Necessity of Christian Separatism - Is it Defeatism?

Defeatism, let us say, is the belief that one cannot win the game one is playing. If there is only one game, then defeatism is wrong because no alternative exists except playing that game to win. But if there are two games, then defeatism may consist in continuing to play the game with rules designed to keep you from winning. Instead, you can play another game with different rules, and by playing that game, you may have a real chance to win.

EXile advocates leaving the game of modern politics. What are the decisive factors, the key rules, in playing the game of modern politics? Being the candidate who best represents the will of an informed citizenry? Nobody believes that any more, or, more remarkably, even says it anymore. The decisive factor is money, which buys television, and media support. Nothing else really matters.

Since the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration, the federal government has stolen more and more political power away from the State and local governments. Prior to FDR, our federal or national government was unique because it was a limited government, whose power was confined to a definite, limited number of areas set forth in the United States Constitution.

Since FDR, our federal government has become an unlimited government, allowing State and local governments to exercise control over citizens only in those areas federal power brokers deem unimportant. Federal judges have facilitated this power shift, in violation of the Constitution and their sworn oath to uphold it. But then, to an atheist, an oath ("so help me God") is meaningless.

This concentration of political power in the hands of the federal government means that the only elections that can change government policies are federal elections. Whether you choose to live in New York State or North Dakota, your state and local government elections do little more than nominate the custodians of funds and powers delegated by the federal government. Since only the federal government wields real political power, federal elections are the only ones that really count.

Federal candidates for election are authorized to accept campaign contribution money from anyone, anywhere. The limits on contributing money are technical, but not real. Anyone intent on buying political power can bundle large sums of campaign contributions to candidates ("hard money"), contribute unlimited amounts to parties ("soft money") or just plain lobby Congress ("money"). In the 2000 election year, total money raised by Senate candidates was $438 million. House candidates raised $594 million. Bush and Gore raised a total of $325 million. For one year of federal campaigning, that's $1.36 billion. [1]

Most people don't just give money away; if they pay someone, they usually get something for it. In this case, it is the federal government that has been bought and paid for, and it responds by serving the interests of those who bribe it.

Candidates with limited funds, who aren't for sale, representing average citizens who can contribute at most $100.00, can't compete in this federal campaign environment, which is, again, the only one that counts.

Almost all those campaign contributions go toward buying one commodity - television. Television has the power to control people's minds, and therefore, how they vote, and therefore, elections.

It is hard to build a democracy populated by educated, informed, caring citizens who read and think. Maybe for a while we were close to realizing that ideal. Now, nobody believes we're anywhere near. But tyrants have always had a vested interest in populating their nation with ignorant, uninformed and apathetic citizens. Propagandizing an ignorant citizenry is easy. The dumbing down of our citizenry has been quick and effortless.

The atheist elites have conquered our people with television. Unlike films, television is ubiquitous. Televisions are in waiting rooms, the hospital room, the motel room, and most of all our living rooms. Television is the pathway into our homes for the enemy's propaganda. Television has displaced books and games of wit and has become our primary if not only leisurely pursuit.

Six media conglomerates control television programming. They are Disney/ABC/ESPN (Michael Eisner, CEO), AOL/Time-Warner/HBO/CNN (Steve Case, Chairman/Gerald Levin, CEO), Viacom/CBS/Paramount (Sumner Rothstein a/k/a Sumner Redstone, CEO, Mel Karmazin COO); NBC/MSNBC/CNBC (Andrew Lack, President), Universal Studios/USA Network (Edgar Bronfman, Jr./Barry Diller CEOs) and News Corporation/FOX (Rupert Murdoch, Chairman/Peter Chernin, CEO of Fox Group). Five out of the six conglomerates are headed by non-Christians; Murdoch is the only exception (Could this be why Murdoch is so "controversial"?) Control of television programming for all six lies in the hands of non-Christians.

Television wins elections in two ways. First, television is the medium by which emotionally powerful imagery supporting a particular candidate is introduced into the minds of the people. That is, for a large price, paid for by the candidate's "contributors." Second, the television industry, the "news media," use television to broadly and intensively propagandize the people with its own viewpoints which are overwhelmingly anti-Christian. The media make it impossible for any earnest Christian political candidate to be fairly depicted to the people.

Witness what happened to Patrick Buchanan in 1996 after he won the New Hampshire primary. Buchanan raised approximately 20 million dollars during his 1996 presidential campaign - barely enough to run a national presidential campaign, but for a Christian outsider, a substantial sum. He had won three out of the first four caucuses or primary elections (Alaska, Louisiana, and New Hampshire), and came in a very close second in the fourth (Iowa). But after winning the New Hampshire primary, Buchanan was targeted by the media. Two weekly news magazines had menacing photos of Buchanan on their covers. Television news programs repeated over and over again that he was "an extremist." Newspaper editorials denounced him. Disney/ABC/Capital Cities' "Nightline" program opined that Buchanan's "extremist" politics were a product of his Roman Catholicism - complete with televised images of the veneration of graven statuary.

Given time, Buchanan might have survived the media onslaught. But political elites had scheduled eleven major primary elections simultaneously on "Super Tuesday," three weeks after Buchanan's New Hampshire victory. The media's attack was perfectly timed. Moreover, the simultaneity of those primary elections meant that television - and therefore money - would be the decisive key to winning. [2] Traditional campaigning, Buchanan's forte, wouldn't work, because one can't personally campaign in eleven states at the same time. As Buchanan's funds lagged due to the tremendous media assault, and his opponents' funds swelled with enemy contributions, Buchanan lost the delegate-rich "Super Tuesday" primaries. And since the primaries were designed to be "winner take all" as far as delegates were concerned (further maximizing the advantage of moneyed candidates), Buchanan lost any realistic chance of winning the Republican nomination for President.

As illustrated by the Buchanan campaign, national politics is a lost cause for the common Christian. "Defeatism," in our view, would be continuing to participate in, and thereby legitimize, a political system designed to defeat you. Instead, let us learn how to defeat that system.

[2] "The Democratic National Committee recently voted to allow an even shorter presidential primary season [...] The faster primary season is expected to help the established candidates with the most money." Democrats Consider a Move to Speed, Associated Press, 1/18/02