Karl Rove began his professional political career in1971 as the Executive Director of the College Republican National Committee. He went on to become a national strategist for the GOP and was one of the leading advocates of wedge issues. He embraced computer technology early on by developing electronically maintained snail mail lists for GOP and conservative Democratic candidates in Texas circa 1981.
The political landscape of today owes much to Karl Rove. He, like others that came out of the Richard Nixon campaign, was fixated on the accumulation of political power by whatever means necessary. This divide-and-conquer mentality worked to chip off sections of the Democratic coalition that initially evolved under FDR. Liberal anti-war Catholics were cleaved off by the abortion issue. Southern Democrats were cleaved off by demonizing the civil rights movement. Labor movements were painted as anti-capitalist and anti-business. Any hint of Socialism was broadly painted as leading to totalitarianism.
The problem is that once you have let loose the maelstrom how do you harness it without destroying yourself. This is the problem faced by the GOP today, indeed for any political party in any country operating under a form of a popularly elected government, divisive politics tends to give rise to demagogs.
"I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves. Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it." --Donald Trump, 2016 RNC Speech
The central tenant of post-enlightenment government is that the power of government is derived from the people, not individuals, not kings, not princes, not popes, not dictators. We the People should not support men on white horses or authoritarians, because that inevitably results in a loss of liberty for "We the People." As Jefferson put it so eloquently in the Declaration of Independence "... Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed ..."
If the Democratic Party reacts in kind to the GOP, it too shall move toward authoritarianism and demagoguery. The sickness has been embedded in the system by the manipulation of voting laws and the flood of money channeled through PACs - it contaminates both parties. Presidential elections of all national elections are the most locked into this corrupt system because Executive Power is where the power is. Our post-war (WWII) expansion of our military and our economic imperialism endangers the foundations of our republic. Power continues to accumulate in Executive Branch agencies outside the control of the legislative branch in the black budget. Washington and Eisenhower both spoke against military power as a threat against a republican form of government in their respective farewell addresses.
So how can we fix this?
- Eliminate the "Black Budget" by reducing funding for spies and secret projects and bringing full transparency back to the federal budgeting process.
- Have a real and open public debate on the cost of military and economic imperialism on the future ability of citizens to retain their rights to privacy and their personal liberty.
- Reform election processes.
- Ensure every US citizen can vote by expanding initiatives such as automatic registration, mail-in ballots, and expanded 'early' voting.
- Eliminate the biggest PAC loophole by passing a constitutional amendment that corporations are not people.
- Eliminate gerrymandering via non-patrician commissions and computer algorithms or some combination thereof in a completely transparent process.
- Explore and test the idea of implement proportional legislatures at all levels of government,
- Alternatively, institute ranked voting or instant run-off at all levels
- Remember egalitarian principles.
- The system must not be skewed so as to favor any one class, gender, race, or religion.
- Justice may require short-term policies to help mitigate the damage of past injustices, but in general, our goal is a society where everyone is equal before the law.
- Demagoguery is built on pitting factions against each other, we are strongest when we act as one people operating in a system that respects and tolerates individualism.
- Work to encourage international cooperation as an alternative to America being the world's policeman and military force.
Hiding information on secret government operations or having secret government trials and grand juries is detrimental to the long-term survival of a republic. Secret categorization should only be used for short times and in times of legally congressionally declared war to preserve the rights of individuals and protect operational security. Secrets should also be unclassified as quickly as possible so as to be subject to the judgment of history, for this is the feedback mechanism we as a society use to build a better, more durable, and more just government.
