Political Cocaine: How America Got Hooked On the Two Party System and How to Intervene

By Art Rude

American consumers demand choice. The assortment of products in American stores is beyond belief to anyone from the Third World. So why are only two choices for anything political acceptable to Americans?

It seems totally illogical. It reminds me of the illogical change in behavior of an addict. These are people who are normal in seemingly every way yet give up everything and everyone in their lives for a drug which is a short-term high, and self-destructive. How can that be? Research has convinced me it's more than coincidence. In terms of political opinion, it's Political Cocaine.

How did political parties take over the American form of government anyway? There is no provision for them in the Constitution, yet today they control basically all phases of the process of governing in the United States. There must be something that authorized their power. I looked for years and could find nothing. In fact, that is how they grew into their power. In spite of the fact that nothing authorizes them, there is also nothing that makes political parties illegal, another parallel to cocaine historically. Cocaine was perfectly legal in the United States until the early part of the 20th century. Coca-Cola started off as "cocaine-a-cola" until cocaine was made illegal in 1914!

Although nothing authorized political parties in the American form of government, the fact that they were not prohibited allowed them to develop. Ironically, in light of the power they have today, the first party, the Democratic-Republican Party, was organized primarily to oppose the political power that was being assembled by the Federalists. As a result, the Democratic-Republicans are also known as the Anti-Federalists. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison saw the independence they had worked for slipping away, as the merchants and business class were building a stronger government primarily to encourage commerce. The revolution seemed doomed to becoming irrelevant.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Aug 3, 2018
• ISBN: 9781543943641

Book preview

discussion.

Chapter 1 – Overview

If the United States were invaded by any foreign entity, the world would discover the real power of the Second Amendment today. Americans would literally be up in arms, and the world would see the most powerful and best-armed guerrilla warfare ever! Unfortunately, America has been invaded and conquered. Because it was internal, devious, and subtle, the population has accepted it. America has been conquered by politicians.

The American system of government was designed to be run by citizens who gave of their time to do public service and return to their regular lives. But elected officials became politicians and organized themselves into clubs – parties – to build power and influence for themselves. They gradually became professionals, exploiting some intentional omissions in the Constitution of 1787. Nothing in the Constitution created political parties, and there was also nothing making them illegal.

Does anybody seriously think the collection of presidential candidates of 2016 (or any of today’s political leaders, for that matter) could have initiated a government for the United States anywhere near the quality of what the Founding Fathers put together? Me neither.

It was a different time. The Age of Enlightenment was a most wonderful period in many ways. People valued learning. In fact, as a former teacher of physical science – introductory chemistry and physics, as is commonly taught to ninth graders – I can attest that many of the basic principles taught in these sciences came from that age, not from scientists, as we would assume today. The wealthy of that day felt an obligation to contribute to the larger good of society, having the time, resources, and a remarkable fascination with this new thing called science. As a result, many of the basics were discovered by enlightened wealthy seeking answers and desiring truth about how the world really worked, apart from religious precepts and ancient assumptions.

The Founding Fathers were a product of this enlightened mentality. Those Americans now referred to as Founding Fathers thought about making a country that was the summation of the best ideas from history of how to govern equitably with the maximum of personal freedom. James Madison was the one who did his homework preparing for the Constitutional Convention. Discussions Madison had with Thomas Jefferson were key to development of the American Constitution of 1787. As Jefferson was serving as the ambassador of our young nation to France, the responsibility to take the plan to the convention was Madison’s. What he presented is known as the Virginia Plan.

Jefferson’s experience abroad was similar to Benjamin Franklin’s and John Adams’ in that the Articles of Confederation were too weak. Officials the Americans met with commonly asked who they were negotiating with, as the thirteen colonies were, in practice, more like independent countries than one entity. Jefferson was from Virginia, the most populated and wealthiest colony. Adams was from Massachusetts, the next largest and most successful colony. Franklin was from Pennsylvania. The ability to negotiate for all thirteen colonies was nearly impossible under the loose confederation, which couldn’t tax to repay their revolutionary war debt. Negotiating separately with the individual colonies seemed much more credible to the French (and others they attempted to negotiate with) than did entering into any agreement with an unproven young nation having such a loose confederation.

One of the many ironies between the intent and letter of the Constitution of 1787 and today’s situation in the United States is that the Constitution was written for the purpose of creating a stronger government! Today, many politicians and citizens urge a return to the letter and spirit of the Constitution as a method of reducing the power of government.

