Salvation by Politics: A Liberal Heresy
To understand Presidential politics, watch this. Think of the fruit as the winning party's platform.
The trouble is, politics is not really that funny.
Actually, Presidential politics is more like this.
Most people do not care about politics. In the United States, they care one year out of four. This is not a new phenomenon, nor is it unwise.
First, there is not much that national elections can do to change the civil government. The budget is 85% fixed: non-discretionary spending. The existing laws of the books are close to fixed in a gridlocked government. The Federal Register will publish 80,000 pages of new regulations per year, no matter what. The President can appoint 4,000 federal employees out of 2.8 million. The House of Representatives is gerrymandered so that hardly any seats are in play. The U.S. census has a marginal effect in years ending in zero, but national politics does not change this. State politics does: more gerrymandering.
Second, politics does not count for much in our day-to-day lives. We get used to the prevailing system of laws and regulations. We adjust.
Third, the focus of American national politics is on the President, for he alone represents all voters. But the President has little power to change things except at the margins of politics. The Presidency matters for this: war, rhetoric, symbolism, an occasional veto that is sustained, and foreign policy. The Council on Foreign Relations supplies the Cabinet members and senior advisors. The big banks supply the Secretary of the Treasury. We will see if this takes place with Trump. If it does, then it will be business as usual.
SALVATION BY LAW
The mainstream media, because they are intensely liberal, are intensely committed to politics. They are committed to the doctrine of salvation by politics. This is the doctrine of salvation by legislation, which always becomes salvation by executive regulation: the Federal Register. In short, this is salvation by law -- not ethical, personal salvation -- liberals do not believe in this, not believing in heaven or hell -- but political law for corporate salvation.
These collections of video clips of mainstream media figures are effective. There are lots of these. I selected these because of their use of music. This one is a collection of "Trump is a joke" clips. Quietly in the background, we hear "In the Hall of the Mountain King," which keeps getting louder.
This one is post-election. It begins with "The Sounds of Silence," which begins with "Hello, darkness, my old friend."
Music makes these videos far better. Legally, these violate copyright law, but Google has not disabled them down yet. Enjoy them while you can.
As a conservative in the Burke-Nisbet tradition, I don't care much about politics. I think social change starts with voluntary associations. Localism matters more than nationalism, except in major wars, which we have not seen since 1975. So, I see politics as mainly entertainment.
There is an old slogan: "Don't worry about what you cannot change." This is good advice.