Tag: political science

‘By Popular Demand: America Is Not a Democracy’ (2019)

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It was never for “democracy.” You could look it up.

How sick are you of noozies and other Democrat gasbags babbling out “saving our democracy”? How many of you remember Democrats disputing every election that they didn’t win? Now it’s only us deplorables that do that–right?

By Popular Demand: America Is Not a ‘Democracy’

Our country’s founders worked hard to avoid setting up a “democracy,” because they knew from history that it was inherently unstable and unjust. They made it the law of the land–Article IV, Section 4, of the U.S. Constitution–to guarantee every state of the union a republican form of government: not a “democracy.”

And we might also ask, “How come it’s not election denial, insurrection, boo-hiss, when they do it?

Wait’ll you see the tantrum when they lose the midterms.

‘The Problem IS Sin’ (Mark Rushdoony)

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“Politics will never solve man’s basic problem of sin,” writes Mark Rushdoony.

https://chalcedon.edu/blog/the-problem-is-sin

He got that one right, didn’t he?

Look, I’m a political scientist, got the papers to prove it. An all-purpose definition of “politics” is “the authoritative allocation of value.” But our politics seeks an authoritative allocation of blame. “We attack other men, not sin,” Rushdoony says. And some new scapegoat always comes along–or else is chosen arbitrarily by the newest battalion of blame-givers.

We “falsely limit evil to a group” until the next group is chosen: the sin itself is always passed on to whoever’s next in line.

Yeah, I know, I do it, too. We’re always advised to separate the sin from the sinner; but in too many cases that’s like separating the head from the body.

‘Big Ape Politics’ (2019)

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Everything you need to know about fallen-world politics, you can learn from reading Tarzan books.

Big Ape Politics

Go ahead, I dare you–look at Congress, look at the appointed posts, and tell me it’s not about getting rich and sassy at the public’s expense. We are fallen–but do we really have to fall this far?

Who gets to run the show? Who gets the biggest percs? Whom does everybody else have to make like they respect?

The biggest ape, of course. Until a bigger, strong ape replaces him.

Edgar Rice Burroughs, you were a top-flight political scientist… and didn’t even know it.

A War for No Reason?

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Street fighting erupts in battle for Ukraine's capital Kyiv | Russia-Ukraine war News | Al Jazeera

You don’t need me to report on the Russo-Ukraine War; there’s enough confusion already.

But see, I’m a political scientist, with a strong interest in military theory and history, and normally I know about things like this. But for the life of me, I have no idea at all as to why this war started, who was at fault, what the stakes are, who’s the good guys and who’s the bad guys–I don’t know!

Am I just a dope for not knowing these things, when our politicians and TV commentators seem to know all about them? They certainly are passionate about what actions they think America and her allies ought to take. Wack Putin. Send troops. Don’t send troops. Stop buying oil from Russia. Buy more oil from Russia.

After our fiasco in Afghanistan, the whole world–and especially the world’s bad guys–saw the weakness and sheer inanity of America’s leaders, and concluded that they can now do anything they want. As long as the chairman of our Joint Chiefs of Staff says his chief concern is White Supwemacy (or Climbit Chainge, depending on what side of the bed he gets up on), they knew they don’t have to take America seriously.

Unless SloJo sleepwalks us into World War III.

No More Mandates!

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President Biden's Weirdest White House Habits

(Where do you suppose he thinks he is?)

Our country’s founders never anticipated such a thing–that we would set aside our freedoms and our Constitution every time the “experts” said we had a “crisis”–but it’s looking like we need one:

A Constitutional amendment banning “mandates” by any level or agency of government anytime, anywhere, for any reason. In other words, if you can’t get it passed as a law by the people’s elected representatives, you can’t do it. Period. No president, governor, mayor, or bureaucrat can just lay it on us.

We have 535 members of Congress, some of whom are sane. But say there are, oh, 450 loons up on Capitol Hill. Can they do more damage than one wacko in the White House, or the state house, or the city hall? Paradoxically, it doesn’t seem they can! The more divided the political power, the safer we are from its abuse.

There has always been this expectation–hope? wistful longing?–that our legislators collectively would be something better than a passel of nincompoops. But even with that hope dashed, at least they’re often too busy arguing and pulling chairs out from each other to do serious harm to the country. It’s only when they get together that we have to be afraid.

 

Political Science–and Tarzan

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Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1988, Hardcover) for sale online | eBay

Speaking of orgies of sexual harassment (https://leeduigon.com/2021/10/08/californias-state-legislature-a-tar-pit-of-sexual-harassment-2017/), and the fact that #MeToo went away when they kept finding big-name liberals chasing women into the rest rooms, I learned everything I needed to know about this aspect of politics from just two sources.

