My impression --- and I reach this conclusion with much sadness --- is that there are unfortunately a whole lot of "Sheeple" out there in this great land of ours.
Sheeple (not to put too fine a point on it) who long to be lead around by the ring in their nose, who psychologically need to be told what to do. Sheeple who long for the whip-hand of some 'Fearless Leader' Authoritarian Overlord to 'make it all better'.
And, sad to say, most any Authoritarian leader will do for these Sheeple --- no matter how silly or strutting or devoid of rational thought process said Authoritarian leader may be....
Now, to extrapolate from that sad but simple fact about a definable strain of group-think that has existed in our society since it's founding (indeed: that has existed in probably EVERY Earthly society in all of recorded history... that reflects a relatively common behavioral mode in humans), to today's political environment is not so very difficult:
Authoritarian-needing "Sheeple" exist in both of our major political Parties today. There are Sheeple looking for the modern equivalent of a Monarch to rule them among both Republican & Democratic ranks.
But nowhere is this behavioral grouping numerous enough to achieve political power on it's own --- the sellers of Authoritarianism and the followers of Authoritarianism need to ally with other political forces to achieve a critical mass politically.
Now, in *both* Parties, Authoritarians are wedded to Big Government and Interventionist policies abroad (logically enough)... and at various times have achieved power through different political grouping and alliances.
The G.O.P.'s hammer-lock on the national political scene of recent decades, has to a great degree been based upon the addition of SOCIAL conservatives ('religious conservatives, fundamentalists, and such... requiring the use of Big Government's powers to advance their moralistic and Puritanical goals for society) to the traditional Authoritarian/Interventionist/Militaristic pole in the Party.
The common and uniting factor, the glue that enabled the political grouping, was the REQUIREMENT of a robust Big Government for either to advance their goals.
Of course, the more powers that are given to central government, the further that Constitutional checks and balances are reduced or negated or by-passed to enhance the Executive function (a priority for the Authoritarian bunch), the greater that individual liberties are reduced or eliminated.
Excessive centralization of power concomitantly kills off freedom.
Now, to bring us up-to-date, without the enthusiastic (and numerous :-) electoral participation of the SOCIAL conservatives backing-up the play of the Authoritarian wing in today's G.O.P., the "give me a King, a Fearless Leader I can line up before and kowtow to" types of Sheeple are not nearly such a large political grouping on their own anymore. Liberty lovers at least slightly out-number them. (Even if the Authoritarians from both the donkey and the elephant were combined somehow.)
Without their allied masses they are no longer politically determinative anymore.
(They become just one more political band out of many... they find themselves still dancing to the familiar old Authoritarian tune that has played in many cultures, in many places, at many times, but this time dancing on the EDGE of government power, not at it's center. While playing their old sad, shrill come-hither tune that is so ill-suited to Democracy and Liberty.)
Where will the Authoritarian puppet masters and their Sheeple followers find another dance partner? Will it be the same partner they have disappointed in recent years, or another one entirely?
Are there still enough Sheeple around to guarantee a win for them? |
