Politics, Games & Shades of Gray. Not Red or Blue.

I actually wrote this essay a few days after the first Presidential debate of 2012, but life became hectic and I never edited and posted it. So this essay is coming way after the fact. After going through it again though, I still believe it’s relevant, just bear in mind it is a couple of weeks old.. : )  This is not a partisan essay, it’s more about the US as a whole and what has happened to the political process.

Politics are not a game. It's about people, real people, something that seems to be lost.

I do have a tendency to be cynical about politics; it comes from my time working for a politician when I was young and naive and has only been amplified by the years I have spent closely following the workings of our elected officials since. In spite of that, I believe that voting is a near sacred responsibility. I have ancestors and family members who have participated in every conflict the United States of America has been involved in starting with the Revolutionary War and continuing to current engagements. I take their service and sacrifices seriously. 

My seventeen year old daughter is extremely disappointed that she will miss being old enough to vote in the upcoming election by a few months. My almost 21 year old son is excited to be voting in his first Presidential election. It is a big deal and it should be. 

Recruiting Poster, WWII

As US citizens who are eligible to vote, it is our responsibility to educate ourselves and vote for the person/s we believe will be best for the future of the United States.  Sometimes digging through the "political polish" to find substantive information can be a frustrating experience. The constant truth twisting and cherry picking of facts and numbers by virtually everyone running for office can be demoralizing, but we can't give in to lethargy and cynicism. In the immortal words of Winston Churchill, "Never, never, never give in!" We must persevere and do our part to require integrity from our political leaders and we must vote.

So if you are eligible to vote but not registered yet, although it is probably too late for this next election, go register so you can vote next time. Go, now (or when the Sec of State is open, that might work better)! Then vote, in every election. I am assuming that anyone reading this essay has a basic familiarity with the US Constitution and governmental history. If you don’t, well, hopefully you’ll get motivated to do get it.

Along with approximately 67 million other Americans, I watched the first Presidential debate. It left me feeling somewhat sick to my stomach. Not because Obama seemed to have his mind on something else the entire time and was strangely meek, not because Romney was overbearing and rude and not because the moderator was totally and disappointingly ineffective, although all of those things happened.

President Obama & Potential President Mitt Romney at 1st Debate

 What left me feeling slightly ill was the twisting of the truth and outright misleading statements made by both candidates, with the balance of untruths leaning slightly more towards Romney (oh, come on, no matter how vehement of a Romney supporter you are, his own campaign staffers – not just independent fact checkers – were making corrections and doing damage control for the next several days, for goodness sake!). The President, however, certainly didn’t have a corner on the truth either.  Yes, they were both going for the quick sound bite, the “zinger” that would catch the attention of the voters and the media. That’s what debates have turned into and that’s what we expect.

Funny & Frighteningly Accurate

No longer do we expect substantive discussions about specific problems and fixes by candidates who treat each other with dignity and respect. In this age of reality TV, we expect entertainment and for each candidate to go for the jugular of their opponent. The only problem is, contrary to the comforting assurances of “fixing things,” that each vaguely promised then and continue to promise now; none of the issues being discussed and facing our country are simple. No sound bite, however “zingy” can fix the very real problems facing the United States right now and continued polarity of the political parties just worsens the problem.

When did we, as a people, decide to just accept that our political leaders and potential political leaders are going spout half truths, twist around reality and outright lie to us? When did this become all right and why do we just sit back and take it? I find it disturbing and I hope that you do too. What we as an electorate have done and allowed to be done to ourselves and our government frightens me.  

 I know, this has been happening for a while. I go back though, to our first leaders. 

Painting by Junius Brutus Stearns

This isn’t about political parties and it isn’t about conservative or liberal. It is about the truth and our lack of expectations that we will get it from our politicians. I am quite certain that political leaders disconnected from the people, who twist and hide the truth from the citizens of this great country was not what the Founding Fathers intended when they seceded from Great Britain. In fact, records show that honesty and fairness along with direct representation figured fairly strongly when they established the foundations of our current system of government.

