Tag: Political History
Who Killed Political Thought?
College of Political Knowledge
Subject: Political Philosophy/Political Theory/Ideology
Back at the end of the Ice Age, when I was in college I studied political philosophy and ideology….they were not the same course…it was separate studies….that has vanished in today’s political world. There is NO longer political thought or philosophy only a political ideology…..again, in my day….not the same thing.
Political philosophy was such writers and thinkers like Burke, Machiavelli, Mill, Paine, Ricardo, Aquinas, et al…….today ideology is dictated by such organizations as Heritage, Family (whatever), Demos, strategists and campaign managers…..there is NO deep thinking anymore….just shallow nondescript issues….petty thoughts for petty minds…….
Political philosophers looked at the state, the nation, rights and duties and obligations of those that chose to participate……..Great works like Leviathan, Common Sense, The Social Contract and Natural Rights Of Man….great thinkers from the 17th, 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries…….ideas that shaped all of mankind….and then the pea brains started speaking, from the 20th and into the 21st century….no real political thought just a montage of slogans, one liners and sound bites…that is the “great” thinking of today.
After the French Revolution, Antoine Destutt de Tracy created a branch of study concerned with ideas……and it became ideology….he wanted to establish ideals of thought and action based on an empirically verifiable basis where both criticism of ideas and a science of ideas could see the light of day.
A helluva idea! Taking the formation of ideas, mostly political, and turning it into a science. And for about a hundred years it was so……the formation of ideas that could be verified and debated….but then something went horribly wrong.
The 1912 presidential election still had some political philosophy or an ideology….but it was on the wane……but not before some strong, valid points were made by TR and his Bull Moose Party……..to include…………..True to Roosevelt’s progressive beliefs, the platform of the party called for major reforms including women’s suffrage, social welfare assistance for women and children, farm relief, revisions in banking, health insurance in industries, and worker’s compensation. The party also wanted an easier method to amend the constitution.
By the last of the 20th century……ideology was being re-defined as slogans, insults and one liners…..it became more about elected a certain strain of individual and not about ideas to make the country a better place…….the big thinkers of this period were Newt, the Speaker of the House and here is his big political thought……
………In 1995, Gingrich, then speaker of the House, wrote a memo for GOPAC, which trains Republican candidates, citing language as “a key mechanism of control used by a majority party.” In his inimitable, insufferable fashion, he went on to say that his videotaped GOPAC courses had elicited a “plaintive plea: ‘I wish I could speak like Newt.’
“That takes years of practice. But we believe that you could have a significant impact on your campaign and the way you communicate if we help a little. That is why we have created this list of words and phrases,”..
He went on to give those Republicans who wanted to “speak like Newt” a list of “contrasting words” that he urged them to use in their campaigns: “These are powerful words that can create a clear and easily understood contrast. Apply these to the opponent, their record, proposals and their party.”
The list included several words and phrases that are by now routinely batted about in the course of public commentary about the opposing party, usually by Republicans against Democrats..: “betray,” “bizarre,” “cheat,” “corrupt,” “destroy,” “endanger,” “greed,” “hypocrisy,” “ideological,” “incompetent,” “liberal,” “lie,” “machine,” “mandate,” “pathetic,” “radical,” “sick,” “taxes,” “traitors,” “unionized,” “waste” and “welfare.” There were many more listed.
Newt’s influence is still being felt and used…..and America is NO better off!
And the Dems were no better………Bill Clinton and his cronies at the Democratic Leadership Council were the “big” thinkers on the Left…..they were the ones that made globalization, outsourcing and financial manipulations possible……with all their free trade agreements that did little for the middle class to their repeal of Glass-Steagall which made the 2008 collapse possible…….theirs was not about the country either….it was about the creation of wealth not the governing of the country and its people……
The DLC has not going away….it’s influence is still a hard part of any Democratic platform…..and America and its people, the majority, are NO better off!
Political thought was dying slowly but by 1995 the pace quickened and as it is today….true political thought is dead! Now all we have is regurgitation of insulst, slogans and one liners….true thought of how to make the country a better place is over….for the last 20 years the whole process of electing a president is pathetic and a joke.
America will return when real political thinkers gain the upper hand but until then we will be governed by amateurs and posers!
Jefferson’s “Tree Of Liberty”
There are many that use this quote to justify whatever position they are trying to hang on to…..but was it said? To whom was it said?
