The politics of Western democracies tend towards being dominated by extremists and it is possible that American politics are the most dominated by extremists. The structure of American democracy with the primary system of choosing candidates exposes the influence of extremists and the reason why they are so influential. Most people are politically moderate, if this was not true the human race would have destroyed itself by now. Most of our problems are caused by the minority of us who are extremists and solving the problem of extremism is almost the whole of solving the problem of politics. Given that extremists are in the minority simply giving equal importance to each individual’s opinion would be enough to eliminate the extremist threat. On the surface modern Western democracy gives equal influence to each opinion by assigning one vote to each individual. Yet the problem is not solved, extremists continue to plague the moderate majority. The reason is simple and exposed by the American primary system, the extremists are the minority of people but the majority of people willing to spend time and money on politics. It is as simple as that. We all have one vote but we are unequal in our interest in politics and our willingness to spend time and money seeking political change. The majority have moderate opinions which would lead to peaceful relations across all groups but the minority of extremists ends up in charge because they spend the time and money to be in charge.
This pattern is exposed by the American primary system. Fewer people vote in primaries than elections. The people who vote in primaries are more politically extreme than average, this has been proven in every way possible. Opinion surveys, demographic and statistical data, all the work has been put in. The more politically extreme a person is the more likely they are to vote. So the lower the total turnout the higher the percentage of extremists voters. Primaries have lower turnouts then elections and so the voters who do turnout are more extreme. The politicians they choose are more extreme than the average American, this helps no one including the extremists. As this tendency affects both parties whatever advantage the extremists of one party think they gain by voting in their fellows into power are balanced by the other parties extremists doing the same. The net effect is stalemate.
I wish this was the end of it. There is a clear pattern that political extremists are more likely to spend time on politics than moderates. This is shown in how caucuses vote in more extreme candidates than primaries. The caucus voting system is more time consuming than the primary system, it takes much longer and so only the more extreme voters are willing to take the time. So the relationship between extremism and time spent is clear and well documented in every way possible. But who spends more time on politics than a politician? The trend affects this as well. The people most likely to work full time at politics the most extreme people. This is the curse of the democratic system, the interests of the moderate majority get sacrificed for the interests of the extreme few. As the extreme few on each end of the spectrum dominate the net effect is stalemate. Politics is an ugly business because it is done by ugly people, not because government administration is an ugly thing. Without extremism political service is a beautiful thing, it is the tendency of the most extreme controlling the political sphere that makes these things ugly.
Time would likely be enough to keep the extremists in control. They are the ones spending the most time on politics, of course they will be in charge. But it’s worse than that because they are also the ones spending the most money on politics. The numbers are in, this has been analyzed to death. The more extreme one’s politics the more likely one is to donate to politicians and parties. Politicians and parties cannot operate without money. This is a survival issue. The politician and party without extremist support is the politician and party that disappears. Most of the money in the American political system is donated by people whose politics are on the fringe and want to use their money to overrule the moderate majority. If you cannot appeal to these people you cannot operate in the political sphere. Once again the extremists win and the moderate majority loses. If it wasn’t like this the majority wouldn’t hate politics so much, and the extremists wouldn’t love it so much. The system favors the extremist in a world where most are moderate, this is the tragedy of democratic politics.
But the system is still based on one man one vote. The moderates are still the majority. The politicians and their staff, both paid and volunteers, are extremists. Only extremism motivates one to spend time on politics and so not only the politicians but their staffers and advisors are extremists as well. But the moderates are still the majority of voters and though they get lazy and tend to avoid primaries they do show up for general elections. You still need their votes no matter how many extremist donations of time and money you benefit from. This leads to horse and rider politics, all the politicians are extremists and to succeed they need to appeal to extremist financial donors. But they need more than that, a successful politician is an extremist who successfully gets the support of moderates. They have to, the extremists are too few in number. All politicians are extremists, all successful politicians have found a way to appeal to the moderate majority, otherwise they would not be successful. This is the horse and rider system. The extremists are the rider directing the horse, the successful politician is the extremist directing the moderates. Any politician who does not succeed at the horse and rider system simply does not succeed at all in western democracy. Human nature makes moderates the majority. The system makes the politicians extremists. This combines to produce the horse and rider system, the successful politicians find a hook to get the moderates interested enough to vote them into power in the general election.
