Faithful Democrats
This election has gripped my soul and I swing from hope to despair on an almost daily basis. The time has come to move beyond black-and-white, red-or-blue.
What is the spiritual equivalent of manic depression? Whatever it is, I think I have it. This election has gripped my soul and I swing from hope to despair on an almost daily basis.
There has been much to inspire me. Friends and I coordinated to sponsor a van of volunteers from the Bronx who drove out to Ohio during their ‘Golden Week’ of early voting. The volunteers have come back with tales of working 15-hour days to help people in homeless shelters register and vote. My three-year-old daughter and I baked cupcakes and joined other families in our neighborhood for a Lemonade-for-Obama stand. We raised hundreds of dollars – some passers-by were reaching into their pockets just to give us what they could for the cause. While making calls for MoveOn.org I got to speak to people I would otherwise never come in contact with – and the impressions they shared with me seem to echo the polls: more and more people are saying they need a change, and they’ll be voting for Barack Obama.
There has been much to dampen my spirits. A friend’s mother-in-law from Kentucky who has always, always voted Democrat, will not be voting for Obama because she thinks he is ‘too haughty.’ A waitress told my husband and me that she was going to vote for Obama even though she was afraid that if he is elected it would give black people the idea that he was ‘their’ president. I see political ads and hear campaign rhetoric that use lies to increase fear.
I have to remind myself that this is a not clear-cut battle between good and evil. There are people who will vote for Senator McCain who are morally responsible individuals, just as there are supporters of Senator Obama whose actions in other areas I might find objectionable. I have to remind myself of this because it is tempting to think "evil" when I see image after image of all-white crowds at McCain-Palin rallies, when I hear stories of people at Republican rallies saying that Senator Obama is an "Arab" and others shouting "kill him". It is hard not to feel that dark forces are at work after watching a report on Democracy Now that predicts millions of poor voters will be disenfranchised on election day.
For so many reasons it is tempting to see the choice that is facing our nation as a black-and-white choice. Choose McCain or Choose Obama. And I’ve now heard more than one friend suggest that the divide between "blue and red America" is so stark that we should become two separate countries. Which side to you blame and therefore hate? Which side do you root for and therefore love? Even the candidates’ skin tones seem to echo a choice of binary opposition. But the irony is that we are at a cross-roads, we are being asked to make a decision that will likely change the course of our national destiny, and the choice is not that simple.
The choice facing the American people is not an Either-Or decision. It is an opportunity to transcend the black-and-white thinking that says Us=Good Them=The Problem. It is an opportunity to reclaim responsibility and place it in dynamic dialogue with our rights.
Collectively, America is being confronted with some of its greatest darkness. This financial crisis has its roots in our greed, entitlement and materialism; we are waking to the fact that bit by bit the American Dream has lost its integrity and has become a version of: "I’m entitled to a whole lot of material comforts. Period." Whether the American "I" is on Wall Street or on Main Street, whether it’s a corporate entity or a taxpaying family. A democracy is wholly reliant on a delicate balance between rights and responsibilities in order to function. And each of us – every citizen, elected official, and corporate body – needs to strike that balance. Rights granted and responsibility taken. And I’ve been asking myself: Which aspects of America still promote that balance?
When "I’m entitled to material comfort" is the credo that we as a society espouse, we tell our lawmakers, "Make it easier for us, the individuals, to own what we can’t afford. Make it easier for us, the corporations, to take advantage of individuals in the pursuit of unchecked material profit."
When "I’m entitled" is our motto, we are telling our candidates (of all parties) that responsibility has no currency in the electoral process. We let them know loud and clear that they better tell us what we want to hear: "Yes, America, you are entitled… and no, we won’t ask you to take on responsibility commensurate with that entitlement." A prime example of this dynamic? Just look at how the subject of taxes functions in presidential politics. "He wants to raise your taxes!" "No, I want to give you a tax cut!" And by telling the candidates that they better not make our responsibility part of their platform we are also telling them that they do not need to take responsibility either. All the finger-pointing and blaming that we hear ‘from Washington’ that is making us sick We need to see that as a reflection of the larger American ethos.
It is an unhealthy and false split that has us believing in our own entitlement without acknowledging the responsibility that necessarily comes along with it. This split we’ve set up teaches us to claim the good parts for ourselves and reject the tough bits, projecting them onto someone else. . If we can scapegoat those we see as Other, the problem stays safely Over There where we can point and blame and punish ("The terrorists!" "Wall Street!" "Republicans" "Washington" "Liberals" and on and on). This creates a dangerous spiral of black-and-white thinking, which in turn spawns some of our nation’s ugliest tendencies. Racism has such deep roots in us because it appeals to the temptation to think in easy black-and-white. The split creates a vague but persistent fear: If he looks different, or has an "other"-sounding name, isn’t he a Them? If I vote for someone Other, will it threaten my own entitlement in some undefined, menacing way?
Reflecting on the things that have given me hope these past few weeks, and those which have made me despair, I notice a pattern. I have had greatest hope when I am actively involved in working towards getting Barack Obama elected. But it is not just the potential end-goal that has given my spirits a lift. It is the action of taking on more responsibility. It is the energy of connecting with an array of people – some of them total strangers – from a variety of places, socio-economic backgrounds, and ethnicities. It is the opportunity to work collectively towards a common goal that each of us sincerely believes will be better for all.
The cynic in me understands that as a candidate Senator Obama is wise to continue to play to people’s fears about the economy; I understand that he continues to emphasize links between his opponent and George Bush because at this point even Republicans blame Bush, so this will get him more votes; I see that promising tax cuts to the middle class is his flashiest offering to the electorate. But I believe our greatest hope is that when people vote on November 4th we do so out of a sense of personal responsibility for a nation that has lost its way. And I hope that the candidate that wins is willing and able to transcend an Us against Them mentality, willing to reclaim American Responsibility.
That would be Change We Need.
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