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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: dvdw© who wrote (339957)	1/8/2003 12:07:23 AM
From: CYBERKEN	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

You don't suppose he was making fun of populists, do you? While Stevenson would not have made a very successful president, he was something the Democrats haven't had for decades now: A true intellectual. He understood, and was trying to convey, that a nation of so many tens of millions can never be a democracy of individuals. Such a thing is not government at all, but anarchy. America is an amalgamation of large well-organized groups with common interests-and every citizen belongs to dozens of these groups, whether he realizes it or not (and whether he WANTS to or not). The principle that power accrues to the organized drives the history of any and all developed nations who have managed to avoid totalitarianism. The conflict between these interests groups creates and sustains the public discourse, and the relative ebb and flow of the influence of groups of common interest is the flow of history itself. The preservation of liberty through the limitation of government power REQUIRES the continued political conflict of groups of well-organized common interests-and the waging of that conflict is most efficiently conducted through the large, homogenous political parties we have had for a century and a half. The Founders DESIGNED gridlock into the American republic, as the constant constraint against tyranny. The party system evolved from the successful workings of the Founders creation, and those eras where major parties fell, rather than adapt to the will of the aggregate public-as expressed by their organization into groups of common interest-have always indicated periods of the greatest economic or political distress in America. Populist movements arise out of general ignorance of the principles behind, and the continuous workings of, the Founder's work of profound vision, under which we interact politically. Those movements wane very quickly, as the major parties adapt to the new realities of current eras, and the new worries and wants of the aggregate public. It is possible that, when America finally falls into anarchy, it will be due to far too many of the ignorant falling prey to the charlatans who invariably characterize the leadership of populist movements. But 200+ years of American history prove-so far-that the Founder's system has been virtually indestructible, especially by the unwashed masses, marching in the streets for the George Wallaces, Huey Longs, Ross Perots, Jesse Venturas, and John McCains of every era so far. The next populist era will undoubtedly arise in a few years. I estimate that the need to throw off the financial yoke of the Great Social Security Fraud in the early 20's will be the next driver. This "3rd Way" movement will ultimately fail, as they all have. But they will only fail after they have significantly changed altered the debate in the major parties, and thus a measure of their agenda will become established. But elect a president, or sieze a house of Congress? The probability is microscopic. The Founders didn't build it that way...