 2026. Ramaswamy is the Republican nominee, endorsed by President Trump; Acton is the Democratic nominee.
Rich Hoffman is an author, political consultant, and strategic advisor based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the creator of The Politics of Heaven—a unique framework that connects biblical theology, ancient history, and modern power structures to explain how moral alignment and spiritual forces shape global events. Blending real-world political experience with deep research into archaeology, UFO phenomena, and suppressed historical narratives, Hoffman offers compelling commentary on topics ranging from ancient civilizations and the Dead Sea Scrolls to modern populist movements, paranormal continuity, and leadership strategy in chaotic environments. As the author of The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business and the forthcoming Politics of Heaven, he brings a grounded yet provocative voice to media discussions, supported by firsthand experiences and a cross-disciplinary approach that bridges science, history, and theology. For interviews, speaking engagements, or expert analysis, visit richhoffmanbooks.com or contact directly via phone at 513-307-5815 or email at rhoffman@richhoffmanbooks.com. If you’ve seen the movie, Disclosure Day and want to talk about it and the implications of Presidnet Trump’s UAP disclosures, let me know and we can bring some color to your coverage. https://richhoffmanbooks.com/media-inquiries-broadcast-topics-and-contact-info/?frame-nonce=ad51e7ecba I do have a firsthand UFO encounter to discuss.
There is a common thread running through the 2026 campaigns of Amy Acton in Ohio and James Talarico in Texas. Both operate on the premise that the candidate is largely optional. Public relations teams, controlled events, and background management can substitute for the person who is supposed to do the job. Talarico spent roughly nine to twelve days off the in-person trail in late September and early October with the flu—working by Zoom from home, citing contagion concerns and his Type 1 diabetes—while opponents circulated “missing” posters and called him missing in action. Acton has refused to debate Vivek Ramaswamy, limited cameras and open questioning at events, and run a tightly managed operation that keeps her from unscripted exposure. The underlying belief is the same one that has dominated corporate human-resources departments for years: people are interchangeable units, exceptional performance is not required, and the administrative layer can keep the machine running if the front person needs a sick day or prefers not to answer questions.
The Philosophy That Anyone Can Be Swapped
This is the practical application of a long-running idea that exceptionalism is a problem rather than a feature. In its Marxist and later administrative forms, the claim is that human beings can be treated like standardized inputs. One person can be replaced by another without meaningful loss, the way one can of soda can be swapped for another. Training, credentials, and process matter more than the specific individual who shows up and does the work under pressure. Corporate America absorbed large parts of this view. Human-resources manuals, wellness policies, and promotion criteria increasingly rewarded those who managed risk, took the approved time off, and avoided friction. The person who keeps working with split knuckles, stitches a cut with superglue rather than lose the day, or simply refuses to stop is treated as a liability rather than an asset.
I have spent enough time in environments that still require physical output to see the difference. My hands currently carry the evidence—cuts on top of older cuts, knuckles that have not fully healed because the work continued. That is ordinary in trades and in any setting where the job is not primarily the management of process. It is increasingly rare in the layers that set policy for everyone else. When the administrative state and the corporations that mirror it define acceptable behavior as calling out for the flu, taking extended leave for ordinary life events, and deferring to the background staff, they select for a particular temperament. They do not select for the temperament that built the capacity they now administer.
Campaigns as Public-Relations Exercises
The same selection shows up in politics. A candidate who can be kept off camera, shielded from debate, or replaced by staff for days at a time is easier for the professional class to manage. Acton’s campaign has cited security concerns rooted in her time as Ohio health director during the COVID period, along with what it describes as unfair attacks. Those concerns can be real. The pattern of refusing open formats and unscripted questioning is still a choice about how the candidate intends to operate. Talarico’s absence was explained as responsible behavior—he did not want to infect someone’s grandmother. Working remotely is feasible for many jobs. It is a different proposition when the job on offer is representing a state in a contested Senate race weeks before early voting. The opponents treated the gap as evidence of fragility. The defense treated it as ordinary employee sick leave. Both reactions reveal the expectation each side holds about what the role requires.
The older assumption was that the person seeking the office had to demonstrate the capacity to do it in public, under conditions that were not fully controlled. Money, staff, and messaging mattered, but they did not fully substitute for the candidate. The newer assumption, visible in multiple 2026 races, is that sufficient resources and message discipline can carry a controlled figure across the line. That assumption has been tested before. It does not reliably produce candidates who can function once the controlled environment ends.
