More Political Parties

POLITICAL PARTIES, ENDURING NEMESIS

   I believe it was Niccolo Machiavelli, who wrote in his 1513 Tome, The Prince, “What doctors say about consumption applies here: at the beginning the disease is easy to cure but difficult to diagnose, but in the course of time, when it was not diagnosed at first and treated, it becomes easy to diagnose but difficult to cure. Thus it happens in the affairs of state: if the evils that are developing are diagnosed from afar (which only the prudent man can do), they are quickly cured, but when they have not been diagnosed and are allowed to grow so that everyone recognizes them, then there is no longer any remedy for them.” 

  It is my considered opinion that Political Parties, and the intellectuals who shape and control them, is ever much like the disease of consumption that Machiavelli used as a metaphor for the evils that can destroy a State. Just as the disease of consumption (tuberculosis) has a germ that is the basis of the disease (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) and is the evil that can destroy a healthy body, there is also an evil that can also destroy the healthy body of a Constitutional Republic. The evil that can destroy a healthy, liberty-loving Constitutional Republic is a disease called factionalism. The disease of factionalism can destroy a healthy, liberty loving Constitutional Republic just as easily as consumption can destroy a healthy active human body. The disease of factionalism also has a germ that is the basis for the disease, and the deadly germ that causes the disease of factionalism is called a political party. Political parties are created for the expressed purpose of representing factions and then gaining power to prevail over other created factions.

    Political parties are therefore the very antithesis of a freedom-loving people seeking ways to come together for common cause. American political parties began with the establishment of the Federalists (strong federal government) and Anti-federalists (fearful of a strong federal government usurping a state’s sovereignty) and continue until this day. As Machiavelli pointed out, now that the disease of factionalism is finally diagnosed, the likelihood of curing the disease is a most difficult endeavor. Perhaps you are thinking that I’m overstating the importance of political parties being antithesis to our beloved Republic. Fair enough. Then perhaps you will consider the farewell address of President George Washington wherein the first President devoted most of his remarks about the evils of political parties. I have included a portion of his historic remarks on the subject below:
   “They (political parties) serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests. However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”

   Even though it will be nearly impossible for the American people to cure the disease of factionalism caused by political parties, by the grace of liberty, it can be done. We can kill the germ of political parties by not supporting them in any fashion whatsoever. Come on America, don’t you really think it’s time for us citizens to think for ourselves and renew the Republic on an individual basis. I know it will be extremely difficult for a people conditioned by an entitlement culture fashioned by political parties to create lifelong constituencies, but it can be done by becoming independent citizens and voters and giving all political parties the boot.

Political Parties, Redux

Political Parties

   Has this ever happened to you? One day you look at something that has always been a part of your world and suddenly you discover, hey, why I am still using this? For example, a short time ago I looked at my landline telephone and then at my cell phone and said; why do I have my old telephone hanging on the wall when I have a personal telephone in my pocket? All I ever get from the old telephone is unsolicited calls from the FOP and roofing contractors, so why am I still paying for this thing? So I discontinued the telephone service that has been a part of my life for over #?X!** years and I have not missed the old ring-a-ding thing at all.

    There are a number of other things like the telephone that could be used to make the point, but I think we all understand that we make similar changes every day as circumstances allow and dictate. The point being that time marches on and technology, modern circumstances, personal preferences, etc., all play a role in changing what we need in the modern world to either get along or make life easier. After I wrote the piece, “The Decline and Fall of the GOP”, I suddenly thought, who needs political parties in this day and age anyway? Think about it. What is the purpose of a political party in a Democratic Republic?  

      Perhaps in the old days a political party could provide a needed service to the electorate by distilling a political philosophy into every day terms that could be more readily understood by the people. The party could then promote a doctrine that reflected the stated political philosophy and take positions that a citizen could either support or oppose. Well that was then and this is now and the fact is that people nowadays have much more educational opportunities than was available in the good old days and we all should be wiser about all things political as a result.

