As IF Times

In case no one has noticed, politics is big business. But it wasn’t always this way. Before the big change in 1776, the world was run pretty much the way it’s always been run. Small groups of rulers and oligarchs made the laws and everyone just went along with the edicts from on high. They could pretty much do as they wished to make themselves and their families comfortable.  Their fortunes were dependant on the masses paying taxes to support their lifestyles.  Failure to comply with official edicts meant that you would be visited by humorless enforcers of the realm and all sorts of unpleasant things would happen to you and your family.

This worked pretty well for the ruling classes for centuries, until some breakaway pilgrims in the lands of the new world, which would eventually become America, expressed dissatisfaction with the way things were run and decided to band together and revolt against the overlords in England.  As you’d expect, the Brits, at the time the most powerful military force in the world, dispatched some troops to quell the knaves who dared to protest their rule.

This didn’t end well for the Brits, as the upstart colonies beat back the world’s mightiest military force and the ensuing war founded the first democracy styled nation in history. Why did the Americans win?  In my opinion, it was not only to protect their families but more importantly to protect a principle; that men should have a say in how laws govern them.  The soldiers of England were just hired conscripts who just did as they were ordered.

Thus began the new tradition of nations that were created to be governed by people who represented the interests of their constituency rather than by regal decree. In the beginning, these positions were voluntary and hence the label of ‘honorable’ was conferred upon such representatives, since no pay was involved.  How quaint.

Fast forward several hundred years and the model of representative government became more and more widespread as the powers of existing monarchies and kingdoms declined.  To this day, some form of representative government is seen as the type most favored in what are considered to be free nations.  We know this because there is a constant influx of people trying to get into these nations from those that are more authoritarian.

A funny thing happened on the way to democracy though.  As nations became wealthier and populations grew, so did the size of the institutions required to manage the affairs of the state.  As people became wealthier, their immediate existential needs fell to the background and thus there was less urgency to have responsible representation.  Gradually, political office transformed from being a responsible civic service, to becoming a viable vocation in and of itself.  People with no real life skills were able to get into political office to make decisions that adversely affected possibly millions of constituents, even as fewer and fewer people bothered to vote. There are countless examples of such individuals in the world today, but in the US, people such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Cortez come to mind.

The other aspect which aids in the corruption of the political process is the professional politician’s powerful tool of choice: polls.  Apart from hyperbole, polls are the most important tool in the arsenal of modern politicians.  Regardless of the politician’s actual position on a topic, the tool by which they get elected, is always polls.  Thus, their fortunes are guided by what the pollsters reveal from the public on any given issue.  The classic situation is the famous John Kerry line about “…“I actually did vote for the $87 Billion before I voted against it…” Thus they simply tack against whichever way the winds of social opinion blows.  It’s not well known that the expression, ‘flip flop’, was coined in honor of Kerry.  Possibly the only person in recent experience who presented policy without regard to polls, is Donald Trump.  Otherwise, virtually all politicians will measure public opinion before stating a position.

But the main objective of poll usage is to get into office.  Once in office, it’s clear sailing because they would generally be free to do whatever they wanted for their term. Suddenly their views of what’s appropriate for the populace overrides anything they may have said to get elected.  It’s as if you ordered a rib eye steak at a restaurant but they served you quinoa and goat bladder instead; because according to their views, it’s better for you.  Deal with it.

Far gone are the days of dutiful public service.  Politics is now a legitimate career choice with paid compensation well above real work in the private sector.  Not only are they paid well, they can vote themselves increases at will and can live in palatial homes paid for by the public.   They can do pretty much what they want to make themselves and their colleagues comfortable.  Edicts and laws are passed regardless of the impact on their subjects.  Failure to comply with official edicts meant that you would be visited by humorless enforcers of the realm and all sorts of unpleasant things would happen to you and your family.

Why does that sound familiar?

Who doesn’t despise politicians? It’s a profession as ancient as the “oldest” one and the similarities are quite striking. They both claim to make your life better; they tell you things you want to hear; but in reality, they both cost you money and in many cases, you’re actually worse off.  In reality, the true purpose of both of their jobs is to get you to use them again.

Nothing has changed much in our lifetime except that the compensation for being in the political racket has vastly outpaced the compensation from the more pedestrian ‘oldest’ profession. In fact the ability to enrich themselves is quite a remarkable skill since politicians are able to parlay somewhat nominal salaries into improbable fortunes during their terms.  They all seem to have miraculous money management skills; at least personally.

In practice, politicians come and go, at least in so-called democracies. The premise is that if the citizens are not amused with the activities of the incumbents, they get tossed out at the next election; provided of course that they actually hold an election.

If only it were that simple.  What politicians leave behind, even as they leave the active theater of politics are often an enormous legacy of bureaucrats that continue to operate without controls.  People who populate bureaucracies are fully aware that once a trajectory has been initiated on a program, then it becomes almost impossible to stop, even with changing political faces.

Bureaucracies have become effectively a fifth column. While ostensibly created to facilitate the wishes of politicians, with time, they become their own arm of influence, not accountable to the electorate.  This reality was brought into stark focus recently with the revelations of the expenditures of USAID, an organization created to “spread American goodwill”. There’s more than enough discussion of disclosures involving their expenditures over the decades in previous articles and elsewhere, so no need to enumerate them here.

Bureaucracies are a social and economic malaise that infects all nations of course.  In the possibly future 51^st state of Canada, the growth of public sector employees between 2019 and 2023 grew by 13 percent; 3.6 times the growth in the private sector. These kinds of bureaucracies serve to make life difficult for those having to deal with them.  Think the motor vehicle licensing station on a super scale.

But the activities of another more dangerous bureaucracy has revealed itself recently and that is the European Union.  Some may be aware that originally this body was formed to look after the economic interests of the nations within the European Union.  The main purpose was to ensure economic activities passed smoothly between nations and to create internal rules for such.  How big need this body be?  Each nation sends a few reps and you get some accountants to work the numbers.  That would seem logical.  But in a recent interview with Viktor Orban, the president of Hungary, he revealed that the EU bureaucracy now numbers over 30,000 employees.  So for each of the 27 nations represented in the EU, that amounts to over 1100 bureaucrats per nation. As an aside, the number of employees estimated at another world bureaucracy, the UN, numbers over 133,000.

Well you may say, it’s Europe, they love their bureaucracies, their holidays and their social systems, so it’s no big deal.  Of course, we can accept that, since they can spend their money as they wish.

Of more sinister issue is that the EU have expanded their area of influence to dictating policies to their member states that have nothing to do with trade, or that  involves non-members such as Ukraine.  Suddenly, the unelected bureaucrats are now directing political and military policies as well. Thus, rather than permitting member nations to retain their own identity, they are all being forced to comply with edicts issued by the unelected tyrannical bureaucrats effectively removing nations’ constituents from decision making.  This was starkly demonstrated recently when they decided to suspend Hungary’s voting privileges for reasons of ‘solidarity’; ironically supposedly fighting for European democracy.  They have confused themselves with NATO.

Suddenly, an organization that was formed to police agricultural and marketing policies internally are now mandating military expenditures to fight the imminent existential threat of Russia! The EU, a trade organization, has been allowed to morph into a political entity not beholden to the wishes of their own member nations.

As we’ve observed here in the US, the taking back of power and influence from entrenched bureaucracy will not be easy. The structures took generations to build and they cannot be dismantled without severe pushback from entrenched interests. We’ve seen the image of Musk wielding a chainsaw to this monstrosity in the US to the horror of bureaucratic beneficiaries.  It would appear that a bit of horror is needed at the EU.