I am a proud American. I love my country.
And I believe we can make our country work, for benefit of an overwhelming majority.
Part 1 of this series focused on what’s wrong with America. Now, in Part 2, I will outline three remedies that I believe will not wave a magic wand to solve every problem, but will set the foundation for us to be able to overcome any challenge we face, now and in the future.
Remedy 1: Listen to each other.
If all change is bottom-up, then it starts with the person hosting your beating heart.
Right after Donald Trump won the election in 2016, I had lunch with a friend. She is a holistic health practitioner, lightworker, vegetarian, and a true lefty. Between shock and depression, she said, “Maybe I need to make an effort to listen to people from the right.” I said I held some right-leaning views, and she stared at me. She had no idea — always thought I was like her. After a moment, she said, “Please, tell me everything.” I did, and she found herself agreeing when I said the Left is a circular firing squad and it’s no wonder they lose after nominating uncharismatic candidates whose only virtue is tenure, expecting to automatically win because their own ivory tower believes the other side is a bunch of Nazis and therefore nothing needs to be done to win over the American people. After I finished, she said, “Yes. Thank you.”
I was pro-Hillary in 2016, and ended up having a similar lunch with a yuge Bernie Sanders supporter before the general election. This time, it was for me to learn. I must say I got up from that table with a newfound respect and understanding for why Bernie was relevant, why his message resonated with younger voters, and why his supporters needed to be listened to. The fact the DEMe ignored them, had a lot to do with why Bernie supporters stayed home in Pennsylvania and Michigan.
I know two people, who are close friends. They are complete opposites on the political spectrum. They give each other shit, every chance they get. But they remain close friends.
We need to engage in conversation with people who hold views different than our own. Some of their opinions, might have a point. Some of your opinions, might rub off on them. You could be surprised.
We need to see the humanity in others. The fact is, not every liberal is featured on SJW Central, and not every conservative is featured on Jordan Klepper.
If you are unwilling to converse with anyone from the other side because “I won’t listen to them, because they obviously aren’t interested in listening to me,” then you are the problem — not the other side.
I was touched by a Gandhi movie scene, where a Hindu man confessed to killing a Muslim, because his little boy was murdered, and the Hindu man said he was going to Hell. Gandhi told him a way out of Hell: he must adopt a little boy, same height as his son, who was a Muslim, and this boy must be allowed to grow up as such. It was one of the best personal redemption scenes in any movie I’ve watched.
If you want to cleanse yourself of any political toxicity which has infected you, then you must make positive relationship with at least one member of the other side, and allow them to remain as such.
If you cannot see the light of luminosity in somebody just because they hold different views, then what does this say about the diminished state of your own luminosity?
Not to mention, if we start listening to each other, we’ll act more as one country, and there will actually be good will, which helps us agree upon solutions.
Remedy 2: Stop with the Hitler comparisons
Donald Trump is not Adolf Hitler. Hitler was a lifelong politician whose rage and paranoia drove him to start a world war and exterminate six million Jews. Trump is a reality TV wanker who aspires to be Cruella de Vil. There is a huge fucking difference.
Barack Obama is not Adolf Hitler. I don’t know if you remember this, but when he was selling Obamacare, there were organized efforts to portray him as Hitler, because he wanted to pass public option health care. There is a huge fucking difference.
If you agree with nothing else I say, tap your favorite EFT release point and repeat after me: “Just because I don’t like what someone is saying, and just because I believe their direction is making things worse, does not make them Hitler!”
Watch a documentary on Auschwitz. Better yet, visit Auschwitz and Birkenau. Donald Trump and Barack Obama are not even close to the same league.
Just stop.
Remedy 3: Put country before ideology
This is the big one. If we do this, we will survive. If we don’t, we won’t.
Republicans did this, after Putin invaded Ukraine. Conservatives’ bromance with Putin ended within days. If you go to conservative forum sites, there is now universal recognition of Putin as America’s enemy. And while there is still sniping against Biden, there is no more talk of weakening or disbanding NATO.
Democrats did this, after 9/11. We as a country grouped together to support our President. The 2002 mission in Afghanistan had not only universal American support, it was the one and only instance of invoking Section 5 of the NATO charter: an attack on one is an attack on all. Most of the world joined us, at least in spirit. But what helped our country the most, was that Democrats put partisan differences aside.
It seems that we come together as a nation, when an outside force threatens our existence. Pearl Harbor did this, literally overnight. I have no doubt that if an alien species were to invade earth, The United States of America would provide the fiercest and most unified resistance of any on Earth. An existential threat brings out the very best in us.
But absent such a threat, manufactured threats sprung from uncompromising ideologies bring out the very worst in us.
The Political Industrial Complex has to end.
Establish term limits for members of Congress, through Constitutional Amendment. Mitch McConnell, Charles Schumer — 12 years and done. How much better off would we be.
Stop enabling those who seek to divide us, for their own personal gain. Stop watching them on TV. Stop voting for them. And for God’s sake, stop paying them.
Sarah Palin went away, not when conservatives finally realized she was off her rocker, but when liberals finally stopped paying attention to her.
If you’re liberal, don’t pay attention to Marjorie Taylor Greene — other than working to defeat her in the election. If you’re conservative, don’t pay attention to Ilhan Omar — other than working to defeat her in the election.
Start recognizing those whose intention is to make this country a better nation. Like Stephanie Murphy. Put THEM in power.
And yes, there are differences of opinion. Always. There are differences of opinion between the closest of allies, between happy life partners, among work colleagues, and in strained but committed marriages. Learn to work with each other. It’s a skill. It can be developed. If individual families can do it, then why can’t our leaders who are supposed to be responsible for our nation’s well-being?
There are ways that everybody can get what they need. There are ways to financially support the masses, while still allowing unlimited opportunity for those who have the ambition. There are ways of setting a fair tax code, where those who do best give the most back, without giving them the finger. There are ways of establishing a moral and just society, while still allowing people the freedom and liberty guaranteed in our founding documents. There are ways of increasing racial equality, and gender equality, without burning everything down.
To Conclude
That’s as much as I can do. I have no interest in ever running for office, nor being a political talking head. But I do have interest in seeing our country survive, and thrive.
Please try.
