Ruling Oligarchy

Extremists in every national political contest in the U.S. tend to blame their failures on the putative existence of a ruling elite, or oligarchy. This is generally regarded as a crazy conspiracy theory, for the obvious reasons that no such cabal has ever declared its existence, there is no discernible stable pattern of success for either political party, and, most important of all, no rational cabal would ever take the country along the political path it has evidently taken on its own.

In spite of these compelling reasons, the claim of rigged elections, media manipulation, and the regular demonization of the popular will surface from time to time. Furthermore, even though it is not possible to discern a rational motivation in the direction of American politics, it is possible to discern a consistent trend. There is no question that, administration after administration, the scaffolding erected by the founders has been slowly dismantled, the general culture has declined both in character and in intellectual rigor, cronyism has increased, the growth of a nationally imposed regimen of controls (whether through laws, regulations or administrative fiat) has continued unabated (along with the relative size and cost of government) and the growth of a permanent class of those dependent for their existence on government largesse has also continued in spite of temporary reversals.

Other trends have also continued, almost without interruption of any kind. Although the American lifestyle arguably grows in indolence, sterility and pointlessness, that lifestyle is increasingly imposed, either through force of arms or through the more seductive means of International subsidies (including selective bribery and other arm-twisting), primarily (if not solely) funded by the U.S. As a result, American foreign policy is increasingly recognized abroad as destablizing and increasingly recognized domestically as essential to the maintenance of stability. Go figure.

Although there clearly is no rational case for the existence of a rational ruling cabal, there is, perhaps, a case to be made for an irrational ruling cabal. As it is, however, the case for a mindless march of history is much clearer and far more compelling.

It may be observed that the principle thrust of this reflection tends to contradict that to be found in the entry on the Two Party System. Politics, however, is an inherently elusive subject, given that it concerns the behavior of us irrational human beings, so this is perhaps to be expected.