Political party

Political party link (front)
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"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary."

Political parties are organised groups which work within the system of voting used by most "democracies". Although they occupy (by definition) the space of shallow politics, they can often be important groups to study for the student of deep politics, provided that a certain circumspection is exercised regarding their pronouncements and imputed motives.

Official narrative

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The official narrative of representative democracy is probably well known to almost all readers of Wikispooks. Those represented cast a 'vote' for a limited number of possible candidates, and those most supported are elected to power. Very commonly, this "choice" is limited to a handful of candidates, sometimes just two.

Official opposition narrative

The official opposition narrative of party politics and "democracy" is that "politics is broken", as always with official narratives, never calling into question the good intents of those who created the system, or allowing the possibility that it is in fact working as intended.

Problems

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Joseph Goebbels wrote about corporate media that people can be easily controlled by a system that pretends to offer a diversity of opinion but is actually uniform. Similarly, many people can be effectively steered by offering them an apparent choice of government which is in fact no real choice at all. There is a certain amount of "buy in" - people who have voted are reluctant to admit that their vote was meaningless, and conversely, the fact that they appear to have chosen a "leader" makes it that much easier for them to submit to that leader's commands. As Goethe once wrote, "None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free."

{{#subobject: |Has superobject=Political party |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=John Taylor Gatto|+sep=, |Has text=“It doesn't make the slightest difference whether Republicans have control of congress or democrats. They're the same people. Look at their campaign contributions.” |Is about=Political party,party politics, democracy|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate= |Sourced from=Unwelcome Guests |Has sourceDetails=#564 |Has sourceTitle= |Has sourceName=Unwelcome Guests |Has sourceURL=http://www.unwelcomeguests.net/564

}}

“It doesn't make the slightest difference whether Republicans have control of congress or democrats. They're the same people. Look at their campaign contributions.”
John Taylor Gatto

File:Party politics trolley problem.png

A rendering of party politics as a trolley problem

Many Wikispooks readers will likely be of the opinion (for which this website provides a lot of evidence) that (in the 21^st century at least) the political process is best understood as a fraud used to conceal the business of deep politics. Almost all national "leaders" are in fact mere puppets of concealed forces. Things have only got worse since Gore Vidal observed back in the 1970s: {{#subobject: |Has superobject=Political party |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=Gore Vidal|+sep=, |Has text=“There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party ... and it has two right wings: Republican Party and Democrat. Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more doctrinaire in their laissez-faire capitalism than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt — until recently ... and more willing than the Republicans to make small adjustments when the poor, the black, the anti-imperialists get out of hand. But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties.” |Is about=Political party,|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate=1977 |Sourced from=Matters of Fact and of Fiction: Essays 1973–1976 |Has sourceDetails=Random House. p. 268. ISBN 0-394-41128-5 |Has sourceTitle= |Has sourceName=Matters of Fact and of Fiction: Essays 1973–1976 |Has sourceURL=

}}

“There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party ... and it has two right wings: Republican Party and Democrat. Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more doctrinaire in their laissez-faire capitalism than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt — until recently ... and more willing than the Republicans to make small adjustments when the poor, the black, the anti-imperialists get out of hand. But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties.”
Gore Vidal (1977) 
Emphasis added

Strategy of tension

Full article: Strategy of tension

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The party political process provides an effective distraction, particularly when supported by a craven mass media, to provide distraction, cloaking of deep political events, and sometimes also the terrorisation of a compliant populace. As H. L. Mencken put it in 1918 {{#subobject: |Has superobject=Political party |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=H. L. Mencken|+sep=, |Has text=“the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.” |Is about=Political party,strategy of tension, fear, politics, terrorisation|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate=1918 |Sourced from=Wikiquote |Has sourceDetails= |Has sourceTitle= |Has sourceName=Wikiquote |Has sourceURL=https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/H._L._Mencken }}“the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.”

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Electoral fraud

Full article: Electoral fraud

In some countries, notably USA, paper ballots have been either partly or wholly replaced by electronic voting systems. Since these leave no conventional paper trial, they are open to abuse. A mound of evidence exists both that many of the voting machines are easily hacked, that this is not accidental, and that the 2004 US election was decided as a result of fraudulent use of voting technology.

Fraud by politicians

In most (if not all?) countries, politicians are not mandated to keep their pre-election promises, so it is perfectly legal (and far from uncommon) for them to say "Vote for me, I'm going to do something", then once they are elected either not to do it, or to do the exact opposite. The can hardly be an oversight of the legal system, and so can be seen as a sign that the political system is not broken, but is in fact functioning as designed. In the UK in 2007 the Misrepresentation of the People Act was proposed, to allow the prosecution of politicians for lying. As of 2015, it has attracted the support of only 37 out of 646 members of parliament.

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United States presidential election, 2016

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Full articles: United States presidential election, 2016

The United States presidential election planned for 2016 presents an excellent example of the fake choice offered by so-called "democracies". Neither Hillary Clinton nor Jeb Bush can be expected to challenge the interests of The Enterprise that has backed them. One result of the blatantness of the choice being offered to voters is that many media commentators have remarked upon the matter.

References