“Liberals want to change the world. Conservatives want to be left alone. Guess who’ll win?” – Billboard in Caldwell, ID.
There is much talk at this time about the Republican Party being “leaderless”. The Obamabots tried to position the Golden Microphone, Rush Limbaugh, as leader of the GOP.
Many elected GOP’ers are trying, to varying degrees, to become leader(s). Some embrace Limbaugh’s call for socialist-leaning Obama to fail; others middle-of-the-road it; others reject his call.
Limbaugh rightly doesn’t care what positions the politicians take. Nobel Laureate James Buchanan aptly developed the “Public Choice Theory” basically showing politicians act according to their own self-interest (read, preservation) while the ethereal “national or public interest” takes a back seat. Actually, there is no such thing as the public interest or the greater good. Only individual interests or goods are real.
Conservatives are terrible joiners. They tend to be self actualized, not needing to identify with groups. Liberals love community.
Republicans are in the party mostly for ego enhancement and power. Conservatives vote and work for Republicans to hopefully promote their personal values. Most of the time, conservatives are very disappointed at Republican results. The three George Bush’s terms are perfect examples.
Republicans don’t often win elections without energizing conservatives. Many Republicans don’t want conservative leaders or candidates.
Thus, Republicans are now leaderless, which is good, and which will win elections.
Here is why. The old organization model of elected Republican leaders deciding matters from the top-down is thankfully gone; destroyed by the 2006 and 2008 elections.
Emerging is a conservative
catallaxy, “[out of chaos] an order without planned ends, characterized by the ‘spontaneous order’ which emerges when individuals pursue their own ends within a framework set by laws and tradition,” as per Nobel Laureate Friedrich A. Hayek. I might add “and technology,” too.
For example, the individuals who started
Top Conservatives On Twitter (#tcot) were among many who called for and offered a clearinghouse for the recent Tea Party protests that occurred in over 50 cities, only six days after the now famous “Rant Heard ‘Round the World” by MSNBC’s financial commentator Rick Santelli. One protester, noting her amazement at the 1400+ turnout, said that conservatives rarely participate in events such as these.
Pretty good! The Tea Party Protests were but the beta test for said conservative catallaxy. This wasn’t a Republican National Committee (RNC) designed program. Only a few elected Republicans pitched in to help and they are generally grassroots-styled conservatives who happened to get elected by surviving the GOP “leadership” gauntlet of candidate selection.
The next beta test for #tcot, et. al. will be the upcoming April 15th Tea Party Protest. Will individuals again pursue their own ends spontaneously?
I was unable to attend a Tea Party Protest but I did participate. I spontaneously stapled a
NOBAMA tag on a tea bag, placed it in a toilet, took a picture and uploaded the photo for other twitter’ers to use. This was my individual contribution to the protest. Again, I did this with no leadership from the Republicans.
Now, multiply my miniscule spontaneous effort by millions and millions. This is the free-market at work in the marketplace of ideas. Good ideas will be shared (an order without planned ends) then “purchased” by millions and millions using such miniscule efforts as currency.
“The average man is both better informed and less corruptible when buying in the marketplace than when voting in political elections,” said another Nobel Laureate Ludwig Von Mises. Need I mention ACORN?
To his credit, newly minted RNC chairman Michael Steele appears to be dusting out the old top-down model of power seeking.
If he focuses on what the RNC can do to contribute to the millions and millions of energetic individuals who are pursuing their own ends, instead of trying to attract millions and millions to join the RNC to further its ends; Steele may find a fountain of eager supporters helping him.
After all, this is the timeless struggle of the individual vs. the collective. Consider the RNC actually siding and demonstrating in its actions that it favors the individual. The liberals love community and obviously community organizers.
Let’s test it again in the marketplace of ideas. Let’s see who purchases the collective. Have faith in the marketplace, not in politics and especially not in political leaders.
The old RNC paradigm was the Republican collective vs. the Democrat collective. Shift it to the individual who happens to vote Republican.
The liberals will be totally exposed and who is going to buy that? ... Rick Santelli, or now, big-time Democrat supporter “Mad Money” Jim Cramer? Remember the protester with the sign reading: “Your mortgage is not my problem.” It encapsulates the individual vs. the collective. Guess who’ll win?
Laird Maxwell is President of the soon-to-be launched University of Conservatives. www.uofcsv.com.
