POLITICSeffective, growing centralized power can help safeguard the rights of
the weak and lift the destitute out of poverty. It can protect workers and
consumers from exploitation by powerful corporations. But if politi-
cians pass laws that benefit themselves instead of their constituents, if
corruption is widespread, or if lawmakers simply don’t know what they
are doing, liberty and prosperity will suffer.
Historically, the only way to reverse the expansion of power is to
replace incremental change with cataclysmic change in the form of
revolution. John Calhoun, the nineteenth-century South Carolina sen-
ator and vice president, showed an understanding of the type of per-
son who plays the game of power—whether the player is a rebel or
a tyrant—when he said that it is easier to obtain liberty than it is to
preserve it. Rebels are dopaminergic and politicians are dopaminergic.
The goal of both is change.DON’T GET FOOLED AGAINIn the end, the fundamental obstacle to achieving harmony is that the
liberal brain is different from the conservative brain, and that makes
it difficult for them to understand each other. Because politics is an
adversarial game, this lack of understanding leads to demonization of
the other side. Liberals believe conservatives want to take the country
back to a time when minorities were treated with gross injustice. Con-
servatives believe liberals want to pass repressive laws that control every
aspect of their lives.
In reality, the vast majority of people on both sides of the politi-
cal divide want what’s best for all Americans. There are exceptions;
there are bad people everywhere, and it’s the bad people who get all the
press. They’re more interesting than good people, and they’re useful
as political weapons. But they don’t represent the typical Democrat or
Republican.
Most conservatives just want to be left alone. They want the free-
dom to make their own decisions based on their own values. Most liber-
als want to help people live better lives. Their goal is for everyone to be