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From: keller@uicsl.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Dumb Politics - (nf)
Message-ID: <6108@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 9-Mar-84 22:38:39 EST
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.6108
Posted: Fri Mar  9 22:38:39 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 11-Mar-84 01:20:19 EST
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#N:uicsl:16300055:000:3379
uicsl!keller    Mar  9 16:18:00 1984

Greetings:

	This morning, on the CBS Morning News, a new Democratic Party 
advertisement was shown. It was a simple short ad. showing a woman
speaking to the camera and essentially saying:

	"Do you think that the government only serves the
	 interests of the rich? We think that it should
	 serve those who need help. The Democratic Party."

	I find this advertisement disgusting. It presumes such base
emotional reactions, a complete lack of reasoned response, that it
qualifies as revolutionary propaganda. By creating an enemy, the "rich,"
and claiming that government can be a mother to us all, it seeks to
split the population into two groups: the oppressed and the exploiters,
with Big Brother government coming to stomp on the exploiters and
distribute the spoils to the needy thereby eliminating all of life's
unpleasantness.

	The Democrats have had control of the government for a large
part of the past 30 years and are responsible for making the government
what it is today. If it is a government of inequity, then it is their fault.
This advertisement is in the same style as Mondale's campaign rhetoric.
If the Democratic establishment can't recognize the difference between
claptrap and the more reasoned (although, I think, flawed) message that
Gary Hart is offering, then they are destined to lose.

	Don't presume that I am an unquestioning Republican. My beliefs
run closer to Libertarian, and I hope that they are more the result of a
commitment to rational inquiry than arbitrarily placed faith. I would
love to see a political process built on the goal of creating a society
with as few constraints as possible yet enabling the basic associations
and communication needed for leisure, education, and business. I don't
think that a civilization can be built on the single goal of redistributing
wealth to the needy.

	I don't believe that any party is going to create a Utopia, or
even a workers' paradise. And I don't believe that a central government
can create or implement a BIG PLAN to direct all the facets of society
in concert together. The fact is nobody in government acts like they
believe in such a plan. They follow the winds that blow the hardest or
the quickest route to crude power. Yet, when campaign time comes so
does the simplistic philosophy.

	No one of us is an economist, philosopher, sociologist, political
scientist, and physical scientist, but there are discoverys, studys, and
conclusions in each of these fields that can bring us a better life. By
better life I mean one where we can use our creativity and labor to provide
ourselves and others with knowledge, services, and products that enrich
our existence. I submit that without some change toward a political system
that is a clear extension of our ever increasing knowledge about ourselves
we will be fated to the same shaky prosperity that we now enjoy.
Hart seems to think that government should have powerful control over
all areas. The evidence is that central planning is ineffective and dangerous.
I direct you to Milton and Rose Friedman's book "Free to Choose" for
a detailed argument of this position.

	So the next time you hear an inane political advertisement or
speech ask yourself if they are trying to reach you, and make some
effort to change things if they aren't. Maybe what you need to do is
change political parties--perhaps to a third party.

-Shaun