Dear Purefoy,
I was very pleased to receive your call. In this day and political climate I must send
my consultations by snail mail, as electronic and digital media simply provide
unacceptable possibility for interception, and with the matters I will be
advising you, we can ill afford anyone looking over our shoulder. In the meantime I will ask you, after study
of these advisements, to store them in safekeeping. There is a reelection for you in the
future.
Now for the prolegomena. You may
fear the venture before you difficult and complex enough to enlist my aid, but the road to political office is an easy
venture. This is not to say that it is
easy of a kind which anyone on their own could manage, but once having figured
this whole political thing out, our work requires no excessive labors. People say knowledge is power, and this,
knowledge of politics I mean, is ultimate power. It is like having figured out the laws of
nature, with which you may subdue nature herself. We have no such desires regarding Mother
Earth, however; the electorate will suffice for us.
What has taken me years to learn, I can distill to you in a few weeks,
though it may take more time for you to grasp every detail.
First of all, with our way of thinking we have distinct advantages not
shared by our opponents. Having figured
out what our opponents have not is of inestimable value against them. Moreover, we have the support of virtually
all academics and actors: both the smartest and dumbest in our society. Of course the masses generally suspect the
former and have adulation for the latter.
 That is no great matter, however: the point is that we are not alone,
nor outnumbered. What one has to watch
is the sheer though lesser number of those who are left. Nevertheless, this number is not so worrisome
as it was in the days of the so-called “silent majority.” Proponents for that
group have largely conceded that their numbers now make them a minority. The most welcome aspect of such a shift in
the culture of the country is that without any measures of rank oppression, we
are on the brink of a country with virtually only one viable political
alternative–ours. This is why among
other reasons you have an easy road to travel.
To the uninitiated, I mean unenlightened, it of course does not appear
this way, for a variety of reasons.
 Never mind we have not done so well in the last couple elections. That was only the case simply because we have
not distinguished our message from the message of our opponent. And consequently the voters as soon vote for
our opponent as for us, and in the coin toss of that, no wonder our luck has
been down. A coin toss, however, is not
the way to win an election–proven by our rather stale record of late.
So what do you do? There are no
insurmountables to worry and fatigue yourself about. You will have the opposite problem of
boredom. You have no need to come up
with “ideas” with which to lead, for you need not lead, but simply follow the
wishes of the people in order to lead.
 That is, walk out in front of them.
 Never mind being called a servant, because voters are more than ready to
vote for us, once they see that our promises to them are bountiful. Given the weaknesses of human nature, the
promises are irresistible. We simply
drop the desired goodies in front of the voter, and the voter comes to us. Where we lead they will follow. Though you are a “servant” of the people,
people can be made to do just about anything and vote for just about
anybody.
Old style politics really did have some substance; we have matter for
substance with bushels of symbolism thrown in the mix here and there. I will have more to say about this in
forthcoming correspondence.