small note on conservatism
Nov. 1st, 2006 12:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eiriasI think the greatest irony that this administration has wrought in my own life is that it's actually made me more conservative. I have become so incredibly cynical about the relationship between principle and power that I can't conceive of a good government anymore. My electoral goal now: Minimize the damage. Don't worry about progress -- just minimize the damage.
This is, of course, true conservatism at work. I no longer believe that any administration will hold to principle, given unfettered power. So if your party manages to sweep elections and one-party rule emerges, you have to be aware that whatever it is they say they're about is almost completely irrelevant to what's actually going to happen. They will throw you crumbs, of course -- but what's really going on will be something else entirely.
I don't actually know what practical lesson I can take from this. It means I'll support our Democratic governor even though I don't trust him, because one-party Republican rule in WI would just be too awful to contemplate (and I'd probably start having to smuggle birth control in from elsewhere). But in some situations it could make the lesser-of-two-evils type choice even worse, because I might be forced to vote nominally against my own principles in order to keep a balance of party power and avoid the Creeping Tyranny of Unopposed Self-Interest.
There is another level of cynicism entirely that would suggest that balancing power between two virtually-identical parties is a farce anyway and so I shouldn't even worry about that aspect of strategy. But I don't think I agree. Any time that the government wastes arguing bitterly with itself is a win for me -- even if the arguments are just for show.
In other news, I will be volunteering all day Tuesday in the Warner Park region to get out the vote for preserving our constitutional status quo. Play hooky and come join me!
This is, of course, true conservatism at work. I no longer believe that any administration will hold to principle, given unfettered power. So if your party manages to sweep elections and one-party rule emerges, you have to be aware that whatever it is they say they're about is almost completely irrelevant to what's actually going to happen. They will throw you crumbs, of course -- but what's really going on will be something else entirely.
I don't actually know what practical lesson I can take from this. It means I'll support our Democratic governor even though I don't trust him, because one-party Republican rule in WI would just be too awful to contemplate (and I'd probably start having to smuggle birth control in from elsewhere). But in some situations it could make the lesser-of-two-evils type choice even worse, because I might be forced to vote nominally against my own principles in order to keep a balance of party power and avoid the Creeping Tyranny of Unopposed Self-Interest.
There is another level of cynicism entirely that would suggest that balancing power between two virtually-identical parties is a farce anyway and so I shouldn't even worry about that aspect of strategy. But I don't think I agree. Any time that the government wastes arguing bitterly with itself is a win for me -- even if the arguments are just for show.
In other news, I will be volunteering all day Tuesday in the Warner Park region to get out the vote for preserving our constitutional status quo. Play hooky and come join me!
