I would rather be bitten by a rabid dog while having a root canal than associate with any political party. But, each and their ilk continue the blistering salesmanship that they are the American way. For lack of a better word: bulls***. They are all (or truthfully, both) elitist would-be empire builders and professional enrichment managers.
Democrat varmints and prissy Republicans carting their neocon appendages, and, for God’s sake, their electric and eclectic devotees, those ill-read, ill-bred many and plenty radio talk show and cable news conservative wannabes who draft the most patriotic sounding declarative sentence structures around “our brave men and women”; the same flesh-clusters who, to paraphrase General Smedley Butler have never worn the uniform, shouldered a rifle or done anything other than see others off to the great national (union? hardly) wars, proudly call on the courage of others (again they have no problem with women fighting in their place) to shed blood and sustain mental instability for some greater good in the name of almost anything: “American Exceptionalism,” “A Shinning City…,” “Freedom” and the rest of the bellows to make the world perfect and always led by the President of the U.S.A., AKA The Leader of the Free World, The Most Powerful Man in the World, The Man Who Answers the Phone at Three in the Morning (you’d think the White House operators would be on duty 24-7). And, of course, always fraudulently referencing him as having been “Elected Commander-in-Chief.”
These party members and the apparatchiks that control them claim American sovereignty over the entire planet via democratizing those nation-worlds of ignorance and poverty; also the ignorant and rich: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Nigeria et al-countries-oily. And naturally for those that can’t or won’t be changed we will “bomb them back to the Stone Age” — even the ones already there.
The Pentagon support, in its quest for money, of this party vermin, always begging for votes, stands proudly behind them, ready to raise any party flag regardless of the minions in a multitude of military bases around the world who will lose lives, legs, arms and of course will never see the VA promises. But Field officers will become General officers and acquire more ribbons than MacArthur and Patton combined.
Every election brings both parties driving forward with promises to give us a leader who can really lead (and of course be president too, if he can work it into his schedule of flying around the world at our expense) and will take America to great environs of providential magnificence, military victories, and of course one who is an outstanding job creator (see the BS word above). I can name more than several talk-show hosts who glom onto this same narrative with the constant drumbeat of “The most important election in our history” (again that word). The party participants beat a path to their station doors as guests, salivating to voice their party’s desire to save us all. The same participants who win or lose, never lose because if elected they get paid through taxpayers, and if not elected they get paid though the lobbyists.
Our republic died in 1861. Our “democracy” (again the word) was born under a national state and the party system, which had been an adolescent force within the republic before, became like The Incredible Hulk a grown monster with no emotional control after. As Nobel economist James Buchanan said (paraphrased): If you can’t secede, the government can and will do anything.
Political parties create democratic subcultures, and democracies only work in tiny-governed orders of people (imagine a classroom as opposed to a state of 300 million people) Political parties therefore compete for mob direction, not mob control — a mob cannot be controlled (see Aristotle on a word about ochlocracy). Mobs are the bane of law, ergo the bane of republics. And to complete the syllogism, democracies blight (bane) republics.
The Roman republic died when Julius crossed the Rubicon (ours when Lincoln bastardized the Constitution — see H.L. Mencken) when he and Pompey had split into factions of self-interest (parties) not when Nero burned Rome. The historically-called “five good emperors” who followed Nero were not good in the sense that the republic went into political recovery. The republic had been dead since Julius. The empire sought only to expand itself through conquering territories. It was only the case that Nero was such a pitiful specimen that any subsequent emperor would look good by comparison. Between Nero and the so-called Good Guys the Flavians took a moment to wipe out Israel.
By the time Lincoln came to crossing his Rubicon by calling for troops to invade the South, what was left of the republic had splintered into four political parties. The last vestiges of the republic completely disappeared when the dagger was thrust through the heart of the C.S.A. at Appomattox (see Lord Acton).
Nero would be at home today in either political party in the United States. An incestuous madman and murderer who thrived on greed and self-interest. I think he would get along fine with “The Donald” and “The Hillary.”