144 Party Loyalty

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Democracy is more a sport than a method of rational governance. In fact, people have much more loyalty to a Party than they do to the ideology of the Party, and perversity & spite play a bigger role in politics than either logic or merit, or even self-interest. “Voting the ticket” is Party-speak for this kind of selfish hackery where an otherwise reasonable person will vote for a dog before they will vote for a competent, qualified, and effective candidate from the opposition because the penalty for not following the herd is shunning, and shrill, self-righteous accusations of disloyalty from the Party faithful.</p> <p>This exhibition of mindless devotion is more mystical than rational. A close examination of the people who actually exhibit this behavior is alarming: many Party loyalists find little power in their own lives and so they substitute the collective power of others who are similarly ignored & discounted in real life. All the weaklings, tired of a lifetime of bullying, join together to impose their foolish wills on others by leveraging the power of exploiting the weaknesses of democracy, where small numbers of voters can control the agenda for the large numbers of non-voters. Of course, this description doesn't account for everyone, and if you are part of the wise few who actually treat politics in a rational & logical manner, then when there is no discernible quality difference between competing candidates, support your Party, but when a clearly high-caliber candidate from any Party appears, voting for that person should transcend petty loyalties.</p>