A New Choice: Does More Money Equal More Votes?

We’re winning. 

I think we all know that we can’t solve our problems merely by throwing money at them, or more pointedly, that more money does not necessarily equal more solution. Ironically, it has been the strong suit of old-school conservatives to point this out, ideally helping keep government programs and bureaus streamlined, efficient, and accountable. I say ironically – because the new-school neo-conservatives running the GOP are throwing money at their campaign like there’s no tomorrow. (Well, there obviously is no tomorrow in the Radical Right’s worldview, for example – its pathological lack of responsibility toward our planet’s environment and future generations.) I think it’s a promising sign, actually.

It means that their usual fight-or-flight mentality (which in its low-grade, day-to-day state merely keeps them unimaginative yet calculating,) is in full panic mode. They’re being just plain stupid now. Like the Chimera when she realizes Odysseus just isn’t falling for it. Or Mystique when the Wolverine has bested her.

The “omney yan” yard signs should be the first clue that something is out of balance. Have you seen them? So poorly designed that the “R”s are almost invisible. Maybe the campaign couldn't find a single graphic designer with an ounce of imagination who would work with them. Or perhaps some clever graphic artist sabotaged the logo by underdesigning it, and still brought home a good paycheck. (Kudos, if some artist pulled that one off!) The Republican Party can probably afford to dust every street corner in the nation with these yucky signs. But does more yuckiness mean more votes? 

The coup de grace, though, is the new spate of Republican ads on YouTube. Now, I’m not sure of the exact demographic that tunes in to YouTube, but I’m guessing it’s one that is generally more informed, creative, engaged, critical, and interactive than the one vegging out in front of The Tube at prime time. In other words, the Far Right is probably not going to find a large fertile field for its narrow, selfish platform here. On top of that, the ads they’re running are the obnoxious kind that can’t be turned off after a few seconds. I guess this type of ad costs more money. So of course they can afford it. And the ads are bad! The color schemes, the editing, the writing… just plain bad art, funded by people whose aesthetic sense is blinded by fear-based ideology. 

So what they’re doing is using their superior spending power to create an ugly and obnoxious presence on YouTube that will probably turn people already unsympathetic to their agenda even more strongly against them. Spend away, boys! Keep those big bucks rolling in to populist online information hubs! We can endure your ugly ads for another month, I suppose.

My hope is, of course, that this annoyance will get young YouTube watchers to actually vote.

What’s really exciting about this phenomenon, though, is that it’s a harbinger of a potential sea change in consciousness. The less it feels the need to hide behind a mask of average American values, the more the Extreme Right is showing us all what it truly is and who is behind it. It’s the same way the villain in an epic adventure takes off his disguise for the final confrontation, when he’s sure that he’s winning. It’s a sign of overconfidence and narrow vision. (For those who feel my references to fictional stories weaken my argument, remember that our mythologies are a reflection of real processes in our psyches. And our institutions are a macrocosm of ourselves. Or so Socrates implies.)

We may be coming to a point in time where the majority of voting-enabled Americans will be presented with a fresh new choice. And God knows they’ve been longing for one. The choice is no longer between two fairly reasonable political ideologies. As well, it is not between two puppets spouting differing policy stances but still in the pockets of corporate power - the "lesser of two evils." Please get over these old scripts; one is antiquated and erroneous and the other is debilitating to the spirit. 

The choice we have before us is between beauty and ugliness. Between love, music, creativity, intelligence, responsibility, care, compassion, diversity, fertility, aliveness, sexiness, and humor, and a pale, fearful, monochrome worldview that negates all of these. We are coming to a time where our survival as a democratic state may actually depend on the electorate going with their gut. The Right no longer feels accountable to factual truth. Yes, that’s another sign of pathological thinking and moral bankruptcy, but maybe there is a bright side; when facts become so clouded and inaccessible that rational choice becomes difficult, it forces one to go with feelings and intuition. (It’s the whole point of a Zen koan to confound the logical brain, hence opening the doors of the mind for spontaneous wisdom.) The overworked, underpaid, malnourished, ill-informed, frustrated majority of Americans with no time to research the issues is going to have to decide, on feeling, whether to go with those guys who are beating us over the head with excessive, ugly, divisive, negative ads, or the ones who can’t afford as much airtime. Since the life-affirming doesn’t get much voice in the mainstream, the average American may have to gamble on the ones not making as much noise, may have to step into The Unknown.

