Faith in the Party

Machiavelli taught the Prince that he needed to appear religious without actually being religious.

Transcribed into modern politics, Machiavelli's dictum is that a politician should appear to be for liberty while expanding government and centralizing power.

Our political parties are lined with politicians who seek to gain wealth and power by having a disdain for wealth and power.

In hindsight, one finds that the greatest enemy to freedom is not the open enemy seeking to take freedom, but the corrupt leader who declares himself for liberty, while letting the rogues take control of society.

In modern partisan politics, pundits have a keen eye for the faults of their opponents. Republicans can see clearly the faults of the Democrats and Democrats can see clearly the faults of the Republicans.

The Democratic Party is filled with wonderful people who believe strongly in social justice. They campaign actively and support strong-armned leaders who claim that they will impose social justice when they get in power. These wonderful people fail to realize that their strong-armed leaders are often a primary source of social injustice.

Socialism is a paradox. The concept is if one concentrates political power and wealth in a central political structure that there will be equality. Such a system leaves the people disenfranchised under the yoke of a corrupt ruling class.

In the previous post I examined faults of the Conservative Movement, which tends to mirror the paradoxes of the Left. The conservative movement has a history of shoving everyone else aside with the claims that they are the soul defenders of liberty in this and the adjacent two galaxies. After stomping everyone down, they sell liberty to the highest bidder.

Both parties have the same Machiavellian form in which they leaders appear to be for a cause they are eager to sell out.

So, this is where the trick comes in.

If we are ever to see a restoration of liberty, it will not come from the parties, but from the people.

The people matter more than the party.

A case in point is the Tea Party. The Tea Party was composed of people upset with the corruption of both the Bush and Obama administrations. It was right leaning but disorganized.

Conservatives infiltrated and captured the Tea Party. Conservative activists applied Alinsky techniques to transform the Tea Party into a branch of the Republican Party. This activation diminished the influence of the Tea Party.

People who were sympathetic with the Tea Party in 2010 now actively disassociate themselves from the movement.

When the Tea Party openly discussed ideas, it was hugely influential. As it moved from an independent group discussing ideas to a purely partisan protest group, its influence waned. Sadly, the movement accomplished relatively little.

Partisanship destroys. The only way to see a true restoration of liberty is for an independent group to form that aggressively defends its independence.

The primary concern of partisan politics is to consolidate wealth and power in the party. Faith in the party is misplaced. Faith should be placed in the people not the party.