Breaking Free From the Left/Right Paradigm
by Le Patriote
Did you ever wonder why manufacturers market identical products under multiple brand names? For example, I recently purchased an Evinrude outboard motor only to find, after removing the cover, that it was a Suzuki outboard marketed under the Evinrude name brand. Automobile manufacturers use this marketing tactic extensively. GMC and Chevrolet frequently market essentially identical vehicles under both brand names. Ford and Dodge do the same thing. Why?
Another example is Sears Roebuck, a vendor that offers a wide variety of products marketed under various Sears brand names. To my knowledge, Sears doesn’t manufacture any of these products. They simply take goods manufactured exclusively for them, and put their brand names on them.
Grocery stores sell generic or store brand products, which are usually a name brand product with a different label on it. The store brand product is usually offered at a somewhat lower price. Even though the store brand products are identical to the name brand, and are priced lower, some people would never consider buying the store brand, instead opting for the more expensive name brand product every time.
There are many reasons manufacturers and marketers use this marketing tactic, but the primary reason has to do with the concept of brand loyalty. For example, there is often fierce brand loyalty among pickup truck owners. Some prefer Ford, while others prefer GMC or Dodge. But, brand loyalty even extends to products made by the same manufacturer. For instance, some people only buy GMC pickups, and would never consider buying a Chevrolet, even though both trucks are built from essentially identical components. The buyer’s perception is that the GMC brand truck is a superior product.
This same marketing tactic is used by the two primary political parties in the United States today to create the illusion of competition and opposing values. On the surface, the two parties differentiate themselves based on some hot button issues using labels like conservative and liberal, or right and left. However, have you noticed that even though the people occupying the offices of the presidency and the house change periodically and power shifts from the democrats to the republicans, the direction of the country doesn’t really change much at all? It would seem that both political parties are really headed for the same destination. They just take slightly different routes to get there.
Party loyalty is used by politicians in much the same manner that brand loyalty is used by manufacturers. It has to do with creating the perception in the mind of the constituent that the democratic candidates are fundamentally different from the republican candidates, when in reality most are driven by the same basic motivations; namely money, greed, and power.
One of the interesting aspects of party loyalty is the way members of one party support their candidate’s behavior and policies, while the same behavior or policy conducted by the other party’s candidate would be condemned. A good example is the way Republicans attacked and derided Bill Clinton for raising taxes through the roof and expanding the scope of government to unprecedented levels. Yet, many of these same Republicans support George W. Bush, even though he has raised taxes and increased the Federal deficit more than any other president in history. He has also expanded government at a rate previously unimaginable, creating entire new agencies that waste money and are riddled with corruption and incompetence.
Another important aspect of this illusion of seemingly opposing values is the way it affects, or does not affect, United States foreign policy. For example, since the inception of the State of Israel in 1948, US policy toward this country has been unconditional support of Israeli policy, even though that policy quite often does not benefit the United States. The United States government loans huge sums of money to Israel, most of which is forgiven and sometimes even loaned back to the United States, to be paid back to Israel with interest. America also provides military funding and technology to Israel, most of which is never repaid. This policy of unconditional support towards Israel continues regardless of which US political party is in power.
Under this system of seemingly opposing values and party loyalty, the political pendulum swings back and forth, but the fundamental direction in which our country is moving never varies by more than a degree or two. In this manner, people are polarized into opposing groups that offset each other and the status quo is maintained. Even more disturbing is the fact that America drifts toward certain destruction and absorption into the globalist New World Order while politicians from both major parties are interested only in their own personal gain.
Free-thinking individuals step outside the left/right paradigm and are not blindly loyal to any political party. They consider each candidate based on their record of honesty and integrity and their support for American values such as the constitution of the United States and rights and freedoms of the individual, a record that can only be established by actions that support words. Furthermore, they are aware of, and they vote for candidates that are aware of and oppose, the globalist New World Order agenda. If we are to survive as a nation, we must consider America as a sovereign nation worth fighting for and not as a spoke in the wheel of globalism. We must also turn away from collectivist thinking and return to the moral values upon which our nation was founded. If we do not, we will not survive as a nation much longer. It’s as simple as that.
posted by Le Patriote at 5:48 PM
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