It's the Energy, Stupid

Issue 121

When Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992, I was introduced to him extremely early in the primary process because I’m that geeky politics guy and I was looking for a Democrat to get excited about. Ronald Reagan was first inaugurated the year I graduated college, so I had lived the first 12 years of my adult life under his and George H.W. Bush’s policies and I was over it. Clinton was one of the “seven dwarfs” who’d thrown his hat in the ring that year for the Democratic nomination and I was immediately smitten with him, his candidacy, and his campaign.

I was fueled by what I now know is inspiration — the part of our conscious practice that is the crux of everything. Inspiration is where feeling resides. It’s something that is both physical and metaphysical. It is the very thing we are encouraged as new-consciousness people to be guided by and we call it listen to inspiration. With that campaign, the feelings I felt included energized, excited, enthusiastic, exhilarated, exuberant, ecstatic and other ones that don’t start with e like joyful and grateful and connected. When any of us feel feelings like these, the feelings themselves are irrefutable evidence, irrefutable, that we are in alignment with ourselves. It means that whatever it is that’s being thought about or considered or experienced (Clinton’s candidacy) matches up with who we are and what we want (for George H.W. Bush to be defeated). It’s not a head game, it’s a heart game. It’s not an old-consciousness way to go, it’s a new-consciousness way to go. Alignment with what we want, of course, is what brings what we want. (Reminder: I don’t make the rules.) When we are living intentionally, creating new realities on purpose, we do everything in our power — because the law of attraction is always on — to take whatever energy that even remotely aligns with what we’re wanting and, on purpose, make it bigger. We magnify it. We cultivate it. We embody it. We fan its sparks and pour gasoline on its flames all to make more of it. It’s everyday practice, plain and simple.

So you probably know that Clinton’s chief strategist in that campaign was a guy named James Carville, credited with creating the slogan, “It’s the Economy, Stupid,” which entered the political zeitgeist then and has lingered ever since. (I used it here as well.) It was a message to the campaign itself to stay focused; it was a message to voters that a Clinton administration would be about the business of improving the economy for everyday Americans. Considered nowadays to be an elder political Democratic strategist sage of sorts, I heard him say some things the other day as all manner of exuberance and excitement began accruing to the putative Democratic nominee. “We have too much triumphalism going on…that excitement must be tempered with realism.” And with that, fingernails on the blackboard, Mr. Carville offered a perfect example of the working title my book: “If We Knew What We Were Doing, We’d Do Everything Differently: An Introduction to Conscious Politics.” Thank you very much.

The energy of these Americans has been unseen/dormant/hidden/eclipsed/waning because President Biden had become an untrustworthy avatar for what they want. He came to understand that, withdrew his candidacy, endorsed a far more trustworthy avatar for what they want and, suddenly, there is a place for all of that energy to go.

If our boogeyman for today knew what he was doing, as it were, he would be using his formidable influence to encourage the Harris campaign and its current and future supporters whoever they are and wherever they may be, to talk incessantly about the staggering shift in political energy that has occurred during the last six or seven days, the spontaneous outpouring of exuberance, excitement, and enthusiasm that Harris supporters feel, yes feel, the hordes of people who have never contributed to a political campaign clamoring to do so now, the spontaneous sign-ups of more than one hundred thousand new volunteers whose gifts of precious time and energy are immeasurable, the coffers of down-ballot Democratic campaigns filling up, the more than 50-point increase in Democratic enthusiasm, the 20-point increase in support of Harris vs. Trump among young voters, and the cherry on top of all: as of Friday morning, the more than 100,000 new voter registrations — 85% of whom are under 35. Read that again; I’ll wait.

If he knew what he was doing he would know that the “realism” of which he speaks actually bespeaks his own fear and doubt. “It’s going to be a close election.” “The ice pick cometh.” “Watch out, people…don’t get too far out there.” Enough fear and doubt already! He doesn’t know the race will be close and he doesn’t seem to realize that the energy of Harris supporters simply does not resonate with the energy of Republican attacks, drenched as they are (so far) in racism and misogyny. They won’t fall prey to messages like that and, if anything, it will inspire in them more enthusiasm and determination to win in November.

There are, simply, far more Americans who want a multi-racial, multi-cultural, equitable, democratic society that works for everyone than those who want what the Republicans are offering (which often gets lost because of how overrepresented they are in America’s legislatures, but I digress). The energy of these Americans has been unseen/dormant/hidden/eclipsed/waning because President Biden had become an untrustworthy avatar for what they want. He came to understand that, withdrew his candidacy, endorsed a far more trustworthy avatar for what they want and, suddenly, there is a place for all of that energy to go. It has been dislodged and unstuck and this is precisely how energy works on this planet: it doesn’t get created or destroyed, it just changes form, and that’s all the physics I have for you today. In healthy ecosystems, energy is in constant motion. In unhealthy ecosystems, energy stagnates and when healing occurs, it moves. Well a whole bunch of stagnated energy just moved and now it’s up to Harris supporters to keep it moving.

No judgment, Mr. Carville, and I won’t call you stupid. But I will tell you that when it comes to conscious politics, it’s all about the energy — what everything is.