OPINION — As the Republicans and Democrats continue their journey towards all-out political warfare, I was happy to see a small ray of hope appear on the horizon this past week.

It came in the form of Jacob Hornberger, a constitutional attorney and founder of the Future of Freedom Foundation, announcing that he will run for president in 2020 on the Libertarian Party ticket. I’ve followed Hornberger for many years and can vouch for the consistency and soundness of his principles.

He is one of the most effective voices in our time when it comes to making the case for a free society and exposing the destructive folly of our current two-party collectivism.

Having said this, I don’t believe for a minute that an authentically principled candidate like Hornberger has a realistic chance of winning the presidency.

Too many people have a vested interest in holding on to their power by maintaining the status quo. This is true on both sides of the aisle and at all levels of politics.

Those who are in thrall to the siren song of partisan politics recognize this tendency to place power above principle—even if they only tend to see it in their opponents. All the posturing about which candidate or party is to blame never seems to allow for acknowledgement of how corrupted the entire system has become.

Jeffery C. Tucker, writing about the current impeachment political passion play, doesn’t mince words:

Finally, here is the core of what everyone knows. Everyone knows that the real-life business of government is shady, backstabbing, underhanded, duplicitous, dogs-eating-dogs, and fundamentally rotten. Both sides. All sides.

There’s also the the challenge of breaking through the multi-generational conditioning which has produced a type of Stockholm syndrome on an unprecedented scale throughout the American public. We are not a nation of free men and women who are in the habit of thinking clearly and independently about who or what is deserving of our consent.

None of this will change with placing a different name and face in a particular political office.

It’s essential that we understand clearly that, no matter who is elected next year, the nature of our problems aren’t going to change from the top down. Mass movements thrive on rousing promises of instant solutions.

Politicians take advantage of this naiveté by saying whatever they must say to gain our votes and doing whatever they must do to secure the donations they need to fund their campaigns.

That’s not likely to change in the next year.

Once they’re in safely in power, the promises to the voters are forgotten and business as usual resumes. Then, it’s just a matter of keeping their voting bases whipped up against the opposition party until the next election.

This is why our problems are never solved and often exacerbated by those in power.

The silver lining of Hornberger’s candidacy is that there will be an alternative voice, however small, to the oracles of establishment dogma. People who are seeking truth and light will have a source.

Though these seekers might be a tiny minority, compared to the masses, they will play an indispensable role in providing genuine solutions that elected officials cannot. The dirty little secret that savvy politicians will never tell us is that we are better problem solvers than they are.

If you’re serious about freeing yourself from the quicksand of politics, it may be time to give some serious thought to a concept espoused by Albert J. Nock in “Our Enemy, the State”:

“There’s only one way to improve society. Present it with a single improved unit: yourself.”

This is an idea that is wholly at odds with the prevailing school of political thought today. So much of our public policy is premised on the notion that people—other people—can be improved through the application of focused government force.

As long as that force is being directed at someone else, many of us have no problem with supporting laws, statutes and policies that are immoral and destructive to our freedoms.

Nock understood that outsourcing to government activism what should be duty of voluntarily engaged individuals, results in, “an increase of State power and a corresponding decrease of social power.”

He didn’t advocate for no government at all, but insisted that government interference:

“on the individual should be purely negative in character. It should attend to national defense, safeguard the individual in his civil rights, maintain outward order and decency, enforce the obligations of contract, punish crimes belonging in the order of malum in se [evil in itself, e.g., murder, theft] and make justice cheap and easily available.”

Resisting the urge to reform everyone else rather than ourselves is not easy. But the power of example is real and those who are working hardest on improving themselves will see real improvement in the world around them.

They’ll also quickly recognize that they don’t need what most politicians are selling.

Bryan Hyde is an opinion columnist. The views expressed here are his own and may or may not be representative of the views of Southern Utah Now.

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