Does he look unhappy? Maybe it's because George Washington never wanted to be the President!

Our first President didn’t want to be the President. George Washington became the first President of the United States of America under duress. He saw his service as a huge sacrifice he and his family were making for the good of the nation. His fellow law makers envisioned a government where competent and responsible citizens sacrificed a few years of their lives in order to move the government forward, and then returned to their normal lives. They never intended or foresaw congressional service becoming a lifelong career. That it has become so is to the detriment of our nation, in my opinion, one I suspect would be shared by our Founding Fathers.  

Money buys elections and has for some time now.

The idea that men would compete to serve as President of the United States, an office of serious and stressful responsibility requiring insane hours and loss of privacy was most likely something our first President would not believe. That corporations, private individuals and organizations would donate millions of dollars to elect the candidate of their choice was so far outside of reality it was never imagined. To quote George Washington, in a letter to his friend Edward Rutledge, he made it seem as if the presidency was little short of a death sentence and that, in accepting it, he had given up “all expectations of private happiness in this world.”

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/George-Washington-The-Reluctant-President.html#ixzz29WqSzGof

Somewhere along the line we shifted from expecting our elected representatives to be people who were sacrificing to do what was best for the country to people who expected the country to sacrifice to do what was best for them. Somewhere along the line, it became normal for us to elect political leaders who are so self-absorbed that normal, everyday citizens like you and I don't register as real. Somewhere along the line, politics became a game of status, not a sacrifice for the common good. This travesty starts at the State level and continues to the federal, unfortunately. 

So where does personal responsibility come in? Anyone who works with children or teens knows that you get what you expect. If you set your expectations low, that’s what you’ll get. On the other hand, for the most part, if you expect more of them, you’ll get more. This is true of people in general and of politicians as well, as long as we hold them accountable, it is human nature to either rise or sink according to expectations.

So who bears the blame for the current situation? We do. We get what we expect and accept. Here in the United States, where we actually get to have a say in our government, where millions served and died to give us that right, where millions today continue to serve and give their lives to preserve it; a 42% turnout of registered voters is considered normal. This is 42% out of the 29% of the population who are even registered to vote, according to US Census figures from 2010, when there were approximately 311 million American citizens, of whom 59% are eligible to register to vote. 

A Voting Location

Looking at those rather depressing figures, I have to ask, why? Why do so many people choose not to vote, not even to register to vote? Do they not care, do they not understand? Why? I wish I had the answers, but I don’t.

I do believe part of it has to do with education, a whole 'nother can of worms I am not going to address here. Instead, let's talk about those who actually do vote. Why, though, of the relatively small proportion who choose to exercise their right to vote, do so many choose the easy way, the quick answer, the best sound bite? I have to believe they mean well, otherwise, why bother?

We (using the royal “we” here) Americans like absolutes. They are comforting. Things are easier when you’re only deciding between black and white, right and wrong. We want simple, we want easy and we want uncomplicated. So that’s what we get because that's what we insist upon, regardless of whether it fits. We tend to surround ourselves with people who are like us. People who live like us, people who think like us. It makes it easier to dehumanize “the other ones," which makes it easier to dismiss their viewpoints. We have the equivalent of a fast food diet going for our political system and eventually it’s going to kill us if we don’t make some changes. 

Does that sound drastic to you? Maybe so, but consider the inevitable outcome of a diet of nothing but fast food. Remember the documentary Michael Moore made about living off McDonalds food a few years ago? Ask any doctor what they think about eating nothing but fast food as a health choice, if your common sense can’t answer that question already.

Our Fast Food options are many.

 As a country, the United States is dealing with an out of control physical obesity problem which costs us millions upon millions of dollars and any number of early deaths.  This is a problem which actually does have a simple fix. Eat less junk, more fruits and vegetables and smaller portions; exercise. We all know that is true; mostly we just don’t want to do it. We want easy.  

