We ever search for consistency, don’t we? And we simply refuse to realize that it’s a construct, like a photograph, and just ain’t gonna happen! But we keep trying for it, and in the process, we live in a fictional world with made up past and present pretty much the same, being a product of a made-up past.

If you’re a Republican, you probably hold certain core values that you identify with that party. States’ rights, for example. Or keeping the government out of things, except all commerce that may involve drugs or proscribed entertainment, books, or movies, or whatever . . . sexual things. And of course, that does mean that all commerce is open to search and seizure, and not very good for business, but do you really want to think about that? Nope, let’s not! And you’re the free enterprise party, right?

Well, the Volstead Act was definitely Republican and most definitely not free enterprise, and the Nixon administration had wage price freezes and shakedowns of industry that were reported to the FBI; business friendly? When the Kingfish, Huey Long was in the Senate, a socialist nominally a Democrat, his allies were Midwestern Republicans, themselves socialist or close enough for government work.

The Democrats were once the party of the small freeholder, the people their present-day high councils have been sneeringly calling bourgeoisie for the past four decades. Strom Thurmond in his segregationist days was indeed a Democrat and many elderly yellow-dog Democrats hold similar racial beliefs to those of the younger Thurmond.

So there has been no consistency in policy, so where oh where is my footing? What can I count on?

Mr. Jefferson, having a really good view of this stuff from the outset, spoke of the still ongoing question of public plunder. In that context, he made the following observation:

“They are too numerous to all cuddle in together, so they form two parties, the in’s, and the out’s.”

So there’s your consistency. The two groups compete for power, shifting positions as necessary to appeal to certain groups seeking government help because their views are not generally salable in the marketplace of ideas.

But probably before 2006, the Democrats will go for small business and state’s rights, go for capitalism with a bang, and the Republicans for central control, and something akin to mercantilism. (They will both endeavor to forget that both of them, yes, both, once really believed that communism was “historically inevitable.” They will try even harder to have you forget it, fact is, you probably already have!) Their positions will not be consistent, but the nature of the beast, see above, is remarkably so. Both seek to transfer power from the social to the political, and that is all they do or all they want to do.

Have a great day!