Should there be a Bitcoin political party? -Bitcoin Magazine
This is an opinion piece by Robert Hall, content creator and small business owner.
As political polarization continues to widen, it has become difficult to find one’s ideological home in a political party. In today’s political environment, you have to fully agree with the party. This adherence to dogmatic orthodoxy applies to both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. If you stray from the party line on any issue, you are instantly crucified as a defector, traitor or outcast.
There is no place for reasoned political debates like those of old even before our country became a country. Back then, people could engage in deep and engaging conversation about issues without being called heretics for even considering the other side of an argument.
Today, all we get are sound bites, a 30-second attack ad, and Twitter dunks. How can an average person make an informed decision when they can’t even get accurate information about anything?
Think you can turn to mainstream media for unbiased information? Think again. Political polarization also captured the media. Americans are increasingly siled in the content they consume online and on television. 17% of Americans are politically polarized based on their TV news consumption with 8.7% of Americans polarized to the left of the political aisle compared to 8.4% of Americans polarized to the right.
This type of polarization only leads to a dead end without anything being done to improve the country. We have real problems that we need to tackle and we don’t have the political leadership or the political courage to change the status quo. We have an insecure southern border, homelessness that has spiraled out of control, and inflation is rampant, making life difficult for every American in this country.
Are our elected leaders focused on these issues? No, they are too busy with their political theater. Watching politicians today is like watching a soap opera. It’s sad, pathetic and frankly disappointing to watch. We don’t have problem solvers in Congress, we have people who think too highly of themselves and have produced nothing of value in their lives.
What encourages this type of behavior?
The root of this problem is the credit-based monetary system. Easy money allows members of government to spend beyond their means and create programs that can be funded with “money” made out of thin air. Credit-based currency encourages polarization because it allows politicians to build a base of voters who will vote for them no matter what. They can say stupid and reckless things and get away with it because they know they will be re-elected. Incumbents have a re-election rate of over 90%.
Politicians are rewarded for “fighting” the other side, not for compromising to get anything; this would be considered abandonment by the other side.
In the end, we all get screwed over for their avarice and short-sightedness. We need new blood in the system. We need visionaries who can see the past today and look to the future to see what we can become. If there is one group of people who I believe can do this, it would be Bitcoiners.
We need visionaries
We need visionaries capable of proposing a better vision for the country. We need deeper thinkers who think beyond the next election and plan for decades into the future. We need people who know how much the credit-based monetary system has corrupted our institutions and who will have an answer to that corruption.
We need leaders who understand that money based on credit will never last. Credit-based monetary systems always fail because men are too tempted by the lure of power to resist its charms for long.
Even though Bitcoiners generally hate getting involved in politics, we need it more than ever. Who else will fight for our views if we are not in the halls of power defending Bitcoin at every turn? Who else will protect the Bitcoin protocol from clueless government bureaucrats if we are not in the room to figure out how to craft regulations?
Educating individual lawmakers is a noble and laudable goal that should be applauded, but does it yield the long-term results we need to protect Bitcoin? In light of what happened with the addition of Tornado Cash to the OFAC SDN (Office of Foreign Assets Control, Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons) list, we still have a long way to go. How long until these types of penalties fall on CoinJoins and Whirlpool? Will they make coin mixing illegal, subject to fines and jail time? If things continue as they are, it is certainly possible.
We all love and believe in Bitcoin because of its enormous potential to save the world. If we don’t rise up to defend it before mass adoption takes hold, Bitcoin could be relegated to a mere investment asset and store of value. If we want Bitcoin to reach its full potential, we need to get organized.
Creating a political party is something I think Bitcoiners could achieve with relative ease. Bitcoiners are some of the most passionate people I’ve met. They genuinely care about the world and want to see it change for the better.
Just as bitcoin started from scratch, a new bitcoin party is a grassroots movement that will truly embody America’s values. I encourage everyone to check out your Secretary of State’s website and see what it takes to start a political party in your state.
Now is our time.
This is a guest post by Robert Hall. The opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.
