For the fun of it, let us restate (in a different way) the premise of this series of articles: If you are given enough money to solve a problem and you do not solve it, then something needs to change.
The Republican Conservative Industrial Complex has been funded to the tune of billions of dollars over the past several decades and despite that we in a full-blown crisis.
The great minds that populated elected office, think tanks and talk radio, as well as PACs and other organizations all those years have failed miserably to even guarantee legitimate elections.
That’s a pretty big failure.
But their failure does not deter them from doing more of the same while expecting a different result. Nor does it deter their donors who are well-meaning and (can we be frank?) ignorant about what actually wins elections.
How can any of this current reality be possible?
The geniuses getting paid the big bucks in politics should have figured it out by now, but they haven’t. They should be able to figure it out now if they read this series of articles closely. I could make it even simpler for them by laying it out in black and white—but I’m not going to do that. Why?
Because I care about my state and country—and few people currently raising and spending money in the Republican Conservative Industrial Complex (RCIC) have the intellectual or temperamental wherewithal to accomplish what is needed. Most would make things worse. How can I say that?
I used the words “human nature” in the title because the problems in politics are caused by the same dynamic that causes problems in any arena of human endeavor. Mankind is fallen, limited, often corrupt, and susceptible to hubris and other maladies of the soul.
Those maladies are present in the business world too, but there, the profit motive eventually wins out and when changes are needed, changes are made. Failure has an end date.
But not in politics, and not in government.
If I were to lay out the solution in the simplest fashion, the egos and profiteers that run the RCIC would find a way to make it about themselves, or they would seek to increase their profit margins along the same lines they are doing so today and have been for decades.
Personality type makes a big difference when it comes to the effective execution of various projects. And the scale and dynamic of what is necessary in politics is not conducive to satisfying the egos of those seeking to become (on whatever scale they are able) a king in the political world.
That same type of ego might serve a business well. There, success is about quality and efficiency. In politics, the aim is electoral victories which by its very nature disperses credit and limits profiteering.
The needed political solution does not lend itself to easy money and public acclaim for being the smartest person in the room.
Some of the most experienced veterans of the political arena are genetically small thinkers. Since I have not studied psychology enough, I will not attempt to explain why that is the case. From the long list of players, how many political visionaries do you know of in Illinois or in the U.S.?
Usually that small-mindedness is harmless, since those people are not able to do more than just become a small part of the big problem. However, small thinking often limits those with rare and amazing talents from being able to build what is needed to save the state and the country.
Up next: The Failed Ranks of the Republican Conservative Industrial Complex.
The Ground War ongoing series of articles can be found here.
