Recalling first that life is a zero-sum game

People are treating this particular point as a straw man, when I think it's basically true. But the rest of the post is an inaccurate portrayal of such a Dark Artist. IMO, many people think that the world is full of players and chumps, and they intend to be the former rather than the latter. That's not a straw man.

But I don't think such people are concerned with political parties. Unless you're particularly well situated to become king, attempts to manipulate political dynamics is another chump's game. Cozying up to power is not. Flattering the powerful is not. To the extent that tearing down others is useful, it's main use is to flatter those who are not the others, and get on their good side.

In short, the player is more likely to spend his efforts telling people what they want to hear, instead of tearing them down.