How To Enslave The American People

Free people living in a democratic republic demand the right to choose who will represent them in government. To enslave the American people without a fight would require control over a majority of their elected representatives. This part would be the easiest to accomplish, no more difficult than locating 400 or so people who would like to run for office and have a sufficient lack of character or those who can be easily compromised. Organizing them into political parties where they compete for the more prestigious political offices would keep the pipeline of new candidates perpetually full.

More difficult (due to their sheer numbers) would be the American people, the voters. They would have to believe that their choices on Election Day really mattered when in reality their vote had no more impact on the direction of government than a small child’s toy steering wheel in his car seat has on the direction his father’s car will go.

Here is the most critical part of the plan: The people would need to vote based on “how they feel” instead of how they think. If they started to think critically and logically in large numbers the whole system could be unraveled in a few days, in one election cycle. Thankfully, it is much easier to control how people feel than it is how they think.

They would need to “feel good” when their candidate won and be “frightened” at the prospect of another candidate winning. This would require choices or candidates that were perceived to be as different as feeling good and being frightened are. This will divide the voters which is absolutely necessary. Dividing a majority of the voters into two groups that support two parties is the idea. The two groups should always be close to equal in size so that each group’s candidate(s) would win roughly half the time. This creates a continuous cycle of good feelings and being frightened which helps to keep voters from thinking.

As long as a majority of voters divided into two groups continued to vote based on how they feel; gradually, over time, you could deprive them of all their power, liberty, and property.

They would buy you the rope with which you could hang them.