Understanding Politics

Understanding Politics

By

Martin L. Cowen III

Politics is a “civilized” substitute for war. The goal of war is, very frequently, to acquire the property of others—territory, money, and natural resources, including human workers, i.e. slaves. Commonly, countries engaging in war will cloak the reason for the war (the theft of property) with a plausible and appealing rationale, usually a humanitarian motive. Compare, for example, the 1994 Rwanda genocide in which the United States did not intervene with the 2011 Libyan intervention. In Rwanda, Hutu thugs killed between 800,000 and 1 million Tutsis. The United States had no economic motive in Rwanda and, therefore, did not get involved, though humanitarian considerations were present in the extreme. The fact of Rwanda undermines the humanitarian motive claimed for the Libyan intervention in 2011: “to prevent attacks on civilians” during the Libyan Civil War ending with the death of Muammar Gadhafi in September 2011. The true reasons for war are often a complex mixture of power, pride, and property. Rarely is the humanitarian motive more than just a cover story.

The same is true for the “civilized” substitute for war, politics. The goal of politics is to acquire the property of others. The only difference between politics and war is one of means—in politics people are not usually killed. All other tools of war are used in politics. The word “civilized” is within quotes precisely because, while killing is not a usual tool of politics, spying, lying, personal attacks, family attacks and bribery are. None of the tools of politics—spying, lying, personal attacks, family attack and bribery—is a civilized method.

The Elements of Politics

The Elements of Politics are the Education System, the News Media, Madison Avenue (advertising), Government Agencies, Public and Private Interest Agencies, Unions and Corporations. President Dwight D. Eisenhower long ago (his farewell address on January 17, 1961) warned us about the now infamous military-industrial complex. The People are not an element of politics. The People are the object of political action. In democracies, political outcomes must be sanctioned by the People so the Elements of Politics all act with the view to persuade the People to sanction the hoped-for outcome.

Perhaps the most important fact for understanding politics is the realization that the individual has a very short lifespan when compared with the Elements of Politics— the Education System, the News Media, Madison Avenue (advertising), Government Agencies, Public and Private Interest Agencies, Unions and Corporations. The individual’s political lifespan is even shorter than her actual life. An individual is interested in politics only rarely and then only for a matter of hours or days. The interest of an individual in politics does not arise usually until adulthood and often in middle or late adulthood. The average young person these days does not know the structure of American government or the name of the Vice President of the United States, much less the names of his Senators and Representatives, assuming he knows what a Senator or Representative is.

The Elements of Politics—the Education System, the News Media, Madison Avenue (advertising), Government Agencies, Public and Private Interest Agencies, Unions and Corporations—live for decades or centuries. Their interest in politics is a part of their eternal functioning. As an individual human being has a liver, the Elements of Politics have political organs that never cease to function, day in-day out, year in-year out, decade in-decade out. The Elements of Politics are persistent and relentless. An individual opponent of the interests of an Element of Politics—in the rare circumstance of her existence—might last a few years in the field of political combat, unsupported, unheard, unknown. The Elements of Politics probably never even notice her. Consider the impact of one’s letter to her United States Senator: none.

Illustrations of Political Action

The following are illustrations of political action:

Recently a Libertarian candidate in the Virginia governor race took 6.52% of the vote. The Democrat won in a surprisingly close race. The Republican Party, in an effort to discredit the candidate and his party, announced that the Libertarian was funded by a Democrat. (That’s bad, supposedly.) This incident is an example of personal attack, mentioned above as one of the tools of politics. The Republican Party, which is at risk of a Libertarian invasion, is strongly interested in destroying the Libertarians. A civilized person might suppose that engagement on the level of the ideas—Libertarian ideas versus Republican ideas—might be the appropriate field of combat. But political warriors are not interested in abstract political ideas. They are interested in their outcomes (property acquisition) at any cost, short of murder (usually).