Softness as Policy and Cultural Output
The preference for interchangeable, low-friction people has costs beyond any single campaign. Skilled trades in the United States face persistent shortages. Reports from industry groups project the need for well over a million new skilled workers annually through the mid-2030s, with training pipelines producing only a fraction of the required numbers. Electricians, mechanics, carpenters, and similar roles remain difficult to fill in multiple states. Part of the explanation is demographic and economic—aging workers, housing costs, the long prestige advantage given to four-year degrees after the GI Bill. Part of it is cultural. Decades of messaging treated physical, outdoor, or mechanically demanding work as lower status. At the same time, administrative and corporate environments normalized the idea that minor illness, injury, or discomfort should remove a person from the job rather than be managed around it.
I do not claim that every cut requires a clinic visit or that diabetes-related flu complications are imaginary. I do claim that a society which systematically promotes the people who treat ordinary hardship as disqualifying, and which sidelines those who continue working through it, will have fewer people capable of the output a first-rate economy and a competent government require. Foreign competitors do not need to invent this preference. They benefit when it is already embedded in hiring, promotion, education, and political selection. The Confucian-institute style influence operations and earlier Soviet efforts at institutional penetration are documented in specific cases. The broader softening is also a domestic story of prosperity, cheap credit, and status competition that raised consumption expectations while lowering the status of the work that once supported a single-income household in a modest house. Both layers operate at once.
What Gets Selected
The candidates and the corporate managers who treat the administrative layer as the real actor are not anomalies. They are the predictable product of rules that reward risk avoidance, message control, and the appearance of process compliance. When those rules dominate, the people who still measure themselves by whether the work got done—regardless of the condition of their hands—become harder to find and easier to marginalize. Campaigns that can be run substantially from Zoom or from behind a communications team test how far that model can be extended into elected office. The results in November will show how many voters still prefer the older expectation: that the person asking for the job should be able to do it in public, without the background apparatus fully substituting for them.
I have written elsewhere about the practical difference between people who impose their will on circumstances and people who manage the circumstances other people have already accepted. The 2026 races offer a clear comparison. One approach treats the candidate as a manageable input. The other treats the capacity to function under imperfect conditions as non-negotiable. The administrative state has spent decades selecting for the first. A country that wants to remain first-rate cannot afford to keep doing so indefinitely.
Footnotes
1. Contemporary reporting from October 2026 documents James Talarico’s multi-day absence from in-person campaigning due to the flu, his remote work via Zoom, his Type 1 diabetes, and the subsequent “missing” posters and commentary from Ken Paxton’s campaign and President Trump.
2. Reporting on Amy Acton’s Ohio gubernatorial campaign details her refusal to debate Vivek Ramaswamy, limited media access at events, and the campaign’s stated reasons involving prior security concerns and the nature of opposing attacks.
3. Industry analyses (Alliance for America’s Skilled Trades and related contractor surveys) project large annual shortfalls in skilled-trade workers through 2035, with training completion and entry rates lagging demand in multiple states.
Bibliography for Further Reading
• Contemporary news accounts of the Talarico absence and Paxton/Trump response (CNN, Fox News, Texas Scorecard, local Texas outlets, October 2026).
• Reporting on Amy Acton’s debate refusal and campaign access decisions (Columbus Dispatch, PJ Media, Daily Signal, Ohio outlets).
• Alliance for America’s Skilled Trades and Associated General Contractors reports on workforce shortages in construction and skilled trades.
• Historical accounts of the GI Bill’s effect on college attendance and the relative status of trades.
• Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (on industrialized human management and the reduction of individual variance).
• Victor Davis Hanson, essays on administrative growth, cultural expectations, and the divergence between institutional norms and practical output.
• Rich Hoffman, The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business (on individual agency, toughness, and the difference between process management and imposed results).
Rich Hoffman is an author, political consultant, and strategic advisor based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the creator of The Politics of Heaven—a unique framework that connects biblical theology, ancient history, and modern power structures to explain how moral alignment and spiritual forces shape global events. Blending real-world political experience with deep research into archaeology, UFO phenomena, and suppressed historical narratives, Hoffman offers compelling commentary on topics ranging from ancient civilizations and the Dead Sea Scrolls to modern populist movements, paranormal continuity, and leadership strategy in chaotic environments. As the author of The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business and the forthcoming Politics of Heaven, he brings a grounded yet provocative voice to media discussions, supported by firsthand experiences and a cross-disciplinary approach that bridges science, history, and theology. For interviews, speaking engagements, or expert analysis, visit richhoffmanbooks.com or contact directly via phone at 513-307-5815 or email at rhoffman@richhoffmanbooks.com. If you’ve seen the movie, Disclosure Day and want to talk about it and the implications of Presidnet Trump’s UAP disclosures, let me know and we can bring some color to your coverage. https://richhoffmanbooks.com/media-inquiries-broadcast-topics-and-contact-info/?frame-nonce=ad51e7ecba I do have a firsthand UFO encounter to discuss.
