Tag Archives: politics

Republicans in a delimma

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The report today is that the unemployment rate has improved, dropping to a 2.5 year low. Recently there are several indications that the economy is improving. And that is not even counting the huge boost in the stock market a couple of days ago and the one that is expected today. This news puts the Republicans in an awkward position. Their leading “candidate” in the election of 2012 is a poor economy. And they went out of their way early in the O’Bama administration to emphasize that they “hope he fails.” I know that as they see the economy stirring a little, they must be privately saying to themselves and to each other, “Oh shit!” This attitude they have demonstrated is really embarrassing. In addition to announcing, “I hope he fails” they have opposed any effort along the way to get the economy going.

Now, O’Bama is still in deep trouble. A Republican victory in November 2012 is quite feasible. It would be so funny if the GOP does win if Democrat leaders would come out and smarmily announce, with pronounced irony and facetiousness, “We hope he fails!” I personally cannot imagine “I hope he fails” coming to my mind should the Republicans win though I will surely announce it to tease my Republican friends. That attitude is absolutely deplorable. And, I don’t think the Democrats are currently exploiting that Republican mind set enough.

Political version of “us vs. them”

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The same tendency to bifurcate reality discussed yesterday can be seen in our political process.  We are currently watching our government stew in its own juices basically because each party is locked into a battle of wills, each locked tightly into “Democrat” or “Republican” loyalties.  AND, I am a Democrat and I will continue to be.  The Democrats best articulate my perspective on the world, not just politically but also culturally.  But, Democrats are not “right”.   They merely offer one perspective in the world and I happen to subscribe to it.  That does not make the Republicans “wrong.”  We must have, to use different terms for a moment, liberals and conservatives.  Without these two philosophies working in tandem, we will get into a lot of trouble.

The core issue here is identity.  Our task is to put our “reality” on hold for a moment here and there, to pause briefly, and to recognize that that there are people who look at things differently.  We must not be trapped in our various categories—-spiritually, politically, or even sexually.  Our task is to recognize once again, that we see “only the small bright circle of our consciousness beyond which lies the darkness.” (Conrad Aiken).  For, those that lie in “darkness” have a reality of their own and that reality deserves a modicum of respect.  What is “darkness” to us, is “light” to them.

And, I could easily trash Republicans here.  But I’m saving that for another day.  Yes, they have their issue with nut-jobs on the far right.  I’m sure Republicans would respond with, “Well, yes, but what about your own party’s nut jobs?”  Well, I’m sure there are extremists on my side of the political aisle but naturally I have a more difficult problem in identifying who they are.

Ultimately, I must remember, to borrow a refrain from an earlier post, and recognize that each day I awaken and announce to the world, “Wind me up and watch me be Democrat today.”  BUT, having this belief does give me pause and in that pause I can try to give other perspectives that “modicum of respect” mentioned earlier.   I do believe that Democrats are more likely to be willing to enter that “pause”.  It is not unrelated to what Deepak Chopra describes as “the gap”

 

“Wind me up and watch me be…”

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Last week I posted re this Shakespearean note:  With devotion’s visage and pious action we do sugar o’er the devil himself.  I then paraphrased this wisdom into, “Wind me up and watch me be pious.”  I’m going to elaborate a bit.

This “wind me up…” concept can be applied to the whole of our life.  We are all “wound up” with a core identity and the verbal/ideological template that goes with it.  For example, I am again today saying with my thought and behavior, “Wind me up and watch me be…for want of a better term…a liberal.”  Many will be similarly wound-up today.  Then there are the conservatives.  “Wind me up and watch me be conservative”.  There are many of them too.

For, we are all “wound up” with some core identity, some template that we impose on the world and this template is usually not given any attention because asking someone to pay attention to his/her “template” is like asking fish to see water.  And then we have the human tendency to affiliate ourselves with other groups who subscribe to some similar template, thus shoring up our otherwise tenuous identity.

This problem is so apparent in our government.  Our leaders seem to be very smug, very rigid, very sure that the other side is wrong.  There is limited, if any, capacity to realize that the perspective of the other side deserves respect.  And corresponding with this arrogance is the all-too-human tendency to demonize those that view the world differently than ourself.  So, today go watch the news and watch the dog-and-pony show continue—-people saying, “Wind me up and watch me be Democrat” or “wind me up and watch me be Republican” or “wind me up and watch me be a Tea Partier.”

This is a deadly trap and this is a spiritual problem psychologically/emotionally.  And ultimately this is a Spiritual problem.  This reflects a fundamental problem with our culture.  We are all “wound up” and cannot, or will not, consider the possibility that all we have to trot out each day of our life is a mere perspective, it is not the ultimate grasp of reality.  Those people that we heap into the category “them” deserve a modicum of respect at least.

I conclude with the relevant wisdom of two of my favorite poets.    Conrad Aiken noted, “We see only the small bright circle of our consciousness beyond which likes the darkness.”  Our challenge, individually and collectively, is to venture “into the darkness” and offer respect to someone else today.  And W. H. Auden accused us of dwelling safely “on the heath of the agreeable, where we bask, agreed upon what we will not ask, bland, sunny, and adjusted by the light of the collective lie.”