I do not want to spend a lot of time here groaning about the Republicans' false piety or the Democrats' lack of vision. I accept those things as given, and when I do want to delve into them, there are plenty of other blogs that focus on just that (Daily Kos and Talking Points Memo and Common Dreams, to name a few).
Here, I want to talk about the principles that I don't see represented in the mainstream campaigns, or only rarely. Ellie mentioned "respect others; never harm another; be generous; remember that we as humans, are one body -- an act on one part has effects on the entirety." I believe this is a great start. So many of the political positions I hold stem from these basis precepts.
But I want to focus this morning on the last one -- this sense of interconnectedness. We are all one. Or the more familiar, love one another as you would love yourself. I read a beautiful draft personal statement by a prospective law student the other day. This young man, in the 3 or 4 years since he graduated from college, has been an aid worker in Macedonia and Afghanistan. He also put in good time during the recovery efforts at Ground Zero. He started off his statement with the bold, "I am an aid worker because it is the right thing to do." But he elaborated on that point a bit when he said something like, I went to help my Afghan neighbors rebuild after 27 years of war, because I know they would do the same for me if our roles were reversed. Neighbors do that, he said, they help each other out.
Love thy neighbor, right? Startling simplicity. And yet we are all so good at making distinctions about who really is our neighbor and who is not. Town lines, county lines, state lines, national borders -- these are just the beginnings of how we are able to distinguish between us and them. Race and class provide another fence between the backyards. Why do some of us focus on the connections and others focus on the fences? Is it all about fear of the Other?
And yet, we are the nation of the Team. Loyalty to one's teammates is prized above so many other values. "We must all hang together, or we shall surely hang separately." American as apple pie and, well, football.
Here is this value (or moral or principle -- whatever we decide to call it) that is pure Americana, infused with a Christian basis, permeating every other religion as well. I think this one does get articulated a fair amount by politicians, but not lived out. Because if you take this principle seriously, we wouldn't have such a poverty problem. We wouldn't hesitate to spend money on health care (including mental health care), and we would never want profit to come before basic needs like housing, food and healthcare.
How do we inspire others to take this principle seriously, and not just give it lip service?
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I'm not actually sure either of those gambits work in the long run. The short-term strategy inevitably leads to compromises of the "I'll vote for you bill if you vote for mine" variety. This sort of slow erosion of principle has been the hallmark of the Democrats. On the hand, "My principles are better than your principles" has been the strategy of the right.
There's just gotta be another way. Maybe something more akin to what you suggest about living our principles and waiting for our lives to inspire others.
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