Clyde N. Wilson, Us and Them

Us and Them

Under existing circumstances, pursuit of reform through the Presidential election is not very promising, though I do not disparage any effort to increase the clout of anti-imperial forces within the Republican Party. For some years I have, in my amateurish impudence, toyed with the notion of a different strategy. Identify districts for U.S. Representative in which the two parties are closely divided or in which a maverick has a chance. Field articulate, attractive, independent candidates in each of these districts. Some of them might win in a close three-way race.

When the independents get to Washington, their strategy will be to hold the balance of power between the two factions of the Imperial Party. If neither Democrats nor Republicans have a majority, the independents can block the organization of the House and bring the imperial machine to a pause. Then the Powers will have to offer concessions to us anti-imperialists. The independents can disagree on everything else—they can be Greens, Southern nationalists, education decentralists, right-to-lifers, antiwar warriors, as long as they unite against Empire.