The real GOP Agenda is Dissolving
in the Corrosive Atmosphere of Win or Die Campaign Politics.

Traditionally the real GOP agenda represented the interests of the hard working business owner against the pressure to increase government assistance to workers and the poor. The change in political campaign expense has reduced the GOP agenda to whatever can maintain the needed campaign contributions so incumbents can keep their jobs.

Now the campaign agenda has been reduced to negative ads since it is so difficult to come up with a positive message that motivates voters your way. Folks jump up more when scared and are easier to convince to vote against other candidates than vote for your candidate. Combined with the need to avoid problems of the Bush 43 administration this leaves only a thin sliver of possible topics to exploit.

Republican candidates are obliged to support their president in his major positions and their campaign ads have shrunk to various scare tactics and terror warnings: the other party would raise your taxes, increase government regulation and let terrorists and criminals flood your neighborhood, taking your jobs and killing your family.

As hurricanes, droughts, firestorms, infrastructure collapse and overpowering local disasters join with the increasing costs of a quagmire war that destroys rather than improves U.S. National Security that traditional agenda is beginning to ring hollow. Problems mount up and solution slip away and all they are left with are terror alerts based on tortured confessions and calls for more tax cuts.

The old traditional sure things are beginning to strike a sour note. The GOP agenda remains to stay in power which requires winning elections. The appeal is being restricted as more and more of the Republican politician’s actions are simply letting George W. Bush run his disastrous course while they indulge their personal vices.

At this point the greatest threat to the real GOP agenda is the possibility of having the various parts of the Republican base each demand their own candidate to replace Bush in 2009. The real GOP agenda for quite a while was focused upon what was so terrible in the other alternative. Any choice of real alternatives within the GOP agenda is disaster for their campaign victory model.

Originally political agendas were a simple matter of geometry. The Conservatives were those from an agricultural perspective. They saw the world in terms of geometrical rectangles like their plowed fields, where proper orientation on the square or perpendicular meant good organization and proper management.

In an agricultural community, everyone is another mouth to feed from the limited resources of the harvest. Unless someone is part of the community and working for the benefit of the harvest they are suspicious enemies to be feared and controlled. The controlling factor was the weather which was a matter clearly under only Divine control.

The liberals (from Latin for free) were the folks not tied to the land or to the harvest. These were the cities that developed their resources from the activities of their markets. By Roman times it was known that wherever three roads intersected a market would flourish. That point at the center of its star of trade routes would support a city just by its location.

The liberal or merchant perspective depends upon free transport of goods and customers to its markets. The only major fears are crime and closing the roads to this free travel. As long as everyone is peaceful, all activity supports and encourages the markets to flourish. Unlike the agricultural or conservation perspective which sees people as a threat, the more people and action the better to a market economy.

The indigenous peoples who live from their local environment and the global citizens see their politics from the circle perspective. The circumference of a circle shares similarity, equality and diversity. Each point is equal to any other while they all maintain their own private relationship to the center far within the circle.

As long as each community can maintain their own dispensation within their own local horizon with connection to the universal resources above them all they can live in peace. There problem is invading armies of one kind or another interfering with local life. There need is for open access in and out without either pollution or exploitation coming in.

The agricultural and the merchant perspective could live in balance in the traditional world. The isolated rural areas would bring their harvest to the city market to exchange for cash and anything they sought that they did not produce themselves. The market economy requires an ever growing market profit to remain successful in a bank loan reality which demands good profit reports to keep their loans.

When a globalist market economy is established all these traditional geometries are threatened. The agricultural domain is being overwhelmed with imported food from cheaper regions with better growing conditions of each particular crop. The market economy is threatened by the need for constant percentage rate increase each quarter by a standard set by the smaller economies who can offer a larger percentage rate growth for the same investment.

The indigenous peoples and globally aware citizens are threatened by the general exploitation of all the global for abstract profits from distant markets. No one can live in peace in a world being devoured to get pieces suitable for convenient for processing and packaging elsewhere.

In the global market based abstract percentage rate dominated perspective nowhere is ideal next quarter. Everything must be exploited NOW for the maximum advantage before everyone is expected to move on soon. This is the most destructive and the most powerful of all perspectives since it consumes all in its path like a firestorm.

It is difficult to see where the Republican Party goes in campaign 2008. They are currently obliged to support Bush--anything else would bring revelations of criminal misconduct that would be damaging to the whole party for years to come. The real GOP agenda has got to include avoiding any accounting of what Bush-Cheney-Alberto has done on their watch.

They are also stuck with the disastrous Crusader war against the Muslim world which can not be won. Even if possible militarily, winning or occupying Muslim countries is bad for business. A modern capitalist economy requires international sales and petroleum to continue functioning. The real GOP agenda requires supporting these same Muslim countries leaders as essential sources of cheap oil and consumer sales.

