“Politics doesn't work. Look at the parts of America where government has had the most power, where government has spent the most money. Look at the housing projects we've got the poor people in.”

If by "politics", Mr. O'Rourke is referencing the traditional meaning i.e., the art or science concerned with guiding, influencing or mandating the actions and policies of a government (getting and keeping power in a government) then, he is absolutely wrong. If by "politics", Mr. O'Rourke means a servant's administration of the laws of nature and nature's God (natural law) and the rights of individual sovereign masters; or, the traditional meaning only brings about poverty, lawlessness, injustice and tyranny, he is absolutely correct.

Think about it -- government bureaucrats, police, military all need conflict to justify their existence. Every year they grow larger, and arrests, fines, asset forfeitures, imprisonments increase. With every new law, a new source of revenue is created. If the poor were not poor, they would not need government. If there were less laws to obey, there would be less crime. If police could not seize your property as a 'penalty' they could not pay their 'officers' to hold up people. Without foreign wars, trillions of dollars go unborrowed and the military-industrial-complex would be cut off. With natural medicine and proper nutrition, pharmaceutical monopolies would collapse. The fact is that political solutions are commercial solutions designed to tap into the life force of every person to be used for the consolidation of power into the hands of the most powerful people on the planet. The systems are set up to draw power from the people and funnel it up to the ruling class. Politics _does_ work, for the politicians and their masters...

Archer said it very well.