Welcome to the political machine

James Simpson
Published: October 30, 2008

Figured I would take some time today and give readers a peek into the functioning of the political machine from my personal experience. I ran for the Virginia House of Delegates in 2001 and was soundly
defeated. I thought it would be challenging and exciting … but what I discovered is the ugliness associated with being in the belly of the (political) beast.

For now I will go into just a little detail about the way candidates are selected at the local level. In a future column I will explain a couple of underlying problems that need to be addressed before anything
can be done to fix the predicament our nation is in.

If you think the system works as the founders designed it, you are vastly mistaken. The “machine” likes to progress people through the ranks. And basically what we have is a very small group of people
deciding who is worthy — in their eyes — to “represent” the electorate. Allow me to explain:

There are over 380,000 residents in the county, and probably (from my estimation after attending a few Prince William County Republican Committee meetings, around 200-300 “active” committee
members. This was a few years ago now, so that could have changed, but I doubt it has changed much.

Oh, in case you think I am picking on the Republican Party, I am not. It happens to be the one I am more familiar with; however, I would lay dollars to doughnuts that the Democratic machine operates in
a very similar fashion.

If more than two people seek the same office in the party, the committee gets together to decide how candidates running for a particular office will be selected — through a primary or through convention.
The decision is made based upon who they want to be on the ballot. I don’t have enough space to go into detail about the way the decision is made, but in many cases the method of selection will
basically predetermine which candidate will get the nod.

I am interested in serving my country (and state) by running for, and getting elected to, office. This will never happen with our current system. Neither party is going to allow someone who wants to
significantly lower taxes and radically reduce government spending to get so much as a foot into the proverbial door. Thus we will, in the not too distant future, be crushed by the weight of our own
bureaucracy.

After my failed attempt for office under the Libertarian Party, I was told by some of the more conservative members of the Republican Party that they would support my efforts, however, the caveat was
that in order to have a chance I would need to do some volunteer work on other campaigns, etc. Well, I just can’t break my principles to do that. I cannot work to help the efforts of those who destroy our
Republic through unconstitutional legislation and do not hold the concept of a limited government as the only righteous path.

While I could become a member of the Republican Committee again (or even the Democrat Committee) and throw my hat into the ring, it would be for naught. If the committee members thought that I had
a chance of being selected by the public at large in a primary, the decision would be made to select the candidate through a convention. The idea here is that both sides want someone who will play the
game, a game in which the majority party gets control in any legislative body. And that is all that matters because while both parties will increase the size of government and both parties will create tons
of additional legislation and both parties will erode our liberty even further,  they each want to do it in their own way.

But I digress. The fact is that the candidates you see on the ballot, for local and statewide office, have been selected (even if they went through a primary) by a few hundred people. And those who are
elected almost always get in locally to move up the ladder. So even the people you see in the statewide and national elections were ultimately hand selected by a relatively small number of people.

Unfortunately, this system has provided us with very little to choose from. And the way it looks now, we are likely going to be living under a Marxist style of government for the foreseeable future.

To be continued …

James Simpson lives in Lake Ridge. He can be reached by addressing e-mail to .