November 16, 2007
by Clay Barham

Americans have two distinct political choices to make in 2008.  They have to pick from those who support the exploiters of the many, or the rulers of the many.  The exploiters create, make and distribute products and services for the many to buy and use, thereby enriching the exploiters in its doing.  The rulers create and make the rules the many must follow, to be fed, clothed, sheltered and cared for by them, for the benefit of all.

The exploiters look at how the many live, and they compete with one another to make a better mousetrap more of them will choose to buy.  The rulers tell the many that the mousetrap in use is sufficient, as they make it.  The rulers tell the many the exploiters simply grow rich at their expense, taking their money for the unnecessary products they make and sell.  They tell the many that exploiters can only enrich themselves if they are able to take from the many the fruits of their labor through deception and deceit.

Exploiters, they say, care nothing about the needs of community, only the needs of individuals.  The rulers claim only the interests of the community are most important, but the many must also see it and care more for community than each cares for themselves.  The many are told only the rulers can properly design, plan and organize community so people in it can live free of the cares of subsistence.  All they want is the many to give them the keys to the community and every door therein.

The exploiters cannot argue against the needs of the many as they seek to supply the needs of individuals, thereby losing their place in the hearts and minds of community members.  The exploiters try to convince all the people that a free market, without central planning, is the best choice for universal happiness. 

They claim the United States itself is the living proof that choice is best.  The rulers know better, as not all people are equal under a free market and many are left behind.  The rulers appeal to the heart, the emotions and passions of those who have not and those who empathize with them.  The exploiters appeal to reason, the use of each individual's mind to think about what has happened in the past and what should happen in the future.

The exploiters choice is one that does appeal to reason, but reason is an individual's process of thinking.  The community mind is one that depends upon infectious sympathy, empathy and feelings about how all people are treated.  The rulers can claim victory knowing those who feel, rather than those who think, will make the final choice. Passion rules in politics and reason loses.  The choices Americans make in 2008 will prove that case for the last time.

America grew as a product of a choice for individual freedom, so each could pursue their own drams and purposes.  Only individuals have aspirations, talents and skills, and America gave each the elbowroom to exploit what each had.  In doing so, they invented, created, built and structured a society reflecting a freedom of personal choice to rise above one's conditions and make a better life for self, family and immediate community. 

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That left each unequal in the final analysis, as the few would achieve far greater rewards and accolades for what they could do.  Each began equal before God and the law, but some went further and did better.

That difference in status, the inequality that grew from individual freedom caused some to be bitter with envy and anger over the differences in personal fortune.  Something had to be done to lift up the losers and bring down the winners, eliminating differences that can only exist in a free market.  This is the time and place for Americans to make the choice, whether to continue with individual freedom or switch to a managed, command economy where everyone is equal in outcome.

2008 is the year of the biggest, most important electoral choice Americans will ever make in how their Nation works and is perceived by other nations.  The choice is clearer than ever before, since no one major political party stands firm against the exploiters and in favor of a rule by a few over the many.  No single political party stands against them.  No single political party offers Americans a choice for individual freedom.

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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.