How do you achieve that real GOP agenda if the Republican government is making the U.S. despised, the price of oil soar through the roof and commerce in general dissolve in the terror of suicide bombers in any bustling open market. The current political realities are too sad and now becoming totally irrational. Instead lets look at how things got that way.

The Republican party started out in Ripon, WI formed by hard working Midwestern business folks opposed to slavery and denigration of personal labor which accompanies a slave economy. Lincoln was their candidate at the time the free population of the U.S. finally exceeded the combination of slave owners and their extra representation from 3/5 of their slave population added to their own.

Slave owners had run the Congress, the Supreme Court and generally the Presidency from George Washington up until Lincoln’s election in 1860. The election of 1860 meant real change and the first U.S. civil war resulted as almost all of politicians of the time preferred their entrenched principles to accepting the new industrial economy.

The Republican Party became the National War party and the Democratic Party sought its votes from those opposed to the terrible cost of the Civil War. The power of total war intoxicated some in the Lincoln government some of whom sought to make war powers the permanent American political model.

Although very popular with the politicians in power, the naïve model of total war power and profit didn’t work, most of the population of any country prefers peace to war, no matter how much the power and profits intoxicate their leaders. The real GOP agenda became to stay in power and run the country for their benefit however they could.

The aftermath of the Civil War was decades of difficulty and tumultuous cultural change. Virtually all the politicians involved in starting the Civil War were voted out of office soon after it concluded. The new crop of politicians realized there was no success in having strong convictions and expressing them no matter what. The real GOP agenda became to win elections and stay in power without worrying too much about anything else.

The Republican Party settled down into being the party of industrialists and professionals who felt they were the stewards of good government and fiscal responsibility. They won all the Presidential elections until their campaign rhetoric got a bit too heated, calling the Democrats the party of rum, rebellion and Romanism—a reference to their support of poor immigrants and opposition to war.

This ugly attack upset enough voters that then came out to the polls and elected Grover Cleveland, Democrat. The Republicans tried to make a campaign issue of his having bought a substitute to serve for him in the Civil War and to have sired an illegitimate child. When he won, the Republican taunt of “Ma-Ma where’s my Pa? now brought the jeering retort thrown back at them “Gone to the White House, Ha-ha-ha!”

With the discovery of Pluto and the world wide economic collapse of the Great Depression political dictatorship became quite popular. The world was in serious economic trouble and some sort of strong leadership was needed. Germany lost its currency through hyperinflation which meant a hard working German now could expect to spend his considerable life savings on a hat—if he rushed out now before prices soared again.

Poor economic times encouraged strong leaders who could raise a mighty army to go conquer better resources elsewhere and bring them back for their people. In the United States FDR rallied the nation to deal with the economic collapse of the Depression. In Europe fascist dictators arose to re-organize their economies to fill the vacuum left when the U.S. Smoot-Hawley tariffs, trying to stop cheap foreign agricultural imports shut down all international trade, including the vast U.S. exports of industrial goods.

The resulting Second World War brought full employment worldwide followed quickly by massive destruction and death. The U.S. kept the fighting and bombing in other countries, and our soldiers came home heroes to enjoy the wonders of peace and industrial production.

The government got used to the power and profit of total war again but didn’t dare take more American boys to bleed and die in foreign lands for awhile. The Cold War was the convenient solution, all the war supply contracts and domestic fear mongering of a total war but none of the fighting and dying.

Of course, with all the public propaganda of a total war all the time, it is tough not to slip occasionally and have a real war break out every now and then. The campaign contests were a bit confused in this era. Both parties supported the Cold War and the war spending for the great defense corporations. The distinction was raised by Kennedy between a new emphasis toward the future with space exploration and civil rights and the same old war mongering and status quo.

This conflict between new horizons and the traditional ways again led to the assassination of the forward looking President. This time a southerner with great skills getting his way through Congress brought real Civil Rights legislation into law. This made the political balance in the U.S. shift again with those clinging to their traditional values and local prejudices supporting the Republican Party.

The Democratic Party continued their traditional support for a wide range of minorities and their opportunities for advancement. As Evangelical Churches rose in numbers and powers, this brought a conflict with the fundamentalists with their opposition to civil rights for Gays as well as women’s right to control their reproduction.

The result became a rough balance between the passionate political activism of those supporting their local resistance to the national government and the rather apathetic general population who figured it didn’t matter much who won elections as they all did bad thing and supported major corporate interests. The real GOP agenda became to make their people feel only they would help them while convincing everyone else it didn’t matter who won the election.