First was an account of Czar Peter the Great’s visit to London in 1698. They called it his “Grand Embassy.” The English government provided him and his entourage with a luxury townhouse, servants, and free everything.

And the czar and his entourage, who had apparently never sat on chairs before, wrecked the place. The Grand Embassy behaved like a rock band. They brought horses indoors to race them up and down the marble staircase. They strewed garbage everywhere.

Because they could. No one would dare tell them to stop.

Equally illuminating are Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan stories. In these, the biggest, strongest ape is king until another ape can kill him; and while he’s king, he gets to mate with any female he wants, he’s entitled to first choice of whatever food is going, and there’s no way to hold him accountable for anything he does. Reading these, I got to thinking, “Gee, that sure sounds familiar! Where have I see this before?”

Or rather, where have I not seen it?

That’s the politics of this world: do whatever you please for as long as you can get away with it. The Big Ape rules. That’s the politics of the City of Man.

We prefer the City of God.

‘Law Prof “Debunks” Parental Rights’ (2017)

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I’m running this again because I’m putting together an argument for Newswithviews: to wit, that our ruling class is so estranged, so alienated from the American people that they might as well be space aliens.

This guy, for instance.

Law Prof ‘Debunks’ Parental Rights

Let’s see… They’re telling us that some people shouldn’t be parents… Therefore in each and every case, the state should have supreme authority over each and every individual… because somehow, in this poobah’s mind, government existed before anybody ever had a baby. So you have no natural right to your own children. You have only what the state is willing to grant you.

And who is the state?

A bunch of aliens like him!

The Ingredients of Fascism

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Benito Mussolini | Biography, Definition, Facts, Rise, & Death | Britannica

“Fascism” is a word that gets tossed around a lot, these days–but how many know what it really means?

Let’s try to know what we’re talking about. Fascism is a real thing, and here are its basic ingredients.

*A big, strong, highly centralized government. The bigger, the better.

*A small group of business oligarchs, corporate bigwigs, who control a disproportionate share of the unfortunate country’s business.

*A charismatic leader is just about indispensable to any fascist enterprise. Failing that, modern technology may be able to create such a leader. That’d be cool if The Leader didn’t really exist. (Note: In the World War II era, Japan’s fascism got by with a small group of leaders, gathered around Hideki Tojo. There was no Japanese Mussolini.)

*Wide popular support. People forget that fascist governments are usually greeted with enthusiasm by the unsuspecting populace.

*A Great Enemy, greatly feared, from whom The Leader and The Party will protect the people. Try “white supremacists” on for size.

*Now, if you want to refine your fascism into Peronism or Obamaism, simply add a few favored unions into the mix–public employees’ unions, already closely linked to government, are great for this.

Put ’em all together, season with a continuous flood of bad and alarming nooze (fake news will do just fine, if no real crisis is available), and, voila! You’ve got real, historical, 100% pure fascism!

I think the only thing our country’s missing is the charismatic fascist Leader.

I’m Stumped

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I’ve read a lot of history, and I’m a good political scientist–but the current state of our country absolutely stumps me.

What do you do when at least half the citizens believe their government has been fraudulently imposed on them, and the new president is well-known for his very iffy cognitive faculties? And when that government promotes and pushes crazy policies supported by hardly anyone? Like tearing down the border, arming Iran, and sweetheart deals with Communist China, just to name a few.

What in the world can we do?

I don’t know. We’ve never been here before. These are things that happen in countries long ago and far away. They never figured out what to do about it, either. Goodbye, republic; hail Caesar.

How can we put any trust in the next election, when we’ve just had one that stinks to high heaven?

Historically, the way the rulers govern such a country is by fear and violence: step out of line, and you disappear. Is that where we’re going?

We have nothing left but our prayers.

Pray hard, and hope God hears us.

We’ve Hired a Professor!

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G’day from Quokka University! Byron here: and, as chairquokka of our Political Science Dept., I wish to announce the hiring of an associate professor! Hired by me, in fact. Trumpets, please! May I introduce our first associate professor of political science…here he is…

NORBERT

Norbert the therapy dog!

I hired him because you can hardly believe how sharply he can change direction, even while running at full speed. This is an invaluable skill in politics! Human politicians take pride in their ability to zig-zag, but Norbert puts them all to shame.

I have assigned him to teach Sharp Turns 101 and Being For It, Then Against It 202.

Did I mention he works cheap? Well, he only weighs three pounds, it’s not like you have to feed him a lot. No need to raise the tuition just to feed Professor Norbert.

As for the burning question, “What is the tuition?”, well, don’t look at me, I’m the Poli Sci Dept.! See if you can find the registrar, Aunt Feezy the Quokka, and ask her. I think I saw her going into the mangrove swamp.