Ditch the political spectrum

[Jim Ostrowski]

The conventional political spectrum is a misleading, outdated, ideological prison.

It is based on where members of the French Assembly sat in 1803 or thereabouts.

There is no room on it for libertarians so we don't exist, although the Pew poll says nine percent of us are libertarians.

While there are superficial differences between liberals and conservatives, they actually have much in common. They form coalitions to defeat other views and we end up with all the bad stuff of each philosophy: war on drugs, war on poverty, war on cell phones, war on Iraq.

When I look at politics, I see two parties: the populists versus the elitists. That is, those who favor policies that benefit average people versus those who think average people are too stupid to run their own lives and need constant direction from elites.

Another way of looking at the same conflict: elitists favor the centralization of power; populists favor the decentralization of power. Populists are localists; elitists want strangers from distant capitals to rule us.

[crlachepinochet]

That's a pretty useful assessment, but where does "local" stop? There are just so many levels that it's pretty vague: block club, neighborhood group, city, county, state, federal, international...

[DelawareDistrict]

That's a pretty useful assessment, but where does "local" stop? There are just so many levels that it's pretty vague: block club, neighborhood group, city, county, state, federal, international...

A good starting point would be for the federal government to abide by the enumerated powers in the Constitution.

[Jim Ostrowski]

Local stops at the individual. He or she can handle most things. If not, we form a government but at the level of the local organic community and place a heavy burden on those who wish to move functions from the local community on upward to the county, state or federal level.

For example, public schools ran better when they were locally-controlled.

Abolish HUD--the federal government has no business getting involved in housing.

The feds shouldn't be funding local roads either.

The feds should be doing only those things that no lower level of government can do. Let me think for a moment............................................ .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. ....................
I'll get back to you.