Elections begun to show vote results that mirrored quite closely the percentages of advertising dollars spent in the campaign. Winning public office became a result of spending the most money on your campaign ads. The real GOP agenda became winning the campaign ad wars by any means necessary. The real GOP agenda still ran on raising fears and promoting suspicion.

Now that the old models of Cold War have been replaced with real Crusader wars in the Middle East and threats of terror in our own cities the real GOP agenda has a basis of total fear mongering. The more afraid their supporters can be kept, the more they will vote blindly against whomever the real GOP agenda tells them is supporting their enemies and fanning their threats.

There are currently two models of campaign finance 1) brokerage commissions on future deals to be written as law; or 2) Personal expressions of emotional commitment to some strongly held belief. The real GOP agenda favors brokerage commissions based upon a percentage of how much closing the deal is worth. So the deal being considered must be worth at least 100 times the campaign contribution to make sense to business.

To be worth a brokerage commission, it has to be clear the candidate will deliver on the deal and the deal wouldn’t particularly get closed on its own merits. This tends to put a good deal of pressure on all incumbents to have a different rationale when speaking to voters than when dealing with campaign contributors. The real GOP agenda is to raise the campaign contributions they need privately while saying other standard slogans publically.

The alternative model for campaign funds seeks either a few dollars from millions of Internet browsers rather than millions from a few score of major donors on the Democratic side. The real GOP agenda counters this by massive support from large scale church groups seeking to see their beliefs made law on the Republican side. This puts the general public back into the campaign at a time when otherwise the gap between government and governed was becoming untenable.

Getting folks to vote for your candidate became too difficult a number of election cycles ago. It takes too many specifics and none of the candidates are interested in serving that many different masters. The easier sell has become the real GOP agenda. Figure out what the most people will come out to vote against and find some way to tar your opponent as the one to be opposed by pulling the lever for your candidate.

Modern campaigns involve getting folks truly upset and motivated to vote against your opponent. The real GOP agenda is to make the Democratic candidate the symbol of whatever their voters will so fear or reject that they will bring their friends and family to the polls to vote against them.

Three major candidates in any contest spell real trouble for every campaign. It has to be simply vote for my guy he opposes the bad other guy. This has the widest appeal and these campaigns have driven any other political strategy off the field. The real GOP agenda crumbles in the face of any genuine choice other than NOT THE OTHER GUY.

Popular government rather than rule by the successful military commander arose in recent centuries as absolute monarchs like the Spanish Hapsburgs went broke trying to war their way to their goals. War became a matter of paying for troops and materiel delivered to the battle zone on borrowed money.

The Spanish Hapsburgs controlled the rich and productive gold and silver mines of Mexico and Peru as well as the richest lands in Europe. That gave them wealth and power unknown to earlier rulers. They bought anything they wanted with their galleons filled with gold and silver. Unfortunately, what they needed war supplies and transport was only available through British and Dutch industries and maritime fleets.

The British and Dutch were fighting for their independence from Hapsburg rule as they were supplying Hapsburg armies and buying Hapsburg debt bonds at the price set not by the Hapsburgs but the free markets in London and Amsterdam. The Hapsburg king was all powerful and didn’t much care if he paid his debt bond interest on time. This made the interest rate go up.

British and Dutch industry and maritime fleets flourished on Hapsburg Spanish gold, silver and desperate need for war materiel. In modern warfare where well-supplied troops can hold off any opposing army everything depends upon credit and pricing. The Anglo-Dutch charged the Hapsburgs a rate of bond interest and added war premium to their supply contracts that allowed them to fund an army to beat the Hapsburg armies and make a good profit as well.

When a King is paying for both sides of a war at interest rates he can’t control, he goes broke no matter how determined he might be to fight without limit. Control of government has always gone to the winner of wars. A one time that was the commanding general, such as for the Roman Empire.

In modern times it has become those who can sell the product to make the profitable turnover to pay the bond interest on the winning war debt. The real GOP agenda is to make ever of those sales the result of government action and less the individual choices of consumers and other working poor folks.

Democracy does not rule the industrialized world by moral superiority. It rules by being the way to maintain the industrial production inventory turnover that can generate the profits to keep the loans and service the government debt. By the third quarter of the 19th century industrial overproduction was a world wide problem. How to control markets and get your goods sold rather than other competitors became the real GOP agenda. Robber Barons flourished and the Republicans ruled U.S. politics.

The public by their consumer purchases determine what corporate inventory is sold at a profit and what doesn’t. The real GOP agenda is to replace this public decision making by monopoly control of essential goods and services a sure profit winner for their supporters.

The entire current system of government and political campaigns runs on the markets that support the loans to keep business in business. The real GOP agenda is focused not upon the entire economy, but just that part of it that will pay them campaign contributions to get more government support for their backer’s projects of any kind.

