Below the fold is an e-mail that I sent out to all my family & friends, and will be submitting as a letter to the editor to every paper in my region. I started out a Hillary supporter because I was thinking about this election primarily in terms of shifting back to sane policies....and to this day I think she would have been phenomenal at that very task. But, in the months since she conceded I have grown to appreciate this election as being about something bigger and more important than that. It is about the opportunity to shift our "center of thinking"....to rebuild the American Community. The fact is, regardless of who is in office, the economy will ebb and flow (although it almost ALWAYS does better under Democrats), and the threats against our country will evolve. But if we can rebuild our sense of common humanity with one another, we will forever be in a stronger position to see ourselves through the tough times. This election is about America behaving like America again. I hope you enjoy my thoughts.
Hi Fam & Friends,
Well, I haven't been as crazed this year as I have in the past....actually I have, but not as vocal. These elections bring back some very painful memories for me...mainly because of how shamefully the leaders of the republican party have tried to strip the United States of it's common humanity and sense of community. They cannot win an argument by telling the truth about what they want to do so they prey on the ignorant and uneducated as well as the privileged and elite with two separate messages. For the ignorant and uneducated they say, "Some people just can't be trusted. 'They' are just not 'our' kind of people." "They" changes every cycle....whatever group of people the republicans think they can scape-goat for the sake of dividing us against each other becomes the target. In Bill Clinton's 1992 Convention Acceptance speech he said, "Them, the liberals. Them, the gays. Them, the immigrants. Them, the lazy poor. We've just about "them'd" ourselves to death!. There is no them...there is only US." Here we are 16 years later and they are still running plays from the same old book. To the elites and privileged they say, "You've earned what you have and deserve it....and we won't EVER take any of that away from you just to give it to all the 'other' people out there who HAVEN'T earned it."
In both cases, they appeal to the very worst in human nature. The ignorant and sheltered are easily frightened by groups and people they've had no experience with. The elite and privileged quickly become accustomed to their own lifestyles and out of touch with the struggles and stresses ordinary working people are dealing with. Instead of standing as an example of tolerance and understanding to the ignorant, they validate their fears and insecurities and give them a comfort zone for bigotry and narrow mindedness. Instead of reminding the elite and privileged how lucky they are to have lived in a society that makes their stories possible and ask them to give back to the national community that facilitated their success, they feed their egos and foster a sense of arrogance and entitlement.
This strategy has won them 7 of the past 10 presidential elections...EVEN when the evidence clearly shows in both domestic and foreign issues that voting for them is against the national interest as a whole. They have exploded our debt, which will translate into a permanent tax increase on working Americans for generations to come, they have concentrated ungodly amounts of wealth and power into the hands of the already wealthy and powerful, they have stonewalled protections for consumers and families and regulations to fight corruption in powerful industries, they have sat idly by as millions lose health care coverage (and while millions more have health policies not worth the paper they are written on), they have forged unnecessary battles that drain us of our national treasury and our soldiers while at the same time filling the pockets of defense contractors and oil companies, and they have created a genuine disdain for our government and society around the world at a time when building a global community of friends and allies is more important than ever before. But in the end, they have done one thing worse than all of their policies. They have stripped us of our precious national community. They have helped to create a culture where there can be no civil disagreement and no mutual respect. They have created a society where our common humanity is no longer more important than our interesting differences. They have created an environment where it is unacceptable to stop fighting over what we can't agree on and start fixing what we can agree on.
For seven years I felt like an unwelcome stranger in my wife's family and home. Not because of our differing views on politics, but because of the culture incubated and grown by the republican party since 1968 that draws lines in the sand and identifies in black and white terms who is "good" and who is "evil". My ex-wife grew up in that environment her entire life...she was raised to not know shades of gray...only black and white. Finally after years of getting the message that I was not "their kind of people", she shut down. Her tolerance for anything I did went into the tank. Her ability to compromise on anything went away. Her faith and belief that I was a fundamentally good person had been shaken and tarnished. The one place you should always feel okay about being yourself is at home with family. At her home, I always felt on the defense. I, who have managed to give thousands of dollars on modest salaries to the USO over the last 8 years had my patriotism and love for our soldiers in combat questioned to my face repeatedly. I, the son of a man born into a family in poverty who worked his way through college and eventually opened his own business and survived one of the greatest realignments and shifts in commerce in American history had my value of hard work questioned repeatedly. I, who loved my wife with all my heart unconditionally simply was not "good enough" for her parents and family.
We didn't get to this point as a society over night, and we won't cycle out of it overnight either. But even as the media and press focus on polls (that are not completely accurate because of the turnout models they are using), gaffes, scandals, and attacks, something very incredible is happening. Barack Obama is trying to appeal to the very best in us rather than the very worst. He is not asking us to hate...only to disagree. He is reaching out his hand and saying, "Even if you can't give me your vote, I'll have a seat for you at my table where we can try to make progress on things that matter to us all." In short, he is saying "America will heal our wounds both domestically and globally when we just start being America again." As cheesy as it sounds at times, it is also the most powerful thing I've ever witnessed. He is giving us permission to hope and dream again without feeling naive and stupid about it. And while the race is closer than it should be, that is just evidence of how powerful the status quo can be. I think this country is full of people who want to believe in something greater than themselves again...and while they can't commit to it yet because it would be such an enormous "about-face" from what we have been doing for the last 40 years, I think on November 4, 2008 we will stand up and endorse the power of idealism and hope. This is our time as an American community. The hate mongers and fear spreaders who have made careers out of exploiting the worst qualities of human nature have had their time....now is our time. I don't believe this is about democrats and republicans....nor do I believe it is about progressivism vs. conservatism. This is about hope vs. fear, and most importantly about mutual survival vs. individual destruction. Republicans and Democrats both have important ideas to contribute to this nation. We're both wrong...we're both right. The United States will be at it's very best again when we can have vigorous and lively debates about how to handle things during the day and then meet in fellowship with mutual respect at night. It is not just time for a shift in policy in the United States...it is time for a shift in tone. I believe at my very core that Barack Obama is the leader to help move us toward that cultural shift. And I hope that the first person he reaches out to work with on a big important issue is John McCain. This is bigger than me, and bigger than my party. This is about my country.
Love,
Steve