So, if something that clear cut is difficult for us to embrace, how do we feel about the murkier waters of politics and cause and effect? The political answers aren’t quite as simple although the long term results are just as damaging. Unfortunately, we continue to live in denial, in more than one way.

People are complicated. Life is complicated, messy and difficult sometimes. We all know this, we all live it. Obviously, a system of government that works for these complicated, messy and difficult lives won’t be simple and it won’t be static. It will have to change, to evolve and to grow, be a living system of government. More stuff we don’t like. We don’t like change in general. 

This is part of the problem, because things change, people change, situations change. I am paraphrasing here, so bear with me. Nothing in the universe is static. A basic law of physics which applies as well to human beings and everything we’re involved in, anything in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon; human life is definitely in motion and is constantly being acted upon at the same time. Life is not black and white, no matter how much we would like it to be. Life is full of various shades of gray (no reference to the recent best-seller, this particular phrase has been around quite a bit longer, thank you!). 

Shades of Gray in Life are Reality.

Until we can recognize this the constant state of flux that humanity dwells within, until we recognize that there are no quick, easy fixes for the state our country is in. We are just going to continue to gain weight, in metaphorical terms. 

We have to cut out the fast food and start dealing in specific realities, the hard stuff. We need to exercise and we need to pay attention and demand the truth. As long as we continue to punish any politician or governmental appointee who tells us hard truths and reward those who give us the easy, greasy answers, it doesn’t matter who the President is; nothing is going to change and our country, which I love; and believe that you do to, will continue to become less than it should be.

This recent statement by Detroit Free Press writer Julie Hinds highlights the problem: "The political reality in our age of partisan blogs, vitriolic columnists and fair and UN-balanced cable news channels is that potential voters never have to consume any information with which they'd potentially disagree."

Different folks, different views, different realities.

What can we do? Let's start by taking baby steps; starting by not demonizing anyone who looks at things differently than we do.

Acknowledge that usually there is more than one right way to do things. Someone believing differently than you or I does not make them evil, or wrong. It just makes them different. Life is not made of just black and white, no matter how much easier that would make things. Reality contains many, many shades of gray.

I personally have many friends, as well as family members who believe differently than I do, spiritually, politically and economically, for whom I give thanks regularly. Knowing them keeps me from become insulated and, hopefully, from becoming a self-righteous bigot because I know and care about these people. My friends of other political and religious views are intelligent, educated people who think deeply about issues.

Knowing this requires that I respect their views and give them serious thought, often this has caused me to adjust my opinions and beliefs. I am grateful for friends and family with different views because this makes me look at other points of view and think about other interpretations of fact and practice. Acknowledging different views and options makes me a better, more open minded and reality driven person. It is far too easy to surround ourselves with those who share and parrot our own views and when we do that it makes our country weaker, not stronger.

Different Races, Religions, Ethnic Groups and Cultures Coming Together., what makes us strong as a nation.

 Is it frustrating sometimes? Yes, of course, sometimes it is when I can’t for the life of me figure out how they could see a particular issue in the way they do (I’m sure they feel the same way about my views!). I believe though, that it is good for us to be able to respectfully acknowledge and discuss differences with people who see things differently than we do. It is also a good thing to learn how to compromise, something our congress no longer seems to know how to do. Compromise is necessary for people to work together and for our country to move forward. The first step in that direction is recognizing the rights of others to have different views and to acknowledge their validity.

A result of everyone thinking (or pretending to) the same.

Opening our minds to different points of view and belief systems does not make us weak, it makes us strong. History is rife with examples of the horror that ensues when different views aren’t tolerated. Nazi Germany and the USSR are just a couple of easy examples that come to mind. 

It is the differences and strengths of all its citizens that have traditionally made the United States of America, the great “Melting Pot,” one of the greatest nations on earth. So I ask you to open your mind. Let’s not let the partisanship, exclusion-ism, myopia and low expectations, which have been ruling our government lately, destroy everything that has made the United States of America great. We, as American Citizens, can demand better. Let’s do it, because until we do, we are going to continue to get what we deserve, what we settle for.