Main Currents in American Poli
The spectrum of American Political thought is not wholly original nor is it very diverse. American political thought occupies an area dedicated to centralist, broad-based political unity on the political spectrum. Therefore, this paper is divided into two main sections. The first section will cover the ideologies that are discussed in Nancy Love's book Understanding Dogma's and Dreams, and those ideologies we discussed in class. The second section is a survey of the most important political shifts in politics since the colonial period. As comprehensive detail was not the goal of this paper detail is apparent perhaps only in the ideology section and in the specific time periods addressed. To begin, communal anarchism rests on the belief that humans can live together cooperatively in a non-authoritarian society. As of criticism at existing society, communal anarchism denies that the state rests on any moral or natural law. Instead, anarchists like Emma Goldman say that the state uses coercion to sustain its laws, and therefore is opposed to nature. Communal anarchists further state that taxation and conscription violate citizen's rights to property and liberty. They believe the state is the problem with so
Thad Tecza as the pre-curser or beginnings of communal anarchism describes Communism. Karl Marx and F. Engels are the principle theorists of communism as they wrote the actual readers guide to communism, the Marx-Engels Reader. Marx based his belief that workers who provided the necessary labor for the owners, who did not have to work, but rather benefited from the workers' output. Marx argued that the most fundamental fact of human existence is labor; People must work to survive. Therefore, that the owners of the means of production do not work and must manipulate the workers output to thrive. For Marx, the problem with Capitalism is that workers are exploited for their labor and left worse off than the owners of production. Given that, the essence of communism is a managed economy where the government controls production and distribution of goods, to equalize the condition of humans and eliminate classes. "From each, according to ability, to each according to need." Marx developed his communist theory because of the evils he perceived capitalism brought on to the proletarian. Because of the fact that capitalism creates a surplus, Marx believed the cost was misery, alienation, and suffering. According to Marx, because a surplus of labor exists in capitalism, wages are constantly driven down to subsistence levels, which result in suffering. Capitalism produces alienation because of the fact that workers are separated from the product of their labor. Additionally, they are placed apart from other humans because people are merely competitors against one another. The collapse of the Soviet Union is a vindication of Marxist-Communism because the Soviet Union lacked the essential base of a technological society. No country, for that matter, has had Marxist-Communist because Marx advocated a worldwide system. Although communism is vehemently denounced in America as Utopian and against human nature, communism has had brief popular stints in American History. The final stop on the political spectrum is individualistic anarchism. This ideology covets competition in capitalistic society because the competitive nature brings humans to more productive levels. Individual Anarchism is based on Social Darwinism's claim of adaptability. The members of a society who are most adaptable or most adapted have the best chance of successful competing against others. These people also have the best chance to reproduce and pass along the favorable characteristics to their offspring. Because individualistic anarchism implies the absence of an organized government people must use their good judgment to make good decisions. Love says, "Rational persuasion takes the place of legal codes." Therefore, violence and strength are not inherent to individualistic anarchism because people are governed by their reason. Individual anarchism is opposed to democracy because the masses in a democracy are the mediocre people in the society who enact laws to limit competition between members of the society. Thereby, the masses actually restrict the few through laws to equalize the difference in humans. This political theory is popular with Randy Weaver, of Ruby Ridge fame, Ayn Rand, and Henry David Thoreau. The next major issue in American politics comes from the populist and grange movement in the American South and West. The rapid expansion of big business following the Civil War led to many inequalities of wealth, and inhuman working conditions for immigrants and other workers in the cities. The populist and grange movement were opposed to big business because, unregulated, it could subjugated ordinary citizens by keeping wages and prices low. For example, farmers who shipped their goods to market in a large city needed railroads to do it. However, there may only be one railroad that has access to the respective farm, and therefore could set the price at any level they wanted. The railroad companies used this exclusive mark
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