POE

There are surely many other possible acronyms and many possible names for the Party of Empire. That we should end up with an acronym like POE is perhaps coincidental. We could not reasonably call its platform poetic, though we might consider its ideological underpinnings manifestly macabre.

In truth, it is not clear that it has an official structure, like most parties do, but may exist purely as an abstraction of important phenomena or as an hypothesis advanced in an attempt to explain the otherwise inexplicable.

First we should note that the Party of Empire is an international phenomenon, albeit centered in the U.S., Canada and Europe. It borrows from the imperialist tendencies that have plagued these nations over the centuries. One such movement in the U.S. came to be known as "Manifest Destiny", and justified the adventurism that led to marginalizing the Native American populations and cultures as well as contesting and eventually conquering territories initially held by Britain, France or Spain. Another such movement, this one in the British Empire, came to be known as "the White Man's Burden", thanks to the poem by that name written by Rudyard Kipling to characterize 19th century Euro-centric racism. The former movement is reflective of the hubris of the nakedly power hungry while the latter is more reflective of the hubris of the elitist mind.

These two movements survive in a somewhat altered form today. The first has become a tendency for the U.S. to see itself as the world's policing authority. This movement has been given the name of neo-conservatism. On the surface, this movement appears to be nationalist, but it's clearly subordinated to supra-nationalist objectives. This reality becomes most visible when three features are noted: (1) establishing "internationally correct" rules of engagement for military forces engaged in "policing" operations, (2) avoiding giving offense in stated strategic objectives and (3) intervening militarily even when there is no clear advantage specific to U.S. interests.

The second has become a tendency for the so-called democracies of the world to spread the Gospel of secularism throughout the world, especially with respect to the management of sexuality (including sexual behavior, reproduction and fertility control &mdash; or the lack, thereof &mdash; willed gender identity and willed gender symmetry), end-of-life management (especially in euthanasia and abortion), the replacement of natural law by a more controllable system of positive law and a gradual increase of supersidiarity in all spheres of human activity. This movement has been given the name of secular humanism and has also been called progressivism. On the surface, this movement appears to be motivated by compassion for the unwashed masses, but it is, in reality, a kind of faux compassion focused less on the dignity of individuals that make up the masses and more on material needs.

As it happens, of course, the great majority of neo-conservatives began as progressives and remain progressive in their thinking about human issues. Indeed, it's arguably the case that an American dominated international police force is merely a temporary position for a more international Party of Empire.

The specifically American instantiation of this Party of Empire is actually called by the name of the Two Party System. It's an example of a Ruling Oligarchy. Indeed, both the neo-conservative and progressive movements agree on a surprising number of policies, including (1) favoring national police power above personal freedom, as evidenced in the popularity of the misnamed Patriot Act, (2) favoring socially liberal causes, such as same-sex marriage, unfettered abortion and even federal subsidies for them, federally centralized health care management, federally centralized education management, (3) advancing the objectives of International Planned Parenthood in our foreign policy, (4) an increase in the power of the executive and judicial branches at the expense of the legislative branch, (5) interpreting the Constitution as a "living document" which is malleable for neo-conservative/progressive purposes, (6) increasing the flow of immigration (both legal and illegal) into this country to ensure lower wages (both in menial and in technical jobs) and votes for Democrats, (7) entering into multi-lateral trade deals to be managed by supra-national ruling bodies, (8) employing legislative tactics that favor massive omnibus bills with short review cycles and, in some instances, restricted review cycles, thereby minimizing public visibility and review, (9) favoring campaign tactics and debate venues that minimize the discussion of policy issues in favor of emotionally charged sound bites.