Words on party loyalty

Thoughtless and uncritical nationalism, especially that practiced by the modern Republican Party, is one of the stupidest ideas I can think of, but party loyalty is certainly up there too. Just as you shouldn't invest much loyalty into your leader, who can turn on you or abuse his or her powers much too easily, neither should you invest much loyalty into a political party. You should stay true to your values, not the party that happens to share those values for the time being.

Political parties are like shoes and loaves of bread, in that while one may be much better suited for hammering a nail, you shouldn't rely on it so much that you forget to dream of one day buying a hammer instead.

It may be argued that party loyalty ensures that a party is successful, and in a way that's true. But political parties, almost invariably, are flawed tools for accomplishing what is right, just as a shoe is a flawed tool for hammering a nail. There's nothing entirely wrong with using a shoe if you don't have a hammer, and neither is it entirely wrong that rational people use the Democratic Party to get the government to do what is right. But while you're at it, don't stay loyal to your shoe: Aspire for a hammer!

I am a registered Democrat because the Democratic Party is the people's shoe and the Republican Party is the people's loaf of bread (a moldy one these days). But the Democratic Party is a shoe, not a hammer. I'm not afraid of breaking away from my fellow Democrats if the party is no longer a good option. If this conservative, Southern, pro-slavery party easily turned into a pro-peace, pro-rights party, it can just as easily turn sour again, just as the anti-slavery party did.

I say all of this in response to this article published on the site for the Wichita Eagle.

The [Kansas] state Republican Party is forming a loyalty committee so that it can punish officers who endorse or contribute to Democrats.

So the party that confuses the executive branch of the government with the very country itself now demands loyalty from its public officials? I wonder how Republicans would react if the Democratic Party pulled this kind of shit.

"Dissension" of the Republican Party "has allowed Democrats to peel away disaffected moderates", so the Kansas Republican Party is "attempting to strengthen the party's state organization and the loyalty committee is a way to promote unity". But I think — hope — it will accomplish just the opposite.

Bob Beatty, a Washburn University political scientist, suggested the loyalty committee could prove a "public relations disaster."

"Ironically, it smacks most of the Communist Party," Beatty said Monday. "That's the kind of public irony that most parties try to avoid -- the party of freedom telling people they have no freedom."

A comparison between the Republican Party and the communist parties of the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, and other countries, is surprisingly apt. Isn't it commonly thought that communists, just like war-mongering Republicans, demand loyalty to the nation's leader? Isn't it true that communist parties demand loyalty, just like the the Kansas Republican Party seems to want of its government officials? Would the Democratic Party not be criticized as a bunch of communists if it were to do this too?

Kobach said state GOP organizations in at least 15 other states have some method for stripping party leaders of their offices for disloyalty. For example, in Arkansas the state committee appoints three-member committees to investigate complaints if someone fails to perform party duties or is "working against the interests" of the GOP.

So other state Republican Parties are doing the same thing. And I wouldn't be too surprised if Democrats are doing it too. But let's not all jump off the bridge.

But the concept of a loyalty committee still makes some Republicans nervous, even if they agree party officers should not endorse or contribute to Democrats.

"It gives me pause for thought anytime someone requires a loyalty oath of anyone from any organization," said Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh. "I'm somewhat uncomfortable with a group sitting in judgment of other members."

I'd like to see more people like Thornburgh. I would love it if Republicans regained their conscience.

Andy Wollen, president of the Kansas Traditional Republican Majority, a moderate group, mused about the GOP creating a "grand high inquisitor."

"When you hear the term loyalty committee, what runs through your mind?" he said. "Joseph McCarthy. George Orwell."

Josef Stalin and the Communist Party of China too, I'm sure.

This is all for now. Expect an in-depth blog entry about how Republicans are like communists in the future.

— Athelwulf