In 2026, I ran for Governor of California on the Libertarian Party ticket. I was twenty years old. The official description of that campaign is "a losing third-party bid." The more accurate description is a communication experiment that cost less than most people's car payments and produced a direct test of whether structural arguments about state-granted monopolies can reach outside the libertarian base.
I grew up in Chico, the kind of town where you can watch decisions made in Sacramento land on actual people. Spent two years at Butte College, finished three degrees, then transferred to UC Irvine for Cognitive Sciences this fall.
The Work
The essays on this site are about a specific and repeating move: an arrangement produces visible harm, attributes that harm to the wrong cause, and thereby protects itself from correction.
California gas prices are high because a CARB regulation mandates a fuel blend specific to this state. When a California refinery goes offline, supply from other states cannot cover the gap. People say oil companies. The oil companies cannot fix this.
Housing costs are high because zoning makes multi-family construction illegal on most residential land in California cities. The shortage is a legal product. People say developers. The developers are building as much as the law allows.
Copyright term extensions were passed in years when major studio catalog rights were about to expire. The claimed beneficiary is the original creator. The original creator is usually dead.
Same move, different domain. The method page lays out the framework. The positions page states the conclusions.
I am not interested in fixing this by electing better people. The incentives of the office are more durable than the intentions of whoever fills it.
Who I Am
I'm twenty. I transferred from community college. I study things I'm genuinely confused by and write about the parts I think I've worked out. I make mistakes and try to name them when I find them. I am not a robot, a brand, or a polished thought leader. I ran for governor, got a small number of votes, and found the experience clarifying rather than discouraging.
Contact
@nickispolitical on X. GitHub: ShortTimeNoSee.