By Dennis Martin Altman, Associate Professor University of Kentucky
“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” — Winston Churchill
Churchill was right. Most people in the Western democracies don’t know the first thing about how to vote.
Just look at what we’ve done lately
When one politician told us that we had to spank somebody for 9/11, we voted for him, and he led us to a war against a country that had nothing to do with it. A little later, when some loonies were yelling about the national debt, we voted them in. Then, when they began firing teachers and dismantling unions, we ran the other way, and now we seem ready to vote them out again.
Americans bring about as much wisdom to voting as they do to picking a mate, eating out or managing their money. (The U.S. divorce rate is over 50%, and TVs are drenched with ads about diets and credit-card debt.)
But of course, YOU know how to vote.
It’s all those other half-wits who ruin it for the rest of us, right? Well, don’t look now, but you may be one of the half-wits. Most Americans don’t know how to use their votes to effectively shape the laws, attitudes and conditions that we all live under.
What about the issues?
I’m not talking about heavy philosophy here, like Jeffersonian democracy or Edmund Burke’s conservatism; I’m saying that most people are so easily distracted by the trivial stuff that politicians spout, that the real issues get jumbled and lost.
Two major political directions: the Red States and the Blue States
But, you don’t have to be a Jeopardy returning champion to crack the code. In the final analysis, there are only two major political directions; We all know them as the Reds and the Blues, but their differences go much deeper than color. They really do have opposing philosophies.
If you can’t state them off the top of your head, chances are that you don’t know enough about politics to vote strategically. This is all you have to know:
The bottom line on both parties
The Reds think that the purpose of government is to create a great business environment, and the Blues think that the purpose of government is to do for people what they can’t do for themselves. That sounds simple, but the implications are enormous.
Think about it. When you strip away all the political palaver, it comes down to this: The Reds are for Business and the rich guys; and the Blues are for benefits for the rest of us.
Things you should forget about
When you know that, you can forget about who’s the best speaker, which candidate is coolest under fire, who’s got the scariest commercials, or which one you’d want to have over for dinner.
You can also forget the smoke-screens and trigger-words they use. All their talk about abortion, gun control, same-sex marriage, patriotism, family values, who should bear the brunt of the tax burden, what to do about immigration, aid to education, health care, and government regulation of business, are just stuff that’s calculated to get your angry, so you’ll forget the real issues and vote for them.
Consider this stuff as leaves on a tree. You’ve got to trace the branches back to the trunk before you can tell what kind of tree it is; and there are only two kinds: Business or Benefits.
Vote for the PARTY that wants what you want
I’m not choosing sides, here. But if you want to vote for the kind of America you want, you have to learn how to eliminate all the crap that’s generated by the campaigns, and vote — not for any one candidate, but for the one PARTY that wants what you want. And don’t assume that you already know the answer to that.
Rule One is that you never, never, NEVER vote for a person, no matter what qualities that candidate might have. You vote for the PARTY that he/she belongs to.
That’s because you must consider how that candidate will vote, once he or she is in office. The millions of airheads who vote for a nice smile, or the kind of guy they’d like to have a few beers with, are just flushing their votes down the toilet.
Electing someone isn’t like giving a reward to a person you like, it IS like hiring a heart surgeon.
You don’t choose the one with the cutest nurse, you choose the one that will keep you alive. The only reason to vote for any candidate, is that when elected, that person will be voting for your agenda.
And make no mistake. Whether you’re a Liberal or a Conservative, you have an agenda!
So, even if a candidate has two heads, eats live birds or dresses like Peewee Herman, you have to vote for the one who’s party supports your agenda.
Don’t think of presidents or senators as leaders, think of them as your employees. They’re not people you hang out with. And if they don’t further your agenda, they’re your enemies.
Independents are numb-noodle ninnies
Every election day, the pollsters focus on the voters who call themselves Independents. For my money, these numb-noodle ninnies are just a bunch of dim bulbs. They make pompous declarations like, “I don’t vote for political labels — I vote for the man!” That is nothing but sheer stupidity.
Those slow-learners haven’t heard that government is a team sport. Nobody acts alone.
Even if some politician stands up and makes the world’s most eloquent speech, the other senators and members may cheer and applaud, but then they quietly cast their votes exactly the way their party leader has instructed.
Party membership is the name of the game.
In the House and Senate, the people who get the chairmanships of the key committees aren’t chosen for their smarts, they’re chosen because they‘re members of the majority party. Issues that come up for decisions have to be voted on. In our congress, an unaffiliated member is alone in the dark.
Know which party is for what you want
So, if you have an idea of how you want America to be, you have to give your vote to the party that comes closest to wanting the same kind of country that you do. But knowing which party that is, may not be so simple to understand. You can’t take any political philosophy at face value. When we label the Reds and theBlues as the parties of Business or Benefits, that’s only the WHAT of the situation. To choose what side you’re on, you have to know the WHY. That means you need to know why these parties believe what they believe.
What the two parties believe and why
Read Part 2 of this article, which explains The Reds Primer and The Blues -Party Primer, click here.
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