March 27, 2009
by Clay Barham

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Politics in America has become the new Tower of Babel.  The original political language of America has become confused and fractionated by multiple special interests, power-seeking elite and a penchant for change, any kind of change.  The original political language of America was rooted in elbow room for individual legitimate self-interests, where people followed their own values, interests, aspirations, using their talents and developed skills to create and shape their world. 

People created government, not the reverse. Government was to protect against injustice, not to provide justice. Government was defined at each level, local government being the most active in contact with the people who fashioned it and limited its powers.  Government did not rule, as the people ruled themselves. Government was not the caretaker of the people, but the people were the caretakers of government. Those employed in government were not there to rule but to serve according to their game plan.

Individual efforts were rewarded to the extent those efforts served others. Individuals, for the most part, harmed no one else and led America to a kind of prosperity unknown anywhere else in the world.  It worked well and was predictable.  It was not managed by traditional kings or emperors and their elite sycophants.  It was left to individuals to do what was right and proper, with small local governments created by the people to prevent and punish injustices cited by their own written laws.  It was simple, easy to understand, and was a wide boulevard of potential for each individual who sought to create and grow.

However, the self-centered power-seeking, self-anointed elite, who wept when watching others struggle, could not stand a ship running without a captain, navigator and engineer. They have justified a system of government as traffic cops to tell free individuals what they can and cannot do, when they are moved to make those decisions, even if free individuals prefer to act on their own behalf.

The mercantilist model, where elite rulers and business leaders pooled their powers to control and manage the economy, was sought by some, while labor, in unions and guilds, said it should be counted in or to rule as the dictatorship of the proletariat.  The professional associations chimed in as well, seeking to apply their university educations and influence to order the world in which they lived. 

Academics designed all manner of models and methods to manage an economy and control the people.  The greatest people were angry, envious or simply depressed that they had so little influence on life and sought to change the American way of life. They formed the narrow special interests that assumed powers to influence how, and in which direction, government was to rule.

Elite could never be happy with unmanaged individuals running their own show.  Their very nature required they take control and order the world according to their views, to fill the vacuum left by freedom.  It began when the third American Constitution was passed and there was a new opportunity for elite to grab control.  The first of them was Alexander Hamilton and the Federalists. Following his demise, more elite of different colors raised their hands and offered to shape and lead the nation out of its reliance on unmanaged individuals running their own lives.

There was only one politically-oriented group who stood for the original structure of America, and the founders of that group who simply gave expression to the American way, were Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, known generally as the Bourbon Democrats. They supported the idea expressed by Adam Smith, of an ingenious, mysterious "invisible hand" working in each community, under a generally accepted moral standard, that led communities to prosperity through freedom. Prosperity came to America because the antagonistic would-be manager types had no say.

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The problem with power-seeking elite claiming the need and right to manage began with the invisible hand never being enough, because it could not be predicted to provide any planned outcome. Things seemingly just happened. No business enterprise could ever be successful under the guidance of the "invisible hand," so how could a community or nation prosper?  Political groups of all kinds grew from the distrust of the mystery of the "invisible hand." 

Every faction had a plan of how to make things work on a well-ordered, defined and consistent manner.  The plans and parties grew more numerous with time and America's great growth.  In America, they have grown and formed coalitions aimed at solving the "American problem" of prosperity gone wild and constant discomforting dislocations of labor and resources.  Some factions consisted of people who envied the success of others and wanted government to share the wealth, as is the case today with the modern Democrats and Barack Obama.

The original American Political Party, the Bourbon Democrats, formed around the idea of freedom of the individual to pursue happiness chasing his or her own dreams, visions, interests and aspirations, unimpaired by any government imposed bubble around thought or box limiting action. They were the only party of their kind, standing against a myriad of parties and control freaks.

When the political process is polluted by class envy and special interests, not the full population's interest, then the coins are clipped, the presses crank out more fiat money, and the race is on to siphon off as much value from resources before values slide.  We see it with the direction of the 2009 bail out benefits racing down narrow roads to suit the few at the expense of the many.  Those with clout and influence are rewarded by the treasury and the people pay for it.  The taxpayer is abused by the very few who were elected to clean up the mess.

How can the American voter see through the fog that surrounds the process, and who should they pick to give them advantage over the rest of the Americans too weak to fight off the theft?  We have too many special interest choices we are not even aware of, as those we elect make the decisions often based upon rewards to them to act in ways not in the taxpayer's interest.

Let's bring back the original American Party, the Bourbon Democrats, and what they represented against all the mystery choices now served up as destructive special interest voter options.

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Clay Barham [send him email] has been a candidate for the California legislature and a stand-in talk show host for ABC.  He was educated in physical and behavioral sciences, with a Ph.D. in sociology.  He is the author of five books, with his latest being Foundations of Modern American Conservatism and Liberalism: The Roots of Freedom and Tyranny.  Visit his website at http://www.claysamerica.com.

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