    Also, in the good old days, communications was either by word-of-mouth or newspapers, but today we are completely overwhelmed by information coming in from every direction, constantly. So there is no reason on this beautiful blue planet why anyone should not be informed as to what is going on in the world and this knowledge should provide us with all of the wherewithal required to make informed judgments and vote accordingly. So why do we still need political parties telling us what they want us to hear? As a matter of fact, the two party system now entrenched in our political system is more interested in providing misinformation and spin in order to stay in power rather than actually providing an objective political service to the electorate.

    What the hell, we might as well call a rose a rose; the ruling political parties are corrupt and you cannot believe one word they say. So I say; we don’t need no stinking political parties anymore, let them go the way of the telephone! Let’s all become Independents and trust our own judgments rather than let the self-serving political parties lead us to where they want us to go. Enabling technologies and modern times provides us all with the means to be completely independent, and for goodness sakes, now is the time to do so. This is something we can actually do, and by so doing, it (become Independents) could well be the first meaningful step by the people to take back control of our country. Think about it. I can’t imagine a more freedom-enhancing situation than having a completely Independent electorate guiding the country.

25....31...42...

The 9% Congress

   According to the latest Gallop findings, 25% of Americans consider themselves to be Republicians, 31% Democrats, and 42% Independents. Perhaps this trend signals that Political Parties are finally heading to the trash dump of really bad ideas.
   Don’t you just love percentages? Sometimes I view percentages like Will Rogers viewed statistics, you know, “There are lies, damn lies, and statistics (percentages)” and just like statistics, percentages are about as subjective as you can get when defining Human endeavors. For example, how many times have we all scoured over our favorite baseball player’s batting percentages only to speculate with cynical wisdom, about the chances of our employment survival with a 323 average of performance success? And how about the chances of rain percentages that the weather guessers are always laying on us? I mean, is it really possible to get 60% wetter if you are caught in a 90% chance of rain rather than a 30% chance. 

   I have a remarkable and very unscientific theory about things like this based upon a lifetime of observations while usually sipping away on an ice-cold brewski, and it goes like this. Compensation (money, etc.) is usually inversely proportional to the importance of the job or position. Just think about it. The President of the US of A makes considerable less money than a tobacco-chewing and mediocre big leaguer while a really important job, like garbage collector, barely makes enough jack to buy cigarettes while trying to support a family. I think we all can validate my theory many times over.
    In an odd sort of way, this brings me to a recent Rasmussen poll that confirms what most of us already knew and that is about 9% of Americans think the highly compensated members of the United States Congress are doing a good or excellent job. When I saw the percentages listed in this poll, I was immediately drawn to the 9 % number. What attracted my attention was not the confirmation of my own feelings about what the number represents, but rather the glaring 9% number sitting there all by itself.

    Let me explain, or pontificate if you prefer. The Gallop research data reports that the American electorate has come to be divided along political party lines by the following percentages: 31% Democrat, 25% Republican and 42% Independent. Well I’m not a rocket scientist but I can calculate that 25 plus 31 plus 42 equals 98% of the electorate. So what happened to the remaining 2% of the American electorate that the poll failed to address?

   Well Gallop may not know who you are, but you 2% out there know who you are, and so do I. I have always been a little dismayed and a little envious of this 2% because they are the ones who never seem to go along with the rest of us because they don’t give a damn about what’s going on around them or what other people think about them for that matter. But the 2% is probably a polling error because both you and I know that the percentage of people who don't give a damn about anything is more like 10%, not 2%.

   Thinking people really don't know how to address this 10% because we are also told that some 47% of the people are also on the Government dole. How this 47% figures into the 25, 31, 42 numbers is no doubt well beyond human cognitive capabilities.
   What I'm thinking here is that the 10% are the ones who say out loud “I don’t want to work, just want to bang on the drum all day.” This of course brings us back to that glaring 9% number that is close enough to the 10% number to be “within the margin of error”.
   So it occurred to me that the “don’t give a damn” 10% are the very same ones who think that the highly compensated members of Congress are doing a good or excellent job because they too (the highly compensated members of Congress) Don’t want to work, they just want to bang on the political drum all day.