Yes, I’m talking about the Big Shift here. Most of those still reading this have done some sort of inner work that required them to step outside of their comfort zone for the sake of their souls, whether through mainstream therapy or through spiritual work. In the lives of most adults there comes a point where, for the sake of health, survival, or merely happiness, we are faced with a choice to let go of old destructive behaviors and beliefs. This process always requires surrender to feeling and intuition. I think we as a nation are coming to the same place in our collective story. (Remember Plato? The larger is a reflection of the smaller, and vice-versa.)

Will we make the step? It’s anybody’s guess. I think something else is being challenged, too. Our faith. It’s a sad side effect of critical thinking that it can lead to a pessimistic outlook on the future of humanity, or at least for America. So the challenge for critical thinkers is to stay positive, trust that one way or another we’re going to be ok, and remember that there is a younger generation of people not so hardened by disappointment; they’re the ones who got Obama into the White House in the first place, against all odds, purely on innocent faith and youthful energy. Remember that. Remember that the way Christians remember that “Pharaoh’s army got drowned in the Red Sea,” or the way Jews remember the Menorah candles staying lit. Try some faith. You don’t have to be religious.

What can we do on the ground? Encourage voting. Vote. It’s not just about the Presidency – we need a Congress that can work with Obama or we will suffer four more years of struggle and stagnation. We can’t afford that. And we need state governments that will not waste our time and resources bucking national policy based on localized bigotry. Work for progressive congressional candidates in swing districts. There’s one near you, no doubt, worth a few hours’ drive if necessary - here's a good place to find out: House races: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/house/2012_elections_house_map.html 
Senate Races: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/senate/2012_elections_senate_map.html

Lest we forget the feeling...

Lest we forget the feeling…

During the last few months leading up to the 2008 election, I was living as a graduate student of Political Science (Theory focus) in Toronto, Ontario. I am a citizen of the United States. For the four days leading up to November 4th, I went south of the border and worked for the Obama campaign in Erie County, Pennsylvania. The day after the election, I rushed back north to attend that week’s seminar in a class called “Race.” All aglow with the magic of the night before, I had brought campaign stickers and other souvenirs with me in case my classmates wanted them. I sat bubbling with excitement like a little kid, waiting for someone to ask. As the seminar began my classmates, along with our Black professor, decided that the Obama election was not worth discussing, and immediately moved on to the week’s readings. With my heart in my throat I stormed out, ready to pack up my truck and drive back to Arizona that very day. A classmate called me on my cell phone and barely was able to coax me back. (By the way, that class turned out to be one of my all-time favorites, once I’d gotten my frustration out of my system. I will never forget some of the perspectives I heard in those seminars.)

I’m writing this because I feel I had a valuable perspective on the Obama election as an American living in another country at the time, and that from this perspective I could remind us of a few things.

Though I had friends, Canadian and of other nationalities, who were excited about Obama, I don’t think any of them could fully relate to the significance of the campaign or election. The palpable thickness in the American air that is the pain of race dissipates the moment one crosses the border north (Canada of course has its own historic hurts to heal, but they are qualitatively distinct. As all hurts are.) I never knew I was breathing such a stench until I smelled its crisp, clear absence. That lightness moved me to tears many times. The thought of it still does.

Also, my friends and colleagues had not been through the humiliation of eight years of Bush presidency. I don’t even know where to start in describing that.

In addition, the Canadian people have a different (read as “non-myopic”) perspective on world issues, a notable example being the War in Afghanistan. Over there, Canadian soldiers are serving in some of the most dangerous capacities (read as “doing the shit jobs”). Young Canadians are being sent home in body bags, unacknowledged in the U.S. news, for fighting a war opposed by the majority of Canadian people. My other international friends and colleagues in Toronto of course came from countries variously on the receiving end of U.S. hegemonic adventures and policies. Most of the people I knew up there were at the very least skeptical, often completely cynical, that even a brilliant and noble U.S. president would be able to affect much change in this country’s policies in relation to the international community. And of course their skepticism has proven correct. I intend only the deepest respect and sympathy for the people affected by the continued violence of U.S. policy; all I can say in that regard is that a Republican president and/or Congressional majority would be doing much greater damage, and with poisonous belligerence to boot.

What happened on November 4th, 2008, defies all rational accounting. Yes, I am talking about the level of the spiritual. Let’s go back to that moment, shall we?