It is significant that American citizens are frustrated with the current political situation, but it’s far too complicated for the average citizen to understand the source of those frustrations. Many different conspiracy theories are circulating; this book will address none of them. What will be addressed is the need for citizens to cast a well-informed vote and to understand the history of the United States outside the influence of partisan bias.

The contemporary political reality of our United States is much more frightening than any individual conspiracy theory. Reality is found in what traditionally have been considered flaws in the human condition, or sin, according to various religions: primarily greed and the desire for power.

Remember, the power of political parties isn’t authorized by law. They have no legal authority and are not sanctioned by the Constitution – yet they run the American government! Their power comes from within the brain; your brain, my brain, and the brains collectively of all citizens who allow such power. Reality is not the same for everybody! Reality is what we perceive it to be! Political parties don’t need legitimized power so long as they are legitimate in our brain and allowed to take power or are perceived to already have it.

Political parties have taken over the governing process, beginning with the input. People can simply choose between two arbitrary candidates without having to do any of the legwork of choosing candidates who might actually represent their interests. It’s far easier to assume a party is working on our behalf than it is to be involved in the grass roots of meaningful political initiative. The entire process is summed up by what I call the iron irony. When citizens have the right to participate in their own governance, they also have sufficient freedom not to participate.

When researching this book, I knew political parties were not mentioned in the Constitution and that our first two presidents sternly warned against their formation. Yet virtually all American citizens believe the two political parties that have been in control of all aspects of government are legitimate and have been a part of American life from the start. My research leads me to believe the reason there is no mention of political parties in the Constitution is that the Founding Fathers truly believed them to be evil! Many blamed England’s political parties for the need to have the revolution in the first place. It was hoped that sufficient checks and balances were built into the Constitution that political parties could be avoided. They were trying to transform thirteen diverse colonies into a United States of America and had no place for political parties. Several founders equated political parties with faction, a dangerous proposition that, in their minds, would destroy the unity they sought to create. Evidence from the political reality of today confirms they were correct.

So how did a basic fear, common to the founders, come to control a government designed to exemplify the idealism expressed by the Declaration of Independence? There are no simple answers to most complex questions, and this one is no different in that regard. I will do my best to break the complexity down into understandable parts, hopefully increasing understanding and encouraging you to question institutions and concepts you accepted in the past. I hope to open doors for you to help you make decisions and cast votes to help reinstate the idealism of self-determination that was in the minds of this country’s founders.

An understanding of how the human brain works is helpful in almost any part of life, and so much has been learned in recent years. If we are to understand how political parties build and maintain their power, that understanding is essential. Brain science is not the only science in this story. Too often, when science is applied to politics, it is only research based on some kind of statistical analysis of polling data. That’s fine, but if we ignore the principles of science in our political system, we shortchange ourselves, and that is a large part of why there is so much frustration with the American political system. As such, I will attempt to help the reader understand and apply scientific principles to the political systems and realities of today: specifically, dynamic equilibrium; spectral analysis; and, from the world of statistics, the standard normal distribution curve.

Once a complex reality is better understood, a plan to move forward is needed. I will suggest one based on a political movement, populism, that was extremely effective at the start of the 20th century – updated to the internet reality of today.

Just as in the case of my students during my years in the classroom, I hope you can enjoy your journey through this book. In the process, I hope you will enjoy learning and increasing your understanding so you can feel confident making your own decisions as free of polarized political bias as possible. In the process, you can help reform the American political system back toward the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of 1787, and the Bill of Rights. Let’s change today’s American system of government from the system of the money, by the money, and for the money back to a system Abraham Lincoln described as of the people, by the people, and for the people. Isn’t that what most Americans want and what we deserve?

Chapter 2 – Your Start and Mine

Human brains are amazing, but at birth, there are relatively few connections between the estimated 100 billion brain cells, or neurons. A human baby can do little at birth: breathe, cry, eat, poop, and pee; after that pretty much everything has to be learned. Whenever something is learned, the neurons make new connections. The amazing tangle of connections in our brains is responsible for all our thoughts and actions – it essentially is us.

Much has been learned about the human brain, more in the last 50 years than in all the rest of recorded history! The human brain is so complex, it has been called the three-pound universe. It is the most complex structure known to man, none of the actual processes being visible to the human eye. Brains are usually proportional to the animal’s body size. In general, bigger animals have bigger parts. But certain animals stand out; giraffe neck length comes to mind.

Human beings have body parts proportional to other animals our size,