The Old and New Politics

Something quite dramatic is happening in the political arena - a new vision nothing like the old politics of greed, hatred, and spin. Accustomed as we are to division, bickering, and animosity, this will take some getting used to - and may not happen in this cycle – but it is coming.

Voicing principles without tearing down another comes from confidence. On the other hand, politicians and pundits that tear down those who don’t agree with them act from insecurity. In the same manner, not lashing out or striking back when someone disparages us comes from understanding, maturity, and strength, while the old eye for an eye mentality comes from hatred, smallness, and weakness.

I think that we, as an electorate, are finally beginning to get it; we must live with those we vote for . . . for a long time. If we vote for insecure, weak people, we live with the resulting poor decision making for many years, because insecure leaders will create elaborate conspiracy theories in an attempt to keep us as insecure, fearful, and weak as they are, because when we are fearful, we can easily be deceived.

Maybe we are finally coming around to the fact that we, the electorate, really are not weak and insecure, that we have enough courage to face whatever may come our way without huddling in fear with a bunker mentality. Maybe this time we will see through the rhetoric and false bravado of those who want to deceive us. Of those that think bravery is sitting in air-conditioned offices while recklessly and thoughtlessly sending our youth to fight private revenge wars and for big business interests against a mythical army of terrorists conjured up from a handful of desperate men with box cutters.

This mythical army, this same rag-tag loosely organized group of criminals called terrorists, is the masterful delusion that has in fact terrorized Americans for years now, has cost our country 500 billion dollars, and has been instrumental in reelecting the reckless and the thoughtless leaders that throw away our kids, but are so clever and cunning when it comes to money and power for themselves.

When a leader operates from insecurity and weakness, this fosters greed, hatred and selfish thinking, which is quite different from leaders who operate through confidence that fosters generosity, compassion, and clear thinking. Imagine a family that lives from greed, hatred, and muddled thinking. That family will have troubles upon troubles. The family members will learn to not trust each other and only look out for themselves, and soon the family will split apart. A nation is no different. When we look out for only our own selfish interests and viciously compete with each other rather than coming together for a common purpose, fear is always injected into the equation.

If we broaden this selfish, negative approach and look upon the rest of the world as our adversaries as well, both in our trade practices and militarily, we will bring to fruition a self-fulfilling prophecy of an adversarial and dangerous world that is in constant warfare with us. We will be at each other’s throats endlessly, always afraid and always arming ourselves to the teeth. This buildup, although proclaimed defensive, can’t help but lead to war.

It all begins with you and me. Can we find compassion inside of ourselves? We can’t criticize others if we operate from greed, hatred, fear, weakness and muddled thinking ourselves. We always have a choice between weakness and fear, and courage and compassion. One seems like courage but is cowardice, and the other seems like cowardice but is courageous. If we can figure out which politician has legitimate courage, by carefully assessing how they treat their adversaries, it is a good bet that they will keep our country out of serious trouble, and maybe even bring our country and the world together for a change. Nobody can survive a nuclear war.