Millions of Black Americans and White Americans wept in each other’s arms. If only for a moment, if only for a nanosecond, we were healed. Do you remember?

We all had the feeling of true victory. Not for our team, but for the whole human race. For our sense of humanity. Our dignity as Americans was restored in that moment, and amplified as actual pride – something we had not felt as a nation in a long time, maybe never.

It’s kind of like the experience surrounding “falling in love,” isn’t it? There are moments when our connection with that other person gives us a glimpse of eternity. It’s like the concept of spontaneous healing: in the moment we have the opportunity to know that we are already healed.

A friend in Tucson described the moment the announcement came; he said the sound that erupted from the crowd was like a jet plane taking off. He had never heard anything like it.

What kind of power can produce a sound like that from human voices? Faith can. Hope can. Love can.

People partied all over the world. Traffic stopped in U.S. cities. For a moment, or for an evening, or for a few euphoric days, people felt something new and truly glorious had happened. It was magical. Do you remember?

Please remember. Because while you all were enjoying that buzz, I had to go back to Toronto and face the cynicism of my sophisticated-worldly-political-science-grad-student classmates. I wanted more than anything to be back home bouncing shit-eating grins back and forth with my homies. But the contrast did me good, because I had to think hard about what made this election so special. I couldn’t articulate it to my classmates in terms of policy, critical race theory, quantitative analysis, poststructuralism, or any radical or traditional theoretical prism I could pull out of my trick bag. What had happened was magic. A miracle. One can be laughed out of a seminar for that sort of irrational talk.

That feeling that we shared was so radically new that it was subject to immediate disbelief and denial. You know how that works, right? You see something, such as a UFO, or a sublime work of art, that is outside of your conceptual universe of possibilities and that you perhaps have no language for, and it produces a moment of wonder, and then your rational mind kicks in, most likely cannot cope with the new information, and uses its old language and conceptual tools to either box the new experience into an old form or deny it altogether. (This is not an attack on the rational mind. I love my rational mind. I just need to use some discernment to know when it is and isn’t being useful.)

This mental backlash is what the radical Right banked on. It seems to me that the little group of perverted ideologues, and their morally bankrupt corporate sponsors, who are bent on trashing our democracy can only think in that boxy, disbelieving way. Theirs is the ultimate cynicism. It’s the cynicism that was threatened by Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Thomas Merton, John Lennon, and everyone who ever stood up boldly and spoke inspiringly about the political and social possibility of our Oneness.

Remember that moment. It is eternal. It is yours. It is ours. Just like that eternal moment you shared with your lover, or with your mother as she passed out of this world, or in the presence of some natural wonder that left you breathless, it is still here, inside of each one of us, to draw on anytime we need it. It’s how great relationships last through the hard times. You can call it faith. But it’s not a blind faith in someone else’s words – it is a faith in something, though “only” a feeling, that we all experienced. And we really, really need that feeling now.

If we allow ourselves to be browbeaten into cynicism, we will lose much more than an election. We will lose our soul. We would quite literally become our own enemy. Because our cause is not the policies we believe in. The policies we believe in are rather an expression, or manifestation, of the humanity, compassion and life-affirming creativity that are fundamental to our actions. Please reread those last few sentences.

So when we critique Obama’s policy decisions, let’s remember that we’re doing it from that fundamental place. Our frustration over his compromises and those of the Democrats in Congress comes from our ethical bottom line, and from remembering that hope that we experienced, and feeling it betrayed. But that ethical foundation of humanity and compassion is what in fact unifies us with those officials. Think on that for a moment. Dream on that.

They get scared, the Democrats. They get distracted, hoodwinked, and browbeat themselves. It is our job as democrats and human beings to keep them on task and support them to be brave and wise. Recall the relationship metaphor – when hard times hit, do we get a divorce, or do we have faith? It’s our call. There is great possibility for growth in working through the betrayals of life and love.

Just one more thought on the magical fall of 2008… How did the Obama campaign pull off victory? It was powered by young people, many of them too young to even vote themselves. I myself didn’t even think it was possible to elect someone of Obama’s quality as president, and any of my friends can tell you I am very strongly in the Pollyanna camp. But I’m in my 40’s, and I’ve had my heart broken a few too many times. Ultimately it took the clean, innocent, relentless hopefulness of youth to make it happen. Young people still have enough kid in them to believe in miracles and magic.

And so do you. If you choose. It’s in there, in that moment you experienced. Remember. Just remember. Feel it. We need it now.