Tip: If you are giving your money to the RNC or the DNC or any national candidates, then this is you.
And you are not Lucy.
A number of years ago, I was having a conversation with a friend who has had some military experience. I don’t remember exactly what we were talking about, but the part of the conversation that has stuck with me happened when I made a passing comment about economic warfare. My friend looked at me quizzically and said, “All warfare is economic.” Years later, this insight has stayed with me, even though I have totally forgotten the context in which it arose.
Warfare is about access to, denial, and control of resources – things like real estate, manufacturing, labor, and finances. It is economics by brute force. Like warfare, politics is also about control of resources – the difference is that the use of force, by government, is just a bit more subtle.
Whatever the issue of the day, “gay marriage”, “equal rights”, diversity, even abortion, what we’re really talking about is access to, denial or control of resources. The fundamental question is to determine who is entitled to resources from whom and when? Gay couples want tax benefits which their opponents want to deny. “Equal rights” and diversity advocates want to control access to jobs. Even the pro-choice/pro-life debate is about the survival or demise of the abortion industry. As much as we dress it up in noble sounding words, it’s really all about money and control.
Against that backdrop, two national parties have managed to position themselves quite strategically as the gatekeepers to centralized political power. The RNC promises to oppose democratic excesses and the DNC promises to oppose republican excesses. “Our [democratic|republican] opponents are going to take X, Y, and Z from you” (true), says each party. “Elect us and we’ll protect you” (false).
In reality, when elected to power, both parties happily defend any ground which had been gained by their “opposition” party. “I don’t like it, but it’s the law of the land,” they tell us while they carve out some new powers for themselves and their successors.
“Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of the day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers too plainly proves a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing us to slavery.”, Thomas Jefferson
President Bush (41) gives us Ruby Ridge. President Clinton gives us Elian Gonzalez, Waco, Bosnia and Kosovo. President Bush (43) campaigns against nation building, then gives us Iraq. President Bush (43) campaigns to privatize social security, but instead, gives us the biggest Medicare expansion in history. President Obama… where do I begin? President Obama campaigns against water boarding and replaces it with drone strikes on children. President Obama campaigns against Iraq, then gives us Libya and puts Syria in the cross-hairs. To say nothing of the use of the levers of government in the IRS and Justice Department to target dissidents.
Time after time, we vote the bums out. Time after time, new bums arrive to take their place. And legislative session after legislative session, these two parties erect new barriers to entry that make it harder and harder to remove incumbents from office. This is no different from the protectionist behavior observed in any other economic monopoly, except this particular monopoly is protected by armed federal agents in more than 70 agencies.
And here’s the real kicker. They’re using our money to do it. Every dollar we donate to the DNC or the RNC or the national candidates makes the institution of central control stronger. All warfare is economic. All government is economic. And when we send our economic resources to Washington, no matter which party, we’re economically weakening our own community and strengthening the central controllers.
“Flyover country” struggles while six of the nation’s ten richest counties pop up in the area surrounding Washington, DC. What makes this possible? Your money. Not just your tax money, but the financial contributions that you send there in the futile hope that one or the other of these parties will, at long last, defend you.
This strategy is not working and it never will. As Joshua observed, in the 1983 movie, War Games, the only winning move is not to play.
What is the solution? Nullification and state level resistance – of course. If you’re reading here, you already know this. This was the American solution to British tyranny in the 1760s, 70s and 80s. It was the Northern solution to nationalized support for slavery in the 1820s through 1850s and it is the solution to today’s abuses.
Here, though, is another important aspect of that resistance. It’s an economic contest, so deny them the economic resources that they depend upon. They have proved themselves incapable of solving problems and unworthy of trust. So forget about them. They do not exist. Both parties. Take any money that you have been giving to national parties or national candidates and keep it in your state and your community. Stop funding your own exploitation. For lack of a better term, it’s financial nullification.
If you want to make political donations, then donate to local or state level candidates – in any party – who see the national parties in Washington as the adversaries that they truly are. Defense is impossible in Washington, so find your defenders in your state and in your community.
First rule of holes: When you are in one, stop digging.
If enough of us learn this lesson, it will make a difference. A big one. So here is my pledge. From this day forward, I will not give one cent to any national party. I will not give one cent to any national candidate. I will not give one cent to any organization who donates to the national parties. And I will not give one red cent to any think-tank or advocacy group who’s pushing for another turn on the gerbil wheel by promoting Washington solutions to Washington problems.
The only winning move is not to play. That’s my move. Check.
- The Whiskey Rebellion: True History and Hidden Lessons - February 24, 2015
- Prohibition Repeal: Another Nullification Success Story - December 4, 2014
- Why American Businesses Should Understand Nullification - December 11, 2013