The King of Wu and the Election of 2012

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.

- Sun Tsu

The annals tell us that the King of Wu was considering employing Sun Tsu, but wanted to test him to ensure his worthiness.  The King commanded Master Sun to take one hundred of his concubines and turn them into a regiment of soldiers.  Master Sun bowed and turned to his task.

He divided the Ladies into two platoons, each commanded by a Concubine who was one of the King's favorites.  Master Sun assembled the platoons in the courtyard.

Soldiers, right face! commanded Master Sun.  The concubines giggled.

Master Sun explained the need for discipline, and for soldiers to obey orders without question.  Then he repeated the command to face right.  Again, the concubines giggled.

And so Master Sun ordered the execution of the two platoon commanders, the King's favorites.  The King was shocked, and very unhappy.  Master Sun explained that if soldiers understand their orders but fail to carry them out, the officers are at fault.  The executions took place, and suddenly the platoons found themselves able to face right.

The Czar of Muscovy muses on the upcoming election, and the vital need for us to hold our noses and vote for whichever of the RNC's favorite concubines is allowed to get the nomination.  His reasoning is smart and clear, and compelling, and you should read the whole thing.

My only point of dispute is that it does not address the problem facing this Republic, which is the rapaciousness of the institutional ruling parties.  Both of them, who have discovered that they can loot the public weal with a zeal that would have left Genghis Khan jotting down notes.

And so the Czar is entirely correct when he says that Obama is more damaging than either a President Romney (spit!) or a President Gengrich (spit?) would be.  But that is aiming at a tactical goal, and will in the long term profit us little.  It aims at victory in a single battle, not the necessary crushing of the opponent's will to fight.

The Progressive Agenda is dead, a shambling corpse that doesn't realize that it's hundred year run is over.  Obama is the best illustration of this, implementing policies nobody understands for reasons that nobody fathoms, other than they are called for by it's ancient, wizened philosophy.  They simply don't work in any practical sense, and everyone can see that.  All they do is square the circle of the Faculty Lounge ideology while dialing public corruption by the ruling class up to eleven.

Even the Democratic Party masses feel this.  Enthusiasm is way down from 2008, and you have to figure that a huge amount of cash will be budgeted in an attempt to get people to the polls in November.  Those people didn't need that prodding in 2008.

So, think on what 2013 will bring, with the beginning of the second Obama administration: continued economic thrashing, continued (publicly visible) cluelessness about what to do, cluelessness about the newly nuclear Iran and the Middle East atomic arms race that will be getting under way then, continued grand pronouncements from our Professor in Chief (uttering all the approved Faculty Lounge pretty ideas) that is widely tuned out by even the Democratic Party faithful.

And, as the Czar points out, continued rapaciousness of a Democratic political establishment at a level unprecedented in the Republic's history.

The opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.

- Sun Tsu

I would agree with the Czar that the time for battle is now, except for two things:

1. The stink of corruption has not yet led to Congressional criminal investigations.  Between Fast and Furious and Solyndra, there are billions of dollars and hundreds of deaths that have yet to be publicly laid at the feet of the Progressive Altar.  Battlefield preparation for that fight is not yet complete.  If the Republican Party cannot be trusted to do even this, then they cannot be trusted with the White House.

2. For the attack to succeed strategically (as opposed to tactically), the fight must be led by someone credible.  The country thirsts for good government, but neither Newt nor Romney represent this.  For a while, it was to be hoped that Perry could hold that standard high, but this has not come to pass.  The opposition is still leaderless.

And so I must respectfully disagree with our Autocrat's call.  Replacing a weak, corrupt Obama administration with a weak, corrupt Romney administration wins a battle but possibly loses the war.  Nothing there causes a collapse in the will to fight among Progressives.  The analogy is the Cold War - the Soviet Union didn't fall until the Soviets themselves believed that the jig was up.

And so the best bet for the country is to let the Zombie shamble on, with limbs falling off for four more years and the stench of necrosis rising even to the nostrils of Progressives high in their Ivory Tower.

Will there be damage such as the Czar described?  Certainly.  But until the Progressive movement decides that the game is over, there's simply no possibility of correcting what's wrong.  Sure, you might win a battle here and there, but nothing significant will change.  And change has to happen in the GOP establishment as well.  If they think that they can simply dial the Progressive Agenda down to 8, well they're part of the problem too.

As to Romney?  I don't care that he's the GOP Establishment's favorite concubine.  He has to go, because he's the GOP Establishment's favorite concubine.  Only then will the party face right.

For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.

- Sun Tsu