What both the Democrats and Republicans have in common is they don’t believe culture is the answer to our problems. It is, culture influences success and success is the real cure for poverty. Some will always need assistance, this is inevitable. Services need to be provided as a right not a privilege, health care needs to paid for by the government for all. But the real cure for poverty is a positive influence from culture and government cannot provide this. One of the services government must provide is policing, but the most important method for reducing crime is a culture that promotes morals, again this is something government cannot do. In such a diverse country we need peace between groups, once again this is something the government cannot provide. Our greatest needs are things we need to give ourselves and government cannot provide. The moderate majority understands this, the extremists do not.
On one hand the extremist Democrats want government to be the cure for everything. They have faith this will work as they have convinced themselves all of Europe’s success is due to government programs and none to European culture. Third world immigration to Europe disproves this, they have access to the same government programs and do not succeed. But intellectual change is generational as few people change their beliefs after the age of thirty. The extremism of the extreme Democrat is excessive focus on the importance of government programs and a deep misunderstanding of European realities leading to a false idealization. But extremists are always few in number, to win elections the extremist Democrats need a hook. They have one, they claim they will solve Black poverty, the signal problem of our country. This hook of claiming government programs will cure Black poverty obviously gets them the Black vote and as Latinx immigration has turned them into a junior version of America’s signal problem it gets them the Latinx vote. But more importantly it gets them the vote of anyone who wants to vote in favor of sympathy, in favor of showing concern for the unfortunate. The moderate majority supports this as they should. The unfortunate deserve sympathy and concern and efforts on their behalf. The majority understands this and the Democrats use this as the hook to become the rider and the moderate majority the horse.
Extremists Republicans share the same problem as Democrats, they refuse to admit the importance of culture. The real source of America’s wealth is American Culture. The real source is not the free market or Lazy Fairy economics, it is American culture. The same can be said for any successful country. Asia is successful because of Asian culture, Europe is successful because of European culture. All unsuccessful countries are unsuccessful because of their cultures as well. But extremist Republicans want to deny due credit and give it instead to Lazy Fairy economics or less overtly, to the Protestant religion. To a lesser degree the Republicans also base their ideas on a misunderstanding of the European example. Ethnically similar European countries split between Catholicism have similar incomes because it is the culture transmitted by ethnicity that matters and not the religious split within Christianity. It is also Western Civilization in general which makes western countries successful and not Lazy Fairy economics. The US forced Lazy Fairy economics on Iraq during the military occupation and it did no magic. Because it has no magic, success comes from hard work and sound decision making.
The moderate majority understands the real basis of success and so can never agree with the extremist Republican version of life. But the Republicans have a hook, the cult of Lazy Fairy economics appears to give middle class whites a protection against footing the bill for unsuccessful cultures. Blacks and Latinx make 30% less then average, the Democrats want to fix this with expensive government programs. Every moderate knows this won’t work as the problem is cultural. But the Democrat party, like all parties, is run by extremists and they are blind to reality. Knowing these programs won’t cure Black and Latinx poverty the white middle class fears being stuck with the bill of subsidizing these races into average incomes. This is the Republican parties hook for getting votes from the moderate majority, they use their cult of the Lazy Fairy to win over moderates who hope this cult will protect them from footing the bill for the unsuccessful cultures of the world.
Both parties are run by deluded extremists. No sensible person should show loyalty to any party as none deserves it. Both parties successfully hook voters from the moderate majority into voting for them through either claiming government can do more that it truly can or claiming government should shirk its true duties. The Democrat belief that government can cure cultural problems is deluded. The Republican blocking of morally necessary government programs such as free health care is shameful. Both these problems have the same cause, the parties are run by extremists. There is only one solution, a party run by the moderate majority for the moderate majority. One way this could happen is for the moderates to put as much time and energy into politics as the extremists. I don’t think this will ever happen. If it could happen it would have already. I think the true answer is for the positions of the extremists to become so intellectually exposed that they can no longer be supported. Third world immigration to Europe proves that it is European culture that matters most and not European government programs. This must be exposed. Countless examples prove that Lazy Fairy economics is a fraud and the Republicans need to be exposed for shunning moral duties to the unfortunate for the sake of a fantasy. Once the intellectual failure of the ideas of the extremists is exposed the extremists themselves will be exposed and the moderates finally have a chance to turn their numbers into real power. This will only happen when the influence of culture on success is acknowledged. Acknowledgement explodes the system. Acknowledging the influence of success explodes the extremism of both the Democrats and the Republicans, this is the thing that will finally set the moderate majority free.