The stock market supports the investment in the corporations supplying the government. The bond market supports the government debt to pay for those supply contracts. Political campaigns determine who sits in Congress and the White House to write the supply contracts. Political campaign financing determines who gets to influence those politicians to write their principals bigger and better contracts. The real GOP agenda seeks to keep their contributions enough of that system to win the next election.

The real GOP agenda depends on defending and expanding the political campaign finance system that keeps money flowing in from major corporations. The interests of the business owner have always seen their employees as a hassle and an expense—unlike machinery they can use as a depreciation tax break.

The big money campaign contributions, so vital to the real GOP agenda is what everyone notices as a problem. However, it is just the public face of the entire system of industrial mass production for sale to government and the general public in order to pay the interest on the loans to continue that production. Since cost cutting involves also reducing the consumer wages with which to pay the products, globalization is vital to keep the system going.

Chinese slave labor products are sold in the U.S. under traditional American brand names to keep U.S. stocks showing the profit stats they need to flourish. The products are paid for in U.S. government bond debt that the Chinese store up to keep their end of the production cycle humming. The real GOP agenda has no connection to the contradictions inherent in allowing the economy to become totally dependent upon government debt sold to foreign nations while decrying the taxes and spending contracts that create that debt.

The national economic statistics are doing fine, though the average American industrial worker is more and more being left out of the loop. Their place is being taken by those making their money on the flow of trade, the financial transactions funding this flow or the services provided to those involved in this flow. The real GOP agenda is to cater to the emotional needs and fears of those unable to cope with the difficult situation around them. Just vote for us and we will take care of everything else.

As long as there is a global flow of goods being advertised and sold at good overall commission rates that can service the stock, bond and financial market needs the system rolls alone. It does require everyone to put most of their wealth into quiescent securities that simply sit unused. The profits of foreign producers and the retirement and investment funds of the American people must all accumulate as computer recorded securities out of daily market activities.

As the economy grows by several percentage points on a huge base of over $10 trillion there isn’t sufficient physical capacity to move that much stuff around the globe. The current consumption needs must be met and everything else moved into as much electronic numbers on computer screens without physical reality as possible. The real GOP agenda is to keep the system going on autopilot as long as possible, and certainly through every next election.

Abstract percentage rates have the power to make everything into pennies on the dollar. The real GOP agenda can remain the same traditional view without noticing the changes the overall totals involved are inflicting upon the Planet and the U.S. population.

Abstract percentage rates are a universal measure that never recognizes any scale. The real GOP agenda is to support the abstract details without ever noticing the total situation. This makes the fundamentalist Christian adherence to the Bible as all they need to notice a perfect fit.

The fundamentalists close their eyes into their Bibles and believe ever more deeply God will take care of all the final results.

The real GOP agenda focuses upon the abstract percentage rates that will make their campaign contributions greater than their opponents.

As the scale of the economy grows, the need to maintain the same percentage growth rates represents vastly expanded actual total production and consumption. In terms of rational management, this gets harder and harder each fiscal quarter. The real GOP agenda demands such tough issues be avoided for standardized slogans and simpler emotional appeals.

The economy has been streamlined for decades into an ever smaller component of actual content in an ever larger proportion of fossil fuel energy, packaging and advertising. Therefore, the real GOP agenda supports those overall interests over anything else. Like the sorcerer’s apprentice we are running an automatic economic machine with only the knowledge that we must keep the meter showing a good percentage rate as it runs.

Already we can see difficulties emerging in every area of our economy and culture. The real GOP agenda seeks to just keep the status quo. It is an automatic system running on autopilot at full speed ahead. There is no reasonable solution—it is just too fast and too furious a situation to allow rational consideration or control.

Today we are in the last months of Pluto in Sagittarius, the Ultimate Commitment to a Clear Channel running at full speed along an open track. Sagittarius is the Centaur archer who loves to run and shoot particular arrows even further along the open track.

The next President will be inaugurated with Pluto having moved on into the sign of Capricorn—Ultimate Commitment to Firm Control. The Sorcerer returns to demand the apprentice account for his actions and stop the madness swirling around.

The real GOP agenda will still be to oppose the national government and support local parochial privilege. In the midst of continuing Hurricane Katrina level storms and infrastructure collapse, drought, fire storms and global terrorism it will surely maintain its emotional appeal to its adherents. They have already specialized in turning away from reality and outside issues to focus upon their emotional needs.

As ever more of the population needs government help to survive these national crises the old campaign slogans and tactics fall on deaf ears. So far, their only unifying theme is "Hillary isn't our kind of people." Since she is just a woman without tight connections to any particular region or background (see the Hillary Rudy campaign duel page) that will not work for the entire rest of the campaign.

Top of real GOP agenda page