The idea of the Minimum Wage has widespread traction in American society. There is no program that is more thoroughly discredited by economics. Why then does the idea enjoy support among the People? The reason is that those interested in the idea (mostly Unions, Corporations, and elected officials) have taken over the Education System and the News Media (two Elements of Politics) which Elements have the most influence on the People. Economics is not a subject that is taught by the Education System on the whole and for the most part. That which is taught is the “economics” of envy by Karl Marx. The People have much less information about economics than they have about the political system of the United States. Other Elements of Politics are interested in the Minimum Wage, too. Corporations are interested in the Minimum Wage because it provides an economic barrier to competition by would-be entrepreneurs. Established business can pay their employees more than potential start-up competitors. Unions are interested in the Minimum Wage because it provides upward pressure for union wages and forbids the employment of all persons who are not worth (as employees) at least the Minimum Wage. The legal reduction of supply of labor caused by the Minimum Wage puts upward pressure on wages of those remaining in the work force to the benefit of the Unions and their members. Elected officials are interested in supporting the Minimum Wage because they are seen as benefactors of “the little guy” who would be earning $7.00 per hour but for the Minimum Wage of $7.25 per hour. The person whose services are not worth the Minimum Wage remains unemployed. The job that is worth less than the Minimum Wage goes unfilled. The would-be employer, who will now have to perform the job he would have hired out, is unable to employ his own labor in work that is more productive. The Minimum Wage is an unmitigated economic disaster that the People cannot see because they have been trained by the Education System. Black teenage unemployment in June 2013 was 41.6% because of the Minimum Wage.

As another example of personal attack (political tool), consider the Democratic attacks upon Herman Cain during the 2012 Presidential election. After he withdrew from the race, the attack was discontinued. Consider that Dr. Ben Carson, who criticized ObamaCare while the President was on the podium, received a call from the Internal Revenue Service for an audit shortly thereafter. Chicago politics.

A type of attack that is not so-often seen, but is nevertheless frequent, is the family attack. A potential opponent might avoid running against a politician or an idea for fear that her spouse or children might be attacked in their own office. For example, a potential opponent with a spouse in an appointed position might refrain from political action for fear that the spouse would lose his job. The Representative in power need merely call the Governor and ask the Governor to remove (or not appoint) the husband of the potential opponent. Happens all the time.

Lying: “How do you know when a politician is lying? His lips are moving.” “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan. Period.” Enough said.

Spying: Watergate and NSA are vivid examples.

Bribery: Political contributions and tips about good investments are examples.

Rarely is intellectual argument used face-to-face in politics. First of all, most politicians are not equipped to argue. Second, there is a right and a wrong in every argument. The politician who is wrong will not engage in the public argument lest his wrongness be exposed. Note that most politicians either do not care that they are wrong or have hidden the knowledge from themselves. Thus, personal attack is the most used political tool.

Operations

Following are some examples of the operation of the Elements of Politics:

The Education System is controlled by politicians either by boards of education and regulations (e.g. Common Core) in the case of primary and secondary education or by regulation and bribery (e.g. grants and targeted funding) in the case of higher education. No grant money, for example, will ever be issued to explore any facts that might oppose Climate Change.

The News Media is occupied by people who were educated by the Education System, thus their ideas are frequently in lockstep with their learning. The News Media desires access to power and access to power is conditioned upon communicating the politically correct message. The News Media is subject to Government oversight. The News Media exists to sell soap. One will rarely see an article or report questioning the value of mandatory vaccines, even when the report is simple, true facts. Pharmaceutical companies forbid such stories. The advertising department of the News Media will receive immediate and forceful push back from Madison Avenue (advertising) and the Corporation who support the operation of the News Media in cases of off-message reporting.

Large Corporations employ lobbyists to engage in rent seeking. Rent seeking is the practice of manipulating political tools in order to obtain economic benefits for the Corporation. Among the benefits sought are regulations that make it difficult or impossible for competitors to compete with the Corporation (complex rules are easier for a large, established corporation to navigate, than for a startup), tariffs (cane sugar) or fees that increase the price of the product of the competition (usually foreign) to the benefit of the Corporation, outright legal monopolies for services or products (electric utilities, for example), building or structures (stadiums for baseball teams, for example) for the Corporation, subsidies (farm subsidies, ethanol subsidies), regulations forbidding certain competing products (Thomas Edison’s light bulb is outlawed in favor of the mercury-laden, and more expensive, compact fluorescent bulb). To accomplish rent seeking, the Corporation makes payments to all other Elements of Politics: the Education System, Madison Avenue (advertising), Government Agencies, Public and Private Interest Agencies, Unions and other Corporations.

Government Agencies, like any living organism, have a survival instinct. Can anyone name any Government Agency or program that has ever been discontinued? The Transportation Security Agency, created after 9-11, is metastasizing even as we write. In practice, there is no end to expanding Government Agencies.

