Lucille
08-30-2012, 02:16 PM
The Pathology of U.S. Democracy
http://blog.independent.org/2012/08/30/the-pathology-of-u-s-democracy/
Electoral politics is a moral and intellectual wasteland. There is no room for anyone of principle, whatever that principle might be.
As a libertarian, I see little difference between Obama and Romney. They both favor a perpetual war on terror, an occupation of Afghanistan, military aid to Israel, indefinite detention of terror suspects, military imprisonment outside the bounds of habeas corpus, warrantless wiretapping, the TSA, the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, the FDA, the war on drugs, gun control, bailouts, Keynesian economics, income taxation, Social Security, Medicare, central banking, subsidies for rich and poor, licensing in industry, public education, employment regulation, agriculture corporatism, tariffs, and a federal budget that amounts to far more than ten thousand dollars for every man, woman, and child in this country.
It is not only that the two candidates share much more in common with one another than they do with my vision of a free society; both candidates offer very little for the principled folks in their own party. I would think even a progressive or conservative would find it almost impossible to support either side. On issues like immigration, abortion, trade, taxes, deficit spending, and healthcare, for better or worse, the two politicians have gravitated toward a policy of status quo interventionism.
[...]
The core problem concerns the nationalist collectivism that has overtaken American political culture. The majority of Americans expect the central state and its presidential figurehead to address any and all problems—unemployment, economic instability, the business cycle, Syrian despotism, terrorism, rising healthcare costs, prescription drugs, poor performance in the public schools, trade and labor issues, family planning, gun violence, the tone of civil discourse, housing prices, and everything else. Of course it is madness to expect 300 million people to live under one person who effectively directs the nation in all these affairs. It is ridiculous to expect one person to even understand all these affairs. The way it is supposed to work is that two candidates offer very different approaches to all issues. Even if this occurred, it would hardly be ideal—who is to say that either side would get more than a handful of issues right? Yet it is worse than this. When voters expect Washington, DC, to take the lead role in solving all problems under the sun, and look particularly to the president to lead every crusade, we should not suffer shock when both candidates try their best to hold on to the support from their side while catering to the center, thus gravitating toward similar positions on all the big issues. And the more issues there are, of course the more superficial becomes even the language with which the candidates approach them.
The pathology of mass democracy translates into ugly social divisions. Great liberal thinkers from Bastiat to Mises have demonstrated that all classes have nothing to fear from one another in a market economy. Freedom of exchange results in the harmonization of interests. Politics, on the other hand, creates fissures that need not exist. Every minor issue becomes blown up into a Manichean struggle. This happens especially over relatively minor issues, because these are the only ones over which the mainstream politicians evince even a rhetorical disagreement. The truly foundational issues of our time—mass confiscation of wealth, IRS despotism, mass imprisonment, militarized policing at home and unending warfare abroad—unite both major parties behind an establishment agenda. They bicker instead over relatively small matters, each one of which becomes amplified into the greatest battle in the history of the world at election time.
More at the link
http://blog.independent.org/2012/08/30/the-pathology-of-u-s-democracy/
Electoral politics is a moral and intellectual wasteland. There is no room for anyone of principle, whatever that principle might be.
As a libertarian, I see little difference between Obama and Romney. They both favor a perpetual war on terror, an occupation of Afghanistan, military aid to Israel, indefinite detention of terror suspects, military imprisonment outside the bounds of habeas corpus, warrantless wiretapping, the TSA, the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, the FDA, the war on drugs, gun control, bailouts, Keynesian economics, income taxation, Social Security, Medicare, central banking, subsidies for rich and poor, licensing in industry, public education, employment regulation, agriculture corporatism, tariffs, and a federal budget that amounts to far more than ten thousand dollars for every man, woman, and child in this country.
It is not only that the two candidates share much more in common with one another than they do with my vision of a free society; both candidates offer very little for the principled folks in their own party. I would think even a progressive or conservative would find it almost impossible to support either side. On issues like immigration, abortion, trade, taxes, deficit spending, and healthcare, for better or worse, the two politicians have gravitated toward a policy of status quo interventionism.
[...]
The core problem concerns the nationalist collectivism that has overtaken American political culture. The majority of Americans expect the central state and its presidential figurehead to address any and all problems—unemployment, economic instability, the business cycle, Syrian despotism, terrorism, rising healthcare costs, prescription drugs, poor performance in the public schools, trade and labor issues, family planning, gun violence, the tone of civil discourse, housing prices, and everything else. Of course it is madness to expect 300 million people to live under one person who effectively directs the nation in all these affairs. It is ridiculous to expect one person to even understand all these affairs. The way it is supposed to work is that two candidates offer very different approaches to all issues. Even if this occurred, it would hardly be ideal—who is to say that either side would get more than a handful of issues right? Yet it is worse than this. When voters expect Washington, DC, to take the lead role in solving all problems under the sun, and look particularly to the president to lead every crusade, we should not suffer shock when both candidates try their best to hold on to the support from their side while catering to the center, thus gravitating toward similar positions on all the big issues. And the more issues there are, of course the more superficial becomes even the language with which the candidates approach them.
The pathology of mass democracy translates into ugly social divisions. Great liberal thinkers from Bastiat to Mises have demonstrated that all classes have nothing to fear from one another in a market economy. Freedom of exchange results in the harmonization of interests. Politics, on the other hand, creates fissures that need not exist. Every minor issue becomes blown up into a Manichean struggle. This happens especially over relatively minor issues, because these are the only ones over which the mainstream politicians evince even a rhetorical disagreement. The truly foundational issues of our time—mass confiscation of wealth, IRS despotism, mass imprisonment, militarized policing at home and unending warfare abroad—unite both major parties behind an establishment agenda. They bicker instead over relatively small matters, each one of which becomes amplified into the greatest battle in the history of the world at election time.
More at the link