Tell Me About Politics

by Michael Forbush

Lets try to explain politics from another point of view:

Imagine two objects: ideals and issues.

Issues are conflicts in the need of resolution.

Ideals are the framework one uses to group issues into methods for resolution.

Solutions to issues are found in a democratic society by majority determination. Therefore, democratic resolutions are determined when the majority agrees on a given framework to be used to resolve a conflict.

In modern society ideals are expressed in the form of a political party platform. The political party is a method used to draw a majority of people around an ideal in order to solve a conflict, or even a class of conflicts.

Successful political parties must offer an ideal which encompasses a wide range of conflicts in order to maintain a significant life span for the political party.

The current political dichotomy in the United States is based on the conflict between the rich and the poor. The current strategy is to apply the solution to all issues in terms of the battle between the classes. Some issues can not be resolved in terms of a battle between classes. These issues are usually presented as social issues. Because of history, social issues have aligned themselves in terms of class as well. Since the rich were initially in power they have adopted the traditions as part of their party platform. Since the poor would like to change established power they have adopted social change as part of their political platform. This means the rich wish to preserve the status quo in order to maintain their wealth while the poor wish to change the status quo in order to redistribute the wealth of the rich.

Methods used to accomplish these wishes can further subdivide these major groups. Communists believed the government should force the rich to give their wealth to the poor. Fascists believe the government should use force to maintain the status quo or return to a previous or perceived ideal status quo. In the US Republicans wish to maintain the status quo by using peaceful means, while the Democrats wish to change the status quo by using peaceful means.

Although the battle between the rich and poor is not the only alignment possible for issues although it does work for many issues. Some of the rich would like to change social issues and still maintain their wealth. On the other hand some of the poor wish to use tried and true methods to develop new wealth based on traditional methods. Some people believe other issues such as world peace, or the environment are more important than the battle between the rich and the poor. For these people there are third parties, smaller groups with ideals differing from the two major parties.

Michael Fordr_forbush@mad.scientist.com

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11-5-98