The Election is over and a new dawn of opportunities is breaking. Just think of all the things that are potentially different today:
1. No more election campaign!
Well, what are you looking at me for? Did you expect more?
OK. We have unlimited opportunities in front of us–but ALL of them were there yesterday, too. The election has changed almost nothing about what each of us can do to make the world a better place. Today is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!
Elections are distortions in the space-time continuum that are like sun spots. For most of us, they just happen and we can’t do anything about them. Because of the two-party system in America, they end up being a reflection of the core beliefs of the citizens and not some accident of nature or act of God. And because of the two-party system in America, elections produce a government of moderation. Our government has always been about the best one possible, given what we put into it.
When we read political tracts from the Roman Empire, spanning the time from Julius Caesar to Caesar Augustus, they sound almost identical to our campaigns today. Humans have never been stupid and civilization isn’t gradually getting "better" every century except in science and technology. Humans are born with potential and they grow up for their allotted years and make the best of it. Then they die. I am convinced that in all epochs of history mankind has had an equal opportunity to do the right thing. Not every human, of course; but mankind in general.
It is true that our individual lives are impacted by the ebb and flow of "society" around us. That’s why we today have elections. We can vote, of course, and we can encourage talented people around us to pursue careers further up the food chain. If the top echelon is filled with political animals and our governments are plagued by cronyism, it’s because too many of us have used poor judgment in selecting those we push out into the public arena.
Obviously, around the world there are many governments in great need of reform. To a lesser extent there is a need for reform here in America, as well. Career politicians have far more opportunity than we voters to set this reform in motion. But that’s their job. We elect them; they do their best; we evaluate them and decide whether or not to send them back.
So what do we do the rest of the time?
"Bottom Up" Reform.
I’ll admit up front that mine is a "personal responsibility" based point of view. It does not allow victimhood to waive the rules and shift the responsibility onto the government for how each of us lives.
1. The first step in bottom up reform is to control the input. Everyone agrees that he or she must decide where to look for information and education; I have decided for myself (since 1974) and I recommend that we all NOT look to the broadcast media for these essential human needs. Turn off the TV and radio news. Only use print or "on demand" media; something you can easily "skip" and go on to the next item.
2. The second step is to manage the input. Besides choosing good sources and skipping the garbage, we need to organize the information and process it so that it becomes part of our intellectual toolkit and makes a difference in our lives. College students don’t just show up for class (though, even that would help some students), they have to study. My educational project called L E Centre, or The Lifetime Education Center, advocates that everyone be his or her own "school" and draft a curriculum plan and develop habits of lifelong learning. Sort of an introverted "home school" closed circuit TV of the mind.
This "plan" is not new or even rare and novel. It’s what good people have been doing for millennia. I think there are even major motion pictures with fathers or mentors walking down tree-lined paths with their proteges in which they pass on exactly this same plan. The words are different. The plan is the same:
"These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."*
*Dt 6:6-7
OK, I was wrong in expecting "no consensus" in the election outcome. The unaligned voters didn\’t split evenly as I expected. Otherwise, it was just what I expected. Both parties\’ regular members voted in favor of their own party\’s core values.
There are some lessons to be learned from this election:
1. If your party is heading up the administration and you detect something as ominous as the financial debacle growing like cancer within the nation and the world, do something about it. "Trying" to do something and then giving up when thwarted by Congress is no excuse.
2. If your party is heading up the administration and the media are shaping world opinion by distorting their reports and by defining "your" motivations in the public eye, do something about it. Having press secretaries answer questions is not your only recourse.
3. If your party\’s message is often misstated by your members\’ favorite pundits, publish more engaging and effective books and magazines to thrash out these inconsistencies. Don\’t be laissez faire in public relations.
This election wasn\’t bad luck; it was missed opportunities.