Let me help………
“I do not know whether it is to yourself or Mr. Adams I am to give my thanks for the copy of the new constitution. I beg leave through you to place them where due. It will be yet three weeks before I shall receive them from America. There are very good articles in it: and very bad. I do not know which preponderate. What we have lately read in the history of Holland, in the chapter on the Stadtholder, would have sufficed to set me against a Chief magistrate eligible for a long duration, if I had ever been disposed towards one: and what we have always read of the elections of Polish kings should have forever excluded the idea of one continuable for life. Wonderful is the effect of impudent and persevering lying. The British ministry have so long hired their gazetteers to repeat and model into every form lies about our being in anarchy, that the world has at length believed them, the English nation has believed them, the ministers themselves have come to believe them, and what is more wonderful, we have believed them ourselves. Yet where does this anarchy exist? Where did it ever exist, except in the single instance of Massachusets? And can history produce an instance of a rebellion so honourably conducted? I say nothing of it’s motives. They were founded in ignorance, not wickedness. God forbid we should ever be 20. years without such a rebellion.[1] The people can not be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. We have had 13. states independant 11. years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century and a half for each state. What country ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve it’s liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure. Our Convention has been too much impressed by the insurrection of Massachusets: and in the spur of the moment they are setting up a kite to keep the hen yard in order. I hope in god this article will be rectified before the new constitution is accepted.” – Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, Paris, 13 Nov. 1787[2]
The words were written between colleagues, one in Paris the other in London….it appears to be a private correspondence not meant for public consumption….and my research tells me that this is the only place that such a comment was made………
Now you can quote the entire quote and not just a line or two…….I am sure there are thoughts…..let ’em rip!
All Things Political
Nope, not a spot on NPR or some wild accusation by Glenn Beck…..but rather an explanation and a bit of history…..
Politics! As my readers will know that I enjoy all things about politics….all the little things as well as all the really big things…..but what is meant by the term politics? According to Gore Vidal the word politics is a combination of two Greek words…….poli meaning the people and tics which are blood sucking insects…..
Back in the day……way back to as early as the Greek city states……politics referred to the operation and the administration of the state or the sovereign….everything else fell into the realm of social or private…it is a recent invention to include just about everything as political…..our leaders wishing to claim responsibility for all things good in our society and dealing out blame for all things that are bad, all are happening because of political decisions made by the state or its opposition…in other words blame everything on nature of politics.
Issues like marriage, guns, prayers, flags, etc….these are social or private issues and do not belong in the realm of politics….these are decisions made by an individual and not by a government. I know…I know…this sounds a bit libertarian….believe me these issues have only recently been associated with the study of politics……personal opinion…..they were introduced into the conversation because some had NO idea how to govern and they were used to divide and conquer a populace.
In these days of limited government/small government maybe a real good place to start would be to limit the politics to issues that actually pertain to the governing of the masses……..I realize in these days that the concept of government be about the running of the country and to stay out of people’s lives is a novel concept….but what the Hell? We could do no worse than the system we have today.
Theatrics is NOT the way to have a successful government……and since that is true……we have a dysfunctional system of governance…..lack of civility, disrespect and lack of national unity….the three pillars of American politics…….is going to kill a system that our Founders were proud of……if only they could see it now!
Is It A Failed State?
Inkwell Institute
Middle East Desk
The magazine, Foreign Policy, has ranked the different states as to whether they are considered a failed state or not……the criteria is…..The categories used to determine how failed a state was are demographic pressures, refugees, group grievance, human flight, uneven development, economic decline, state delegitimization, public services, human rights, security apparatus, factionalized elites, and (level of) external intervention.
Using that criteria Somalia is the most failed state in the world and the least failed is Norway….but all that is just lead up to the point of this post….the state that I ask if it is a failed state is Israel. Israel is #58 of 177 states listed on the Failed State Index by Foreign Policy…….with scores like…..The issues Israel scored the highest (most troubled) on were external intervention (8), factionalized elites (8), human rights (8), group grievance (9.3), and refugees (8).
What could possibly the solution?……..”that without solving the Occupation Israel will continue being a failed state. Neither Foreign Policy nor the world will continue accepting Israel’s claim that disarray among Palestinians is their own fault. Societal chaos in Palestine can be directly attributed to a conflict in which Israel is at least an equal partner.”
