How We Define Ourselves and Politics

Democracy is based on the concept of collective bargaining, the idea that two sides of an issue can come to together to discuss compromises that can remove obstacles to resolving problems.  No one point-of-view has all of the answers so exchanging ideas gives us a better chance of finding reasonable resolutions to important issues.  Collective bargaining does not exist when one side says that we must do it "my way or no way".  Honest political negotiation cannot exist when politicians owe more to special interests than they do to their constituents.  The "Citizens United" case is not honest in name and did more to hurt our democracy than anything else that I have seen in my lifetime.  This case had nothing to do with citizens, it had everything to do with corporate power in Washington.  Our founders did not intend corporations to be treated as citizens or they would not have created two sets of laws, one with protections meant for individuals to preserve freedom for the people and one that was meant to keep corporate greed from destroying what they helped build.  We cannot have these enormously powerful institutions buying our representatives and expect to have a "government for the people by the people."

When I was young, there was genuine discussion between conservatives and liberals that often resulted in laws that moved our country forward.  Although some semblance of discussion still exists, the overriding behavior in congress and in the electorate is to be blindly partisan now.  Whereas Americans should be Americans first and Republicans and Democrats second, we rarely see this today.  Once regulations that kept anyone from having too much control of the media were removed, the media began to create political stereotypes that demonize the other side and do not hold true if you take the time to actually look.  Conservatives are not all gun toting war mongers and liberals are not all drugged out lazy hippies.  If you are a Republican, Democrats are not your enemy, and if you are a Democrat, Republicans are not your enemy.  Our mutual enemies are the forces that wish to replace our democracy with Plutocracy or Oligarchy.

These forces have existed throughout human history.  There always have been and always will be people who crave power and think their ideas are the best even when dis-proven because their egos cannot accept any semblance of failure.  This points to the fact that anyone who needs to be in control feels that way because of cracks in their self-esteem.  True self-confidence only exists in people who don't need to control or be controlled.  Real leaders don't need to keep subordinates constantly under their thumb.  Instead they encourage them to reach their potential so that they can add as much positive productivity as possible to every situation that they face.

When politicians act like they know best even when a vast majority of the electorate disagrees with them, they are no longer leading.  Leaders listen and seek compromise that moves the issue forward to try and resolve it for the common good.  No resolution will ever please everybody, but they can please the majority when those in power listen to the people and engage in thoughtful discussion about the issues.  One must always take into account the messaging around an issue as sometimes the messaging misleads people to support the wrong side of an issue, the side that ultimately works against their own welfare.  Most people are unaware how easily they can be conned into supporting a point-of-view that ultimately hurts them.  This is most often accomplished via fear.  Politicians know your fears are the key to motivating you.  The only way to stop being a puppet is to realize your own fears and not let them control your behaviors and your thoughts.  We are in an age where politicians are often "snake oil salesmen" trying to push a corporate agenda that is bad for the common man.  They make relentless claims that regulating business is bad for you.  The long term repetition of these claims works as a form of brain washing.  Even a lie feels like truth when it is repeated enough times.  Only you can make the effort to find truth as no one is going to do it for you.  To find truth, you must be honest with yourself and determine what beliefs that you have are based on verified fact and what you believe blindly based on your biases.  Once you know what you believe blindly, you must endeavor to find facts if you don't want to be someone's fool.  We must examine both sides of an issue honestly to find honest answers.  Extremists live at the beck and call of their puppet-masters.  If you don't want to be a puppet, then you should seek knowledge and rational compromise on issues and not support politicians who aren't working for the people.

This may be a defining moment for the United States.  Are we going to allow ourselves to continue returning to the very system that we hated so much that we had a revolution against it?  The original Tea Party had as much to do with the monopolistic control of commodities by large British corporations as it had to do with taxes.  We wanted control of our commodities.  We took it.  Now we are giving it away to big banks and big businesses that have only one loyalty, money and the people who control it.  If you can be honest with yourself about those who follow the politics of greed and work to replace them with real representation, we can remove the road blocks that keep us from fixing the real problems in America.  We need to remove the cancer that is corporate money in Washington by changing to publicly financed elections based on debates over a short period of time before an election.  If politicians are only accountable to us, then they are likely to start listening to us again.

When you are sick, you can focus on taking drugs that cover up your symptoms and stay sick, or you can work towards finding a cure for your illness and therefore permanently remove the symptoms.  Our Democracy is very ill.  We need to focus on a cure instead of attacking each other like we are the symptoms.

Long Live the American Dream!  -Dave S.

"You must be the change that you want to see in the world." -Gandhi

 © 2011 David Stein