Congress is Beyond Parties

Factions Dominate, Wiki Lies

Update: I removed comments on this essay until I receive clarification as to the confusion of the essay below. Factions play a role in politics beyond political parties.

When the issue is Federal politics, people rely too much on television to tell them what is going on. The problems the United States faces are dire. The Federal Government was only designed to handle a few things and not everyone’s personal problems. However, since the beginning of the 21 century, the United States has expanded expenses at an alarming rate, no matter which party is in charge of the House.

Right now, the US Federal debt exceeds the Gross Domestic Product by several trillion dollars (usdebtclock.org). This means any debt reduction will take a decade or more to reduce the debt or it will require austerity measures or inflation will expand. In the meantime, the debt cannibalizes economic prosperity.

The latest kerfuffle in Congress is the result but it is poorly understood. I often am accused of taking a “libertine” or Libertarian viewpoint, but such allegations ignore the origins of the Libertarian Party. Economics was the main concern as President Nixon took the US off the gold standard and supported price controls (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Libertarian_Party_%28United_States%29). These economic discussions are still highly relevant today, with or without the Libertarian Party but most people are functionally illiterate about economics. At the same time, the politics at the Federal level has changed drastically.

The Freedom Caucus is not a bunch of ragtag anarchists. They realize the Federal government has too much-concentrated power and such power needs to be returned to the states. They are flustered by the composition of the House of Representatives.

“But Andrew! The Republicans took the House! It is all good!”. Sorry, my delusional friends, but the political parties are largely ineffective because factions now rule Congress. President George Washington, in his Farewell Address, warned about factions. Congress use to make a point of reading the address out loud in Congress but this has not been done since 1979 (https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1951-2000/The-reading-of-George-Washington-s-Farewell-Address-on-the-House-Floor/)

The factions have many ideas and they are coming into conflict (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_caucus). Mainstreet Republicans are basically conservatives Democrats. The result is excessive spending and conflict.

Congressman Don Bacon is part of the Mainstreet Caucus (https://bacon.house.gov/mainstreetcaucus/). This issue is so contentious, in the process of writing this, “Mainstreet Caucus” magically vanished and was replaced with Republican Study Committee on Wikipedia. I guess ” Main Street” sounded too nice to some progressive. Talk about taking sides!

Now, you see the battle freedom fighters actually have to fight. It clearly is not about political parties on the Federal level. This is why during the primary season, you are better off giving funds to Club for Growth (https://www.clubforgrowth.org/) and the Senate Conservatives Fund (https://www.senateconservatives.com/). If you want to give money to national Republican party organizations, wait for the general election.