Public and Private Interest Agencies exist to seek rent for their principals. The United States Chamber of Commerce, for example, lobbies the United State Government to obtain Government benefits for its members.

Unions are notorious for their rent seeking activities. The Holy Grail of Unions is the abolition of Right to Work laws. Unions cannot effectively compete against a non-unionized labor force and therefore seek to have the Government deny people the right to work outside union participation.

What to do?

Is civilized behavior possible? Is reasoned debate possible?

Those of us who abhor war and politics need a method to retain our Freedom. The first thing to do, though, is to define Freedom. Freedom is the societal condition in which property is protected by the rule of law. Property means the rights to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the product of your own labor and trade, including gifts of property from others who obtained that property as the product of her own labor and trade or by gift. Freedom is not the right to vote. The right to vote is merely a (not very effective) method for retaining Freedom. The right to vote is not, in itself, Freedom. The reason that voting is not very effective is that the People are mostly manipulated by the Elements of Politics, all of whom are rent seeking.

The destruction of Freedom via democracy was first formulated by French Philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). He is the first person to articulate the pernicious conception that Freedom is conformity with the General Will. This idea, blessedly, did not find its way into American culture until after our founding in 1776, but the idea has come to America now and it is the root of our destruction. The People of America roughly believe that if the People vote for it, it is good and that conformity with the General Will, thus expressed, is Freedom. The People vote as the Elements of Politics instruct and the Elements of Politics are all rent seekers.

Therefore, when the People vote for the Minimum Wage, for example, it is good according to the People and compliance with the Minimum Wage law is Freedom according to Rousseau's widely accepted view.

Because we who know the concept of Freedom have short natural lives and even shorter political lives, we need an eternal organization, a Freedom Party, that will speak for Freedom eternally. If we do not push back, the rent seekers will deprive us of all our property and we will become a Totalitarian State. We are very close to a Totalitarian State now.

What does an eternal organization for a Freedom loving people do?

In response to the Education System, the Freedom Party educates the People after they escape the Education System. The Freedom Party advocates for a complete separation of State and Education so that parents can choose to have their children educated for Freedom. Such an education used to be called and will be again called a Liberal Education.

In response to the News Media, the Freedom Party will have to point out their lies and their biases. The People need to learn about Cui Bono, a Latin phrase meaning “to whose benefit.” We often say: “Follow the money.” Again, education is the key.

In response to Madison Avenue (advertising), again education is the key. Mentioned above is the compact florescent light (CFL) bulb. The reason for this bulb is the fact the General Electric (a major corporate rent seeker) engaged the Congress to outlaw Thomas Edison’s incandescent light bulb. GE can sell a CFL for $13.97 (Home Depot web site) while the incandescent blub can be had for $3.97 for a six pack ($0.66 per bulb). Wow! Now that is effective rent seeking. The Freedom Party will have to point out the reason for legislation as distinguished from the rationale. In the case of CFLs the reason is corporate profits, the rationale is long-range energy savings, while ignoring the environmental impact of mercury (which the CFLs contain). The EPA has a three page PDF report on what to do if you break as CFL. See: http://www2.epa.gov/cfl/cleaning-broken-cfl. The concept of the individual's right to choose CFL or incandescent is completely missing in the debate.

In response to Government Agencies, education. Continue to expose (a perennially popular sport) the wide-spread waste, fraud and abuse that are endemic to Government. Let the People see that the Government's stated rationales are always pretextual and that their true reasons are vicious and anti-freedom. The reason for the Transportation Security Agency (TSA), often called Security Theater because they only provide the illusion of security, is to remove the cost of security from the airlines. Of course, the Government loves to expand its power so the Government is more than happy to gratify the airlines desire to improve their bottom lines. The goal of Government Agencies is always and necessarily total control: a Totalitarian State.

In response to Public and Private Interest Agencies, education. Expose Cui Bono, who benefits and who pays. Same thing with Unions and Corporations.

The final method of the Freedom Party is to teach the People philosophy and history. Even a cursory knowledge of both is enough to expose the rent seekers for who and what they are.

What a Freedom Party should not do is to use the tools of the Elements of Politics: spying, lying, personal attacks, family attack and bribery. Reason is the proper tool of the Freedom Party. We cannot be uncivilized and achieve our goal of civilization. Reason and education in philosophy, history, and economics. That’s the ticket!

I have hope.