Seeing that for all Parties of so-called bourgeois tendency politics actually consist wholly in the tussle for each man’s seat in Parliament, in which convictions and principles are thrown overboard like sand-ballast at the requirement of the moment, their programmes are naturally determined and their strength estimated —the other way round, of course—in accordance with the same. They lack that great magnetic attraction to which the masses only respond under the urgent impression of great and lofty ideas, as unquestioning faith combined with fanatical fighting courage. But at a time when one side, fully armed with weapons a thousand times criminal, attacks an existing order of things, the other side can only offer resistance if the latter assumes a new form of faith—in our case political —and rejects a weak and timid defensive attitude in favour of bold and ruthless attack.
The conception “popular” (völkisch) appears to be as indefinite and devoid of limitation in practice, and as capable of varying interpretation as the word “Religious”. Both include certain basic beliefs. And yet, although of supreme importance, they are so vague in form that they do not rise above the value of an opinion which must more or less be admitted, until they become fixed as the basic elements within the frame of a political party. For mere sentiment, or the desire of mankind, is as incapable of converting worldideals and the demands which arise out of them into realities, as it is of winning freedom merely by a uni¬ versal longing for it. No, it is not until the ideal urge towards independence adopts a fighting organization in the form of military force that the desires of a nation can be converted into noble realization.
Any world-ideal, be it a thousand times right and highly profitable to mankind, will still be without force for the life of a nation, until its principles are made the basis of a fighting Movement capable of maintaining itself as a Party until action is crowned by triumph, and until its Party dogmas become a new basic law of the State for the entire community.