Anybody familiar with communist regimes knows that loyalty to “the party” is imperative to one’s survival. Members of “the party” usually have access to food, alcohol, and other amenities not offered to outsides. Unfortunately party members run a risk; their loyalty may be called into question by another party member. At this point a vetting process is likely to follow where the accused will be tested to determine whether or not they are truly loyal to “the party” (more often than not the inquisition ends with a verdict of disloyal).
This behavior is often shown in American media. You know who the bad guys are because they play sinister party politics. The frightening truth is party politics in the United States mirror those of communist nations. Anybody who has attended a Republican or Democrat Party event has seen some of this. People are called out and cheered for their service to “the party.” The more one volunteers and advocates for “the party” the more likely they are to be noticed and rewarded by the higher ups. Anybody who displays disloyalty to “the party” is shunned and attempts are made to run them out.
What’s scary about this behavior is that is revolved around loyalty to “the party” and not to any ideals. For instance, the Republican Party platform talks a great deal about free markets and deregulation. If a candidate is nominated who doesn’t support these ideas you’re still expected to support him or her. No questions are supposed to be asked and no dissidence is tolerated.
This behavior isn’t isolated to the Republican Party. Take a look at the Democrat Party and their support for Barack Obama. While the Democrats talked about peace during the Bush regime they are not silent when their candidate is waging war. Remember how much the Democrats decry the banker bailouts? We heard nothing by crickets from them when Obama did the same thing, in fact man Democrats are cheering Obama’s latest bank bailout.
Whenever I participated in party political events I was sickened by what I saw. People openly stated that they would support any Republican candidate, in fact it was expected that everybody at the event would fully support the Republican candidate regardless of that candidate’s views or values.
Now I’m seeing this with the Ron Paul supporters. Every candidate that Ron Paul endorsed is supposed to have the undying support of the Ron Paul supporters. I’m constantly bombarded with requests to support Kurt Bills here in Minnesota and when I say I’m not interested I’m treated like a heretic. Answers are demanded of me, “How can I not support him?” When I say I don’t know anything about him, he hasn’t officially stated his position on a great number of issues, and he’s demonstrated nothing that warrants my support. The response I get are always various of, “Well Ron Paul endorses him, that’s all you need to know.” No, that’s not all I need to know. I need to know where Kurt Bills stands on numerous issues including gun rights, foreign relations, economics (merely using one of Ron Paul’s books in an economics class doesn’t cut it, I want to know if he actually believes in free markets and divorcing the state from economics), jury nullification, and other libertarian issues.
Party politics scares the living shit out of me. It appears to exist solely to separate people form critical thinking. We’re told to support any nominee of “the party.” If you disapprove of the candidate you will be called out as a bad party member. Once you’ve been denounced any influence you had within “the party” is likely to vanish.