Could this report give Israel the wish to solve their problem of a conflict? Of course not! The conflict has become an institution…a political institution, an economic institution and finally a cultural institution…..there will be no drive to a lasting peace.
But why not?
A report in the UK’s Guardian shows some of the problem….
The former head of Israel‘s spy service has launched an unprecedented attack on the country’s current government, describing it as “irresponsible and reckless”, and has praised Arab attempts to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.
Meir Dagan stepped down as the head of Mossad six months ago but has gone on the offensive in a series of briefings with journalists and public appearances because he feels that Israel’s security is being mismanaged by Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, and Ehud Barak, the defence minister.
So, we are back to the Israeli government…….the source of all the problems for most of the last 60 years……polls have shown that the population would like to find a way to end their years of terror and anticipation of the conflict continuing…..but as with most “democracies”….what the people want and what they get is seldom the same.
Please, before the hate mail starts….I am NOT against Israel as a nation and its right to exist……I am against a government that functions in hate….it is always about their survival (the government) not about the people’s survival….there is a difference!
Republicanism
College of Political knowledge
Subject: Political Theory/ American History
First of all…that is republicanism (with a small “r”) not to be confused with Republicanism or in the US conservative thinking….is it truly all that? Is it the best way to govern? Is it the best for the US? Did the Founders actually give the system of governance much thought? Or was it the easiest way to preserve their landholdings and in doing so, guaranteed their personal independence and autonomy?
I have to look at the term through an American filter and in doing so may not totally agree with the observations of Kant or Rousseau…….
A generic definition is that it is ” form of government that is not a monarchy”….anything but……in the beginning republicanism was founded on the premise that political right and personal virtue flowed from the ownership of land…….that an unencumbered title was the primary basis of all social order and individual freedom, but if that title was ever lost then one’s personal identity and and political liberties would also be lost……
Although conceptually separate from democracy, republicanism included the key principles of rule by the consent of the governed and sovereignty of the people. In effect republicanism meant that the kings and aristocracies were not the real rulers, but rather the people as a whole were. Exactly how the people were to rule was an issue of democracy – republicanism itself did not specify how. In the United States, the solution was the creation of political parties that were popularly based on the votes of the people, and which controlled the government. Many exponents of republicanism, such as Ben Franklin, Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson were strong promoters of representative democracy. However, other supporters of republicanism, such as John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, were more distrustful of majority rule and sought a government with more power for elites.
No matter how one slices the history of the Revolution, it’s outcome was that the government would necessarily extend influence over the lives of the people by what we could call “the public authority”…………so from the very beginning American republicanism was that the landed gentry would control all governing machinery…….and NO matter how one tries to deny it…..The US has always been governed by the landed gentry, if you will…….NOTHING has changed in 235 years……and there seems little hope of much change in the next 235 years…….without some sort of intervention(?)…….
Why A Jeffersonian Democracy?
College of Political Knowledge
Subject: Democracy/Government
With all the trouble and problems going on across North Africa, I have heard several media pundits calling and analyzing about the future of these countries and the possibility of a Jeffersonian Democracy…..most of them are conservs or right leaning Dems…..but what do they mean by “Jeffersonian Democracy”?
First of all, it is these pundits trying yet again to deify Jefferson and his ideals…….trying to link ALL democracy to the system set up by Jefferson…..secondly, that is total CRAP!
In its core ideals it is characterized by the following elements, which the Jeffersonians expressed in their speeches and legislation:
- The core political value of America is representative democracy; citizens have a civic duty to aid the state and resist corruption
- Americans had a duty to spread what Jefferson called the “Empire of Liberty” to the world, but should avoid “entangling alliances.”
- The national government is a dangerous necessity to be instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation or community; it should be watched closely and circumscribed in its powers.
- The wall of separation between church and state is the best method to keep religion free from intervention by the federal government, government free of religious disputes, and religion free from corruption by government.
- The federal government must not violate the rights of individuals.
- The federal government must not violate the rights of the states.
- Freedom of speech and the press is the best method to prevent the tyranny of the people by their own government.
- A standing army and navy are dangerous to liberty and should be avoided; much better was to use economic coercion such as the embargo.
- The United States Constitution was written in order to ensure the freedom of the people. A strict view of how the constitution was written is kept. However, “no society can make a perpetual constitution or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs always to the living generation.”
- All men had the right to be informed, and thus, to have a say in the government. The protection and expansion of human liberty was one of the chief goals of the Jeffersonians. They also reformed their respective state systems of education. They believed that their citizens had the right and should be educated no matter their circumstance or status in life.
