A Wholly Rational Hatred

     There aren’t many such, but Bryan Caplan’s hatred qualifies:

     I hate politics. Part of the reason, to be honest, is that I'm a libertarian, and libertarian views have almost no influence in the world of politics. Libertarians don't just lose every election; policy-makers normally summarily reject our position. Libertarians don't just fail to control a major party; "successful libertarian politician" is almost an oxymoron.

     But perennial defeat isn't the only reason I hate politics. On reflection, I'd loathe politics even if my policy views matched Clinton's or Trump's word-for-word. Indeed, I'd loathe politics even if I thought prevailing policies were the pinnacle of wisdom. Why? Because I hate the way people think about politics, independent of the ultimate outcome.

     Please read the whole thing. Follow the embedded links. Ask yourself how many of the mental maladies Caplan cites apply to you, or to persons in your inner circle. Then ponder whether you (or they) should seek help before it’s too late.

     I, too, hate politics. My fascination with it arises from that hatred: politics is the pursuit of power over others, and I condemn that pursuit ipso facto. Caplan doesn’t mention my most idiosyncratic reason for hating politics: my contempt for the people who deem themselves worthy of its prizes.

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     Consider this recent revelation:

     Fancy that: Hillary Rodham Clinton wants Julian Assange dead. Not indicted and tried. Not locked up. Dead. Why? Has he committed a capital offense within American jurisdiction? Not as far as I know. (I can’t say of my own knowledge that he’s ever been in the U.S.) He has, however, embarrassed many of the powerful – and just now he’s planning to embarrass Clinton herself, possibly costing her the prize she’s sought since 2000: the presidency of the United States.

     The true horror story here is that Clinton is typical of the political class.

     They who want power over you hold you to be a lesser form of life. Whatever pieties they mouth about your “rights” – and notice how voluble they are about such things before the right sort of audience – they don’t really believe you have any. None that would inconvenience them, at any rate.

     Do you plan to vote in November? I do. Are you enthusiastic about the matter? I’m not. By your action you’re conceding that various persons will be given power over you. Life and death power. The nature of the State is, after all, that it can stick a gun in your ribs to compel your submission. Your choices are to comply or to die.

     And two centuries of “democratic” (small “d”) politics have elicited a political class that thinks everything of itself and nothing of you. If there’s any consolation to be had, its members despise one another almost as intensely as they despise you. That provides a vestigial check on their behavior: not much, but better than nothing. At any rate it’s all we have, so until the planetoid gets near enough, it will have to do.

     If you need a little more insult before you chug that bottle of Maalox, consider that at least half the members of that political class are eager to flood your neighborhood with illegal aliens, either because they believe that it will help them to retain their grip on power, or because large-scale illegal immigration helps their private-sector cronies to make money.

     The wonder of our time isn’t how angry we are at politics and politicians; it’s how little we’ve done about it.

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     My own hatred of politics intensifies as I contemplate the prospects for the immediate future. No matter which party prevails in November, all of the following will be upon us shortly thereafter:

• Higher taxes.
• Dollar depreciation.
• Increased regulations.
• More impediments to travel.
• More restrictions on firearms ownership.
• Further corruption of American law enforcement.
• Further deterioration of our crumbling “infrastructure.”
• The enactment of nebulous laws defining new federal “crimes.”
• The further weakening of Americans’ personal and national security.
• The attenuation of our rights, whether Constitutionally enumerated or unenumerated.

     It’s all coming, Gentle Reader. Whether “the voters” – who? – give the Democrats or the Republicans hegemony, it’s coming straight at us. It’s about power: what the political class worships and wants more of, always and forever. It’s coming because we lack the stomach for what it would take to prevent it.

     Don’t imagine that the elections can or will thwart it. It’s the bipartisan agenda. We could put Rand Paul into the White House, Andrew Napolitano on the Supreme Court, and 538 Ted Cruz clones on Capitol Hill, and it would happen anyway – because elected officials no longer govern this country. It’s doubtful that they would want to. Who wants the responsibility for so large a mess?

     Yes, I’m having a bad day. That’s what happens when I contemplate the dynamics that reign over government in this year of Our Lord 2016 –especially the sort of person those dynamics have floated to the top of the political compost pile. The sort of person who’d ask “Can’t we just drone this guy?” about an individual who’s never done anything worse than publish embarrassing revelations about his would-be murderers’ lusts and practices.

     Time for Mass. Maybe I’ll be back later in a better mood. Hard to say.