M. Johnson, Amen to that brother, could not have said it better.
On Oct 13, 2:00 pm, "M. Johnson" <[email protected]> wrote: > Partisan PoliticsA Fool’s Game for the MassesRobert Higgs > Because I despise politics in general, and the two major parties in this > country in particular, I go through life constantly bemused by all the weight > that people put on partisan political loyalties and on adherence to the > normative demarcations the parties promote. Henry Adams observed that > “politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the > systematic organization of hatreds.” This marshalling of hatreds is not the > whole of politics, to be sure, but it is an essential element. Thus, > Democrats encourage people to hate big corporations, and Republicans > encourage people to hate welfare recipients. > Of course, it’s all a fraud, designed to distract people from the overriding > reality of political life, which is that the state and its principal > supporters are constantly screwing the rest of us, regardless of which party > happens to control the presidency and the Congress. Amid all the partisan > sound and fury, hardly anybody notices that political reality boils down to > two “parties”: (1) those who, in one way or another, use state power to bully > and live at the expense of others; and (2) those unfortunate others. > Even when politics seems to involve life-and-death issues, the partisan > divisions often only obscure the overriding political realities. So, > Democrats say that anti-abortion Republicans, who claim to have such > tremendous concern for saving the lives of the unborn, have no interest > whatever in saving the lives of those already born, such as the poor children > living in the ghetto. And Republicans say that Democrats, who claim to have > such tremendous concern for the poor, systematically contribute to the > perpetuation of poverty by the countless taxes and regulations they load onto > business owners who would otherwise be in better position to hire and train > the poor and thereby to hasten their escape from poverty. > If the unborn children happen to be living in the wombs of women on whom U.S. > bombs and rockets rain down in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, however, all > Republican concerns for the unborn evaporate completely, as do the Democrats’ > concerns for the poor children living in the selfsame bombarded villages. > Both parties’ positions would seem to rest on very flexible and selective > morality, if indeed either party may be said to have any moral basis at all, > notwithstanding their chronic public displays of “moral” wailing and gnashing > of teeth. > In any event, the parties’ principles of hatred have never passed the sniff > test; indeed, they reek of hypocrisy. Thus, while railing against the > “corporate rich,” the Democrats rely heavily on the financial support of > Hollywood moguls and multi-millionaire trial lawyers, among other fat cats. > And the Republicans, while denouncing the welfare mother who makes off with a > few hundred undeserved bucks a month, vociferously support the hundreds of > billions of dollars in welfare channeled to Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and > General Electric, among many other companies, via larcenous “defense” > contracts, Export-Import Bank subsidies, and countless other forms of > government support for “national security” and service to “the public > interest” as Republicans conceive of these nebulous, yet rhetorically useful > entities. > Notice, too, that although ordinary Democrats and Republicans often harbor > intense mutual hatreds, the party leaders in Congress rub shoulders quite > amiably as a rule. Regardless of which party has control, the loyal > opposition can always be counted on to remain ever so loyal and ready to cut > a deal. And why not? These ostensible political opponents are engaged in a > process of plunder from which the bigwigs in both parties can expect to > profit, whatever the ebb and flow of party politics. At bottom, the United > States has a one-party state, cleverly designed to disguise the country’s > true class division and to divert the masses from a recognition that unless > you are a political insider connected with one of the major parties, you > almost certainlywillbe ripped off on balance. Such exploitation, after all, > is precisely what the state and the political parties that operate it are for. > Yet, rather than hating the predatory state, the masses have been conditioned > to love this blood-soaked beast and even, if called upon, to lay down their > lives and the lives of their children on its behalf. From my vantage point on > the outside, peering in, I am perpetually mystified that so many people are > taken in by the phony claims and obscurantist party rhetoric. As the song > says, “clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right,” but unlike the fellow > in the song, I am not “stuck in the middle.” Instead, I float above all of > this wasted emotion, looking down on it with disgust and sadness. Moreover, > as an economist, I am compelled to regret such an enormously inefficient > allocation of hatred.http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/118268.html --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
