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I'll try to do Frank's thoughts justice. I am not as clever or as articulate as he is, but I will do my best to explain what I think is his main point, by using a real-world example.

In almost all democracies, the system has gravitated (settled down) into a two-dominant-party system: the Conservatives versus the Progressives. You could think of this as the embodiment of the two major types of human personalities - a) Selfish; and b) Social. (It's the "ME" versus "US" debate).

The Conservatives (the Voters and the Politicians) are all selfish people. They are all about "hoarding" and "protecting" which is just greed, based on fear of loss/fear of not having enough.

The Progressives are all about "safety in numbers" - ie. what's good for all of us is naturally good for me - so we should all take care of each other and that will automatically be the best outcome for all of us - which of course includes me - so it's based on hope for the future - it's based on emotional investment - ie. self-sacrifice for the short-term because it will pay off for all of us (including myself) in future.

But, no matter which type of political party is in power at the time (and now we are talking about ALL types of governments - not just democracies) - the only type of "power" that the ruling government has, is to relax the rules for some people - and tighten them for other people.

So eg. when Conservatives rule - they relax the rules (ie. they give exemptions, etc.) for rich people/businesses, because they think that will help them to achieve their agenda.

And when Progressives are in power - they relax the rules for the Unions and for Working Class people because they thing that's what will help them to achieve their agenda.

Of course, what we mean by "rules" is the Law.

Have you ever noticed how, the richer a person is, the more they are convinced that the Laws don't apply to them? Same for businesses. In fact, the richer a person/business is, the more influence they have on the Lawmakers (the government) to change the ACTUAL Laws, to let them do even more of whatever the hell they want.

The only difference between Conservative governments and Progressive governments is their lists of people/businesses for whom they are willing to relax the rules (and their lists of people/businesses for whom they want to tighten the rules).

What (I think) Mr. Wilhoit is trying to say - is that this situation - where ALL governments squeeze/suppress/restrict/oppress one "type" of citizen while relaxing/supporting/nurturing other "types" of citizens is fundamentally flawed, and is not based on equality of human rights. Even if Progressives THINK that they are all about "equality" in fact they are not - because they are equally as guilty of preferential restriction & relaxing of the rules for some citizens, as the Conservatives are, the only difference is in their choice of whom they are going to suppress and whom they are going to nurture.

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