Just a bit of what I guess we could call Jeffersonian democracy…….but is there more?
Yep, it has come to mean limited government and other such conserv ideals that they push for in every election….no matter the ideals Jefferson was a bit of a hypocrite…..the Louisiana Purchase expanded the role of government…..his Embargo Act of 1807 and the fact that he continued to hold slaves even when he constantly voiced opposition…..
I think that Jefferson’s own words tell where he was standing on the political philosophy of the day….”The natural aristocracy I consider as the most precious gift of nature… Every one, by his property, or by his satisfactory situation, is interested in the support of law and order. And such men may safely and advantageously reserve to themselves a wholesome control over their public affairs, and a degree of freedom, which, in the hands of the canaille of the cities of Europe, would be instantly perverted to the demolition and destruction of everything public and private.” (Does not sound like a person that actually believes in limited government)……
I know that many will not agree with me….for I will NOT deify Jefferson….and I see his Republican movement as…… by contrast, were more concerned about the preservation of the relatively democratic distribution of the nation’s wealth. While they had always advocated freeing oceanic commerce and providing foreign markets for the farmers, they believed that Federalists had rendered the United States subservient to Britain and had actually preferred a gradual reintroduction of hereditary rule.
To pretend that Jeffersonian democracy is some sort of perfect democracy is just plain wrong! There is NO such thing as a perfect democracy…..if it were then there would NOT be a democracy……
So what part of Jeffersonian democracy does the Right keeping hoping for the Middle East….the expansionism? How about the return to hereditary rule? Just what does the Right want for the Middle East? You can bet that it is NOT a participatory democracy!
Running Scared?
College of Political Knowledge
Subject: International Studies
Yes…they are!
Tunisia was first…and then the big bang came from Egypt…..and for 10 days and counting anti-government protesters have been taking to the streets and recently the pro-government guys have also….the inevitable clashes….the blood, the violence and the injuries were something that we all thought would have come earlier……but it is here now and the people will have to decide if the efforts by Mubarak are enough to satisfy their lust for freedom…..
Mubarak said he will not seek another term….and that he will leave when this one is up…..and then he appointed a VP…something Egypt has NOT had in 30 years……and then that VP starts laying blame for the violence…..
“When there are demonstrations of this size, there will be foreigners who come and take advantage and they have an agenda to raise the energy of the protesters,” Vice President Omar Suleiman said……..
Only bad guys from the outside would do such dastardly things in Cairo…..(what a yawn)
The rest of the Middle East has been watching the drama unfold in Egypt…..and other leaders in the surrounding countries have taken the cue….and started the reform process……(funny how that works)….
Algeria……President Abdelaziz Bouteflika will lift a nearly 20-year-old state of emergency in the “very close future,” the state news agency announced Thursday. The move is one of several demanded by demonstrators in recent protests against the government, which imposed the emergency decree in a crackdown against Islamic political parties in 1992.
Jordan…….King Abdullah has acknowledged the reform process “has suffered from many shortcomings” and young Jordanians were frustrated by lack of opportunity. He has instructed his new government to re-examine the election law and urgently tackle corruption — but his appointment of former intelligence chief Marouf Al Bakhit as his new premier was also seen as an attempt to shore up support among Jordan’s tribes, the bedrock of loyalty to the monarchy.
Yemen……President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has ruled Yemen since 1978, has attempted to quell growing discontent by announcing that he won’t seek re-election in 2013. Saleh announced that he would not seek a new term or install his son to replace him. He called on opponents to join in talks aimed at “a sustainable and reconcilable political agreement.”
Syria……President Bashar al-Assad took power in 2000 after the death of his father, who had ruled since 1971. In an interview published Monday in The Wall Street Journal, he said Middle Eastern leaders must “see the need of reform” before protests like those in Egypt and Tunisia break out, because by then, “it’s too late.”
Funny how quickly these long time leaders have an epiphany when they are looking down the barrel of history…huh?
How many would have made such proclamations if Tunisia and Egypt had not happened?
So, you bet your butt these people are running scared…..and a change is NOT looking too bad at this point in time……but are they serious? Or is this just a typical move by despots to buy some time? And how long will it be until the Saudis see the light?
Is There A Political Socialization?
