We don’t see things as they are, the biblical adage says, we see them as we are. As the author of this opinion piece, then, I affirm that I am an American citizen who pays attention to politics and government. For a good 25 years that attention has been through a “conscious” lens, one that encourages us to live from a larger perspective. It says we are souls in bodies having human experiences. It says we create the the lives we want to live. It says that humanity is evolving its consciousness to one rooted in compassion and an understanding of our connections to one another.
In the aftermath of this month’s general election, I spy with my little consciousness eye, so much to celebrate — starting with how more of us than usual were determined to vote. I see Black Americans, in particular, and also Native, Latinx, and Asian Americans transcending pervasive, systemic suppression to make their voices heard. This, itself, is evidence of a grinding and unwavering commitment on the part of a multitude of activists and officeholders who, I believe, can rightfully claim credit for flipping Arizona and Georgia from red to blue at the presidential level. I see throngs more in Texas, Florida, North Carolina — and everywhere, really — feeling inspired, motivated, and encouraged by this election to keep going with the same work where they are to achieve a similar result. All of us navigated torrents of information and disinformation, facts, lies, and opinions on our way to voting. All of us made personal pandemic risk calculations to cast our votes. And we had an election that was actually free, fair, transparent, and secure. It seems to me that as a result of all of this, “voting matters” feels like much more of a thing than it has in a very long time.
That means we will not be able to “go bold” (my desire) with policy but will, instead, be relegated to old-way, hard-fought, slow, incremental progress because “bold” and “fuck you” just don’t resonate with each other.
I also spy with my little consciousness eye, so much to lament in this post-election season (I’m lookin’ at you, Democratic National Committee). But for me, today, what permeates my psyche and drowns out the rest is the painful disconnect I feel between utterly and completely aligning with fellow Biden-Harris voters on policy and what we want while not aligning even a little bit when it comes to how we navigate from here.
I’m talking specifically about understandable resistance on the part of a large swath of Biden voters to make any overtures whatsoever to the incumbent’s supporters, maybe ever? I don’t know. Many are Black and have been badly and repeatedly hurt and victimized by our society in ways the rest of us have not. This constituency consistently reports feeling exhausted, angry, and a million other feelings and is simply not in the mood for olive branches as articulated here by Damon Young, one of myriad examples I have seen and heard. And nobody has to be Black to recall that in spite of assiduously courting “the other side” when crafting and passing the Affordable Care Act — for but one example — the Obama Administration ultimately did so without any of its support (see Sen. Olympia Snowe, R, ME). Bottom-line, huge numbers of us have plenty of reasons for taking this stance. I get it. I accept it. And it pains me. It pains me because from a conscious politics perspective, the energy of political resistance, anger and the like simply does not resonate with the energy of political healing that racial justice, equitable health care and all the other policies can bring. That means we will not be able to “go bold” (my desire) with policy but will, instead, be relegated to old-way, hard-fought, slow, incremental progress because “bold” and “fuck you” just don’t resonate with each other. It pains me because I simply can’t countenance an approach to politics that values judgment over compassion. It pains me to feel the difference between where we are and where we could be.
As a conscious politics practitioner, however, I will not personally stay in pain because I don’t actually harbor the beliefs that undergird it — even if they briefly visited as I was absorbing more and more examples of the resistances of many fellow Biden-Harris voters. Beliefs like: things will never change; a conscious approach to politics in America is a lost cause; it doesn’t matter what I say or do. Yeah, no. Instead, my pain-free path begins with getting to neutral by being present to what is, accepting it all without judgment and without condoning it. I find no fault with nor do I condemn any of my fellow Biden-Harris voters, not even a little. Beyond that, the law of attraction is always on and intentions matter so I continue to invest time and energy in my version of what I hope is really a collective desire to live in a society, country, and world that works for everyone. I will exercise compassion by doing what I can to understand more about my fellow Americans who voted to re-elect the incumbent president. I will remain forever open to receiving any and all opportunities to infuse political nooks and crannies — and chasms — with this brand of conscious politics as and when they arise. And I will trust that I am right where I am supposed to be.
But again, that’s just me.
NOTE: Political anger was feeling familiar so I went to the archives and found two articles about it I’d posted on Medium about 18 months ago. This one, a three-minute read, argues that one cannot be angry and free at the same time. This one is longer and goes into specifics about how any of us can make better use of our political anger.
NOTE: It’s time again for this month’s live, online, interactive, let-talk-about-what-you-want-to-talk-about version of this newsletter in the form of “Spiritual Workout for Politics & Current Events.” It’s this Tuesday from 5:00-6:30pm Pacific/8:00-9:30pm Eastern or whatever time that is where you are.
Please use code SWP2020 to attend as my guest.
NOTE: Image courtesy of wallpapercave.com.