A SINISTER POLITICAL STRATEGY

There is something sinister about current United States politics. It has to do with the coming together of several factors. The first is the idea that people do not want to pay taxes even though they know that they must if they want to do things together, that is government. The second is that people are gregarious; they want to belong: family, kin, political party and even nation. The next factor deals with innate hierarchy dominance; they want to be as high in the “pecking order” as they can be and are willing to fight to get there and stay there. Other factors that deal with human nature are greed and fear. People have a fear of losing there position in power, fear of losing material goods, fear of this or that.

People like Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich, Grover Norquist, for example, have been using these things to achieve a goal. These people happen to be Republicans who have a common goal but a different strategy to achieve that goal. Karl Rove wants to establish a perpetual majority for Republicans. Newt Gingrich want to have control of the United States House of Representatives. He gave birth to the strategy of hand picking candidates for office using money he collected in one part of the country for use in other parts of the country. He used the money to support those pledged to him and his agenda and against those who wanted to represent the people who elected them. Karl Rove added dirty campaigning to the Newt Strategy. And, Grover Norquist wants to destroy government, in his words, to make it so small it will fit into a bathtub, but never says how he thinks people should work together for the common good. Norquist is the most-narrow mined politician I have ever seen in national politics.  I think Paul Ryan, who gave voice to Ayn Rand, which states that they want a system of government based on individuals and not community—on greed and not altruism. This is Social Darwinism. If you cannot earn your own way, no matter the reason, you die. Might is right.

If a congress representative does not abide by their rules, these three men and others like them will use their organization (money) and skills to support an opponent against them in their local elections. Several million dollars released in a farm community means a lot. Their organizations collect money from people who share their ideology. This is where Citizens United enters the picture; a few rich people, insert the word ‘individual’, can control their election. Insert the expression ‘fear of losing’ as a reason they sign Norquist’s pledge. They give up there obligation to serve the people who elected them and sign his pledge “not to raise taxes” under any circumstance, thus starve the government. The Tea Party supports the “no more taxes pledge”; thus, establishes a radical subgroup that reinforces the same basic but generalized propensity not to want to pay taxes. Most of us do not want to pay taxes but know that we must—this is different from “no taxes”.  If they win their will dire consequences for our democracy, we, along with them, will end up with social chaos. Because no one likes anarchy, people will succumb to a plutocracy, which fulfils Ayn Rand dream. Need I remind you, Paul Ryan is the candidate for vice president of our United States?