The mission is quite clear: We the people need to save America’s democracy by voting for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, launching the strategic “battle for the soul of the nation.” This battle will begin to heal the deconstruction of the current administration and will inspire the dance of discovering, unfolding, and manifesting America’s uniqueness through a profound journey into the unknown. This trek demands trust, hope, faith, and awakening to radical freedom and to deep dimensions of embodied individuality, the unmanifest soul qualities of America’s natural world, heart, mind, and spirit. And this waltz into the unknown will be demanding, will not be easy, and will have challenges and opportunities. We may choose to resist it and miss a few steps; however, we will do the hard work. Imperative for this undertaking are strong leaders with exemplary leadership qualities who possess an impervious foundation of character, personality, and mentality that display peace-of-mind coupled with purpose and connections built on a foundation of compassion; published and walked core values, a code of ethics, guiding principles, and a track record of successes; a profound perspective and vision; an innate talent to accurately assess current reality; and an ability to build bipartisan coalitions who plan and strategize to evolve America’s soul qualities.
Let us do the homework and select political leaders who listen, inspire hope, have faith, are compassionate and empathetic, and who will know where the country is and what it needs; who will be surrounded by exceptionally well-qualified associates; who will diligently work to create a compelling worldview vision for the country; and who will lead the development of policies and programs to evolve this country for all Americans. Essential ingredients are leadership and management of the pandemic, voting integrity with a viable and well led United States Postal Service; an economy for working, middle-class families that is teeming with jobs, union solidarity, small businesses, and essential childcare; a globally envied education system; racial and social justice, diversity and anti-racism policy and programs; and global climate change leadership. Strategies will include affordable healthcare and viable public health outreach coupled with decreased drug prices, a leading-edge military and space force, visits to military deployment areas, veteran and veteran family benefits and outreach, national security and foreign policy with inspired allies, an infrastructure re-building program, and a masterful Joe and Jill Biden team, the mother and father of the Nation. Sensible gun laws, immigration reform and sanity, and programs for the advancement and placement of women will prevail.
Let us end the “dark.” America has had enough of a low functioning sociopath who is racist and who is protected by political party sorted, partisan, power worldview associates of the Federal government institution he and his cronies have chosen to deconstruct and destroy. The list of negatives far outweighs the positives: lies, denies, blames, and spins; egotistical and self-serving; unqualified for the position and has not grown into the job because he cannot; enlisted foreign interference in elections; several obstruction of justice charges; numerous lawsuits; behaves as a gangster and as if above the law; impeachment proceedings; accepts payoffs for positions; and numerous Trump party cronies—Lindsay Graham, Mitch McConnell, Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Michael Cohen, Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, et al—who are lost souls in search of a tribe. As Bernie Sanders has eloquently noted, “Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Trump golfs.”
We the people will see the “light,” vote, and select leaders, beginning with Joe and Kamala and Democratic Senators, who will right the ship, turn it around, and get America steaming into a future which sparkles and evolves the country to the leading edge of civilization. The “battle for the soul of the nation” inspires today and will inspire for generations to come, all folks interacting in an immense, unified community singing with unique voices as one choir. This is simply removing obstacles, growing up, waking up, showing up, digging deep, and uncovering talents and skills that were always there and just being discovered. It will be hard work! Just like learning to play the piano at 80 years old and playing “America the Beautiful” from memory for the first time.
America has a President and associates who are unraveling our democracy’s institutions; dismantling long standing norms; and enabling Russia’s strategy to deconstruct democratic countries around the globe. How did this happen?
The least common denominator is fifty plus years of deliberate political party polarization that opened the doors to the current administration and continued political warfare through use of institutional systems deconstruction—White House, Senate, House, Judicial and Intelligence—and associated chaos and confusion as weapons. The evolving, escalating political party differences and resentment, including religious and racial divisiveness, is fueled by crumbling, self-serving, senior party leadership who have relinquished tolerance, institutional forbearance, ethics and morals.
Political parties are democracy’s gatekeepers and a mission of senior party leadership is to be sensitive to evolving conditions for autocracy and thwart its cancer, even though decisions may, at times, be difficult and divisive. We have an antidemocratic President because senior party leadership abdicated mutual forbearance, institutional tolerance and responsibility for rooting-out bad apples. They opted for political gain and easy, short-term, polarizing solutions. This leadership was not objective, was self-serving and did not act in the best interests of the United States democracy, the American people, Republicans and Democrats. Quite simply, the desire for political gain cast aside the need for ethical-moral responsibility.
There are some paths: 1) Emergence of broad, pro-democratic coalitions of dissimilar viewpoints will signal swift recovery. Political parties will re-create respective brands and attributes and unite to confront the autocracy; democracy will be re-forged with the tools of tolerance and forbearance and senior leadership of parties will root-out the bad, autocratic apples. 2) The President and Republicans continue to win with white nationalist appeal and re-engineering of long standing norms—voting process and media integrity, truth telling, absence of nepotism and financial conflict of interest, non-tolerance of spousal abuse and sexual misconduct, diverse judicial nominations, vision for global peace and leadership with strong ethics and morals; or 3) Polarization with evolving, unwritten political conventions and erosion of long established norms continue. An autocrat will be at the helm; partisan hatred, deadlock, dysfunction and breakdown will escalate; and autocracy will become a reality.
Broad, pro-democratic coalitions of dissimilar viewpoints are a must for evolution of a sane, free America. Of necessity are the means to uncover leadership, tolerance, forbearance, restraint, teambuilding and common vision that transcends and includes differences. Find your pro-democratic coalition of dissimilar viewpoints! This is not about easy. This is about leadership, sacrifice, hard work and friendly, tough strife where seeds are uncovered and planted for democracy, human freedoms and genuine peace of mind to grow. As Kennedy implored, “…ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
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