College of Political Knowledge
Subject: Political Theory/Government
Paper #37
As always one post leads to another…..I had one a few months back about the political obligation (go to search, if you are interested) of the individual to his/her society….after re-reading it I realized that there was another part of that issue and that is political socialization….I know…..I know…HUH?
Well my question was intended to create a dialog as to whether we, as Americans, have an obligation to participate in the political system (check it out)………if you think we do have an obligation, then where do we learn of this obligation?
Well, we learn it in Civics class or American government 101 or……….and that process of learning is known as “political socialization”…..
Political socialization is basically, the process by which political culture is transmitted from generation to generation.
Back in the day….the beginning of the country our political socialization was the domain of the family…the children would learn the where fores and whys around the dinner table and by listening to the conversations of the men folk….as the children grew he was to continue the process as did his father or brothers or uncles or……
Then as more and more children were being educated the schools became the second line of learning the process of political socialization…the indoctrination was through the study of civics and American history…
Now the more recent development….since most families have both parents working hard and spending less time with the children, their primary political education comes more from caregivers and the media…TV and the internet……and then the political socialization continues through out ones life….but today the teachers of this socialization are from religious leaders or interests groups or TV or …well you understand the concept…..all this leads to the participation in the political process and how one votes…….
Now the problem as I see it is that many people have NO ideology, with the exception of some emotional thing that has NO real bearing on governance…..so they become an independent, if you will, meaning that they will pick and choose among the lists of issues from one party or the other…..and mostly about what is best for them not what is best for the country……at times, there is a difference……and that they make their decisions based on what some talking head tells them is the issue of the campaign…I do not mind a staunch supporter of one party over another….just that they seldom hold to the principles that they say are important….but rather vote for some caricature that some entertainer paints for them….seldom checking for the accuracy of the idea……
For instance this past election, the 2010 election, people voted for lower taxes, to create economic growth and that they think that the TARP was a failure…….the sad part is……The facts: The Obama administration cut taxes for middle-class Americans, has overseen an economy that has grown for the past four quarters and expects to make a profit on the hundreds of billions of dollars spent to rescue Wall Street banks.
The American voter is sadly uninformed and politicians and the media are to blame…..but the final judgment is on the voter to check for the truthfulness of facts given to them by their leaders….something that they unwilling or incapable of doing……and the political system dies…..
A Political Fairy Tale
College of Political Knowledge
Once upon a time…not so long ago….and in a land not so far a way…there lived two feuding families….let us call them thew Federalists and the Anti-Federalists…..they inherited a new land and they fought over how that land would be governed….they debated….they argued….they wrote published essays defending their points of view….and after much debate and exchanges a compromise was settled upon and that settlement was the Constitution of the United States……
It seems that the Federalists thought that a strong central government was needed to protect the newly found country and the Anti-Federalists wanted a weak central government with a strong local one….but finally by 1787 they had compromised on what and how the nation would be governed…they set up the terms for the Pres and VP, the set up the freedoms…..they set up the conditions of government…..(I realize that this is a simplified and generalized history lesson, but that is NOT the meat of the post)
And once it was signed into law….they all lived happily ever after…..
Well not for long…..
The two sides were screaming along using the strengths of their new system of government….those being…the separation of powers to discourage the concentration of power and the checks and balances that kept each branch of government from over stepping its bounds and without a party domination the reps could be more centered on what the people wanted…..but the years dragged by….the country twisted and turned in the wind….but it made it on its own and became a shining light for the world to see……
But all was not good on the horizon….after 200 years of solid and good government cracks began to form in the foundation of the system…..these weaknesses were the very strengths it had in the past…the separation of power started fragmenting the system and began rendering the system immobile (nothing was being accomplished)…without a party dominated system the voters could not pin responsibility to anyone in particular and that lead to the break down of the system even further…the voter was used to set the political agenda that did not really apply to them in the least and finally the voter has to wait for anb election to rid itself of worthless adventurism of the politicians that are in it for their own glory and benefit not the interests of the country…….
The kingdom adjusts to fit the situation…..but the adjustments were beginning to fail to bring the success to the marriage of the two families….slowly but slowly the nation was dying and the leaders, all the leaders were standing on the oxygen tube while debating the need to stand aside and let the patient heal……this system is slowly becoming obsolute because of the partisan crap of its leaders……if it is to survive then the people will have to do it themselves and ignore the rumblings of the leaders that care not what happens….their only concern is that they retain the power and the purse strings…..DOOM is eminent!