Though we wish it were not so, America has a two-party political system. Both parties share many of the same bad qualities. But one is unique, in that it is a machine made of fraud.

My purpose here is not to glorify the Democratic party. America is an oligarchy. Both the Democratic and Republican parties operate in response to the demands of the wealthy and powerful. This is not an opinion; it has been amply demonstrated by political scientists. We do not live in a well-functioning democracy, because our system does not represent the needs of the average voter. Our electoral system is infested by monied interests that finance campaigns in exchange for influence, warped by gerrymandering that heavily favors incumbents, and encumbered by a Senate that gives citizens of sparsely populated rural states far more per capita power than everyone else. It is a flawed system, and both major parties actively participate in and reinforce it in many similar ways. There are no saints here.

The Democratic Party—the (very relatively) more liberal of the parties—is guilty of the dreary sins of hypocrisy. The Democrats often fail to live up to their progressive ideals. They often say the right thing, and do the wrong thing. They often sell out morality for political expediency. Their flaws are the basic failings of human nature. They are a classic archetype, old as politics itself.

The Republican Party, though—now there is a fascinating creation. The central sin of the Republican Party is not so mundane. The Republican Party is qualitatively different. The Republican Party is not a typical political party that fails to live up to its stated ideals. It works just fine at what it is constructed to do: draw in the votes of the poor while working to serve the interests of the very wealthy. This is not a flaw; the party is built this way. It is built to be a trick, perpetrated by the very rich at the expense of everyone else. And it has been extremely successful.

The Republican Party is the equivalent of a magician who distracts you with a flourish of his wand while stealing your watch with his other hand. Anyone who thinks about it for a minute will find it odd that one political party caters to both yacht-purchasing heathen Wall Street millionaires and poor Southern churchgoing whites. The only way the Republican Party accomplishes this is by not catering to them both. It caters to the rich. To the rich, it gives the steak. To everyone else, it tosses the bones.

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