Dear Friends,
It seems to me, in politics, to follow style and ignore substance is to court tyranny and spurn liberty. Sadly, a political race is all about style and nothing about substance. The election of Barak Obama showed this in neon lights. He ran on “hope and change,” without a moment given to what that meant. Today Trump is running on “Make America great again.” Both slogans are strong on style but have little substance. When people vote on a slogan, instead of on policies, they open themselves up to politicians who don’t necessarily have the people’s best interests at heart. If a politician is reticent to explain how he or she will make his or her slogan come true, then the reason is probably that they have no idea how, they just want political power. Perhaps they have an idea, but know it would be obnoxious to the electorate, so the dishonest politician falls back on a slogan.
For good or evil it is policies that get things done. If more jobs is what is sought, lower regulations, less government intrusion into the market, lower taxes and less cronyism are the policies that are called for. This set of policies have the drawback to the statist of, lower government and political power and to the dependent of less government handouts. If more government power is the goal, then higher regulations more intrusion and higher taxes are the ticket. Those policies have the drawback of lower wages, less jobs, lower economic output and less liberty, however. There are always trade offs to any policy.
Since there are trade offs a conniving politician seeks to persuade the people to follow him or her with an empty slogan. Every politician and political adviser knows running on lower wages, less jobs and the loss of liberty is a loosing message. Those who seek more government control cannot run on the drawbacks or even let the idea there will be drawbacks into the conversation. They have to deftly avoid admitting the results of their policies will have drawbacks, in fact, they usually claim they seek the very opposite things their policies will result in. Politicians are Machiavellian in that they care nothing about how they get to their goal, only that they get to their goal.
An empty slogan has the advantage of avoiding talking about any negative effects of their policies but also of focusing the people on some simple to understand sentence. Those politicians who run on policies however, have the double difficulty of explaining how their policies will do what they say they will and defending the attacks on those policies for their trade offs. Since most people are lazy in thought their eyes will gloss over at discussions of policies and their effects instead focus on an empty slogan.
Slogans work best when they are backed up by personality. The most charismatic politician with the best slogan usually wins. Of course… no one is more charismatic than a psychopath or sociopath. That is because people with these disorders have no self awareness, they glibly lie, care not when they are caught, can look you in the eye while and smile as they stab you in the back, love to manipulate people, etc… Have you ever wondered why Hannibal Lector in the Silence of the Lambs is so magnetic? Psychopaths are inherently charismatic, love to manipulate others and seek luxury, and so they levitate to politics where their special abilities and needs serve them, and are served by them as well.
It is by the people being lazy in their voting, voting for a slogan rather than policies, that a nation is moved from limited government, free markets and liberty, and the economic strength that results, to unlimited government, socialism and tyranny. Even as the people begin to feel the results of the policies that result in lower wages, less jobs and reduced liberty, they fail to see their own part in the problem, continuing to vote for slogans instead of policies. Very few voters really want lower wages, less jobs and reduced liberty but when faced with the task of processing and examining the probable results of various policies, they fall back on a slogan and personality.
This paradigm of democracy has corroded every democratic republic ever constructed. Constitutionalism was supposed to limit this quality of democracy, but has been perverted by the very people elected to preserve our constitutions, as is the nature of democracy. The answer is not to eliminate democracy, it is only through the assent of the governed that any government has legitimacy, the answer is a thoughtful electorate. You have the ability to cast a vote, you are the foundation of your governmental system, you have the responsibility to act as a rational maximizer, a self interested human being rightly understood. If you choose to vote for a psychopath with a catchy slogan, you are the problem, but if you look into the policies, reason what the logical outcome of those policies will be, and vote accordingly… then you are the solution.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
