Don't be the Sheep

For too long our elections have been battles between lions. Like gladiator games, we are all in the stadium (or watching from home) with little to no impact on the outcome. We are the sheep. So okay, sheeple, let’s be clear about a few important truths: 

Republicans and Democrats are NOT the government. 

They are well-funded factions with paid operatives. They are what George Washington warned us about in his farewell address. They are national organizations that select candidates, decide which races to fund, and manipulate election law to secure their own power. 

Political parties are career politicians but that doesn’t mean they know how to govern. 

Political parties are about getting elected. The paid operatives inside the Republican and Democrat parties are strategists. They dice voter data, make judgments about candidate viability, and design and approve those negative ads we all hate. When paid political operatives take the stage, when they rig contests, when they fundraise, they are not acting in the best interests of the voters. They are acting in the best interests of the party. Because that’s who pays them. 

This is not the most important vote in your life. 

Any more than last presidential cycle was. Or the one before that. Politicians drive urgency to earn airtime. They are competing with social media, the struggles of your everyday life, your job, your kids, your sex life for attention. Politicians need your facetime and they get it by telling you how much they matter. This is a job interview and they are candidates. They are not heroes. They are not saviors. They are at best celebrities and at worst grifters. 

Everything is political only if you let it be. 

Suspicious of the accuracy of our voting system? Angry that some people aren’t wearing masks? Scared your business will fail if it stays closed? Don’t trust police to keep you safe? Think the border wall is the only way to maintain our national sovereignty? Everything is political if you let it be. And if you exist in your community, you know that nothing is political. How your neighbors treat you, the local restaurants and theaters and art exhibits that express love and pride, a Friday night football game of cheering fans, and school PTO meetings where volunteers support educators: that is life. Not red and blue states. Not pundits and soundbites. 

You are the power. 

After the smoke clears and the dust settles and mainstream media goes back to reporting on celebrity gossip, you can still enact change in your community. You can volunteer for local efforts to feed the hungry and shelter the homeless. You can organize community efforts to solve local issues, let your voice be heard at City and County Council meetings, challenge efforts to gerrymander districts. You can find validated news online and share that instead of echo-chamber propaganda. You can get out from behind your computer screen and realize real life, out there in the world, is less scary than the lions would have you believe. 

You can be the sheep. Or you can be the shepherd. Armed and ready to shoot the lions.

Love & Politics on Clemson Road

On January 21, 2017, I attended the Women’s March in Washington D.C. I carried a sign that said, “Because Love” on one side and “Because Hope” on the other.

 

I was there to heal. To understand what the fuck had just happened in the 2016 election when our broken system failed. It failed to deliver a slate of candidates who were (1) qualified, (2) inspiring, and (3) worthy of the great honor of being President.

I’m a Libertarian and I voted for Gary Johnson. Leading up to the election all I heard was that my vote would help elect Trump. Or Clinton. Not sure how that works that one vote for Gary Johnson counted three times: Against Clinton, Against Trump, and FOR the candidate I actually wanted.

But if I’m honest, even Johnson wasn’t the leader I was looking for.

So at the Women’s March I stood shoulder to shoulder with women who were worried about their reproductive rights, about the future of our country, and the lack of decency in politics and in the White House.

In the four years since then we have been on a wild ride. One that has further polarized and isolated us from each other and from what we think our government can and should do for us.

During the pandemic I was horrified at our country’s willing surrender of pretty much every civil right we have. Like supplicants, we looked to our government and begged it to save us. And if that wasn’t bad enough, our government failed. Like big time.

So what now? Where do we go from here?

That’s what this blog will attempt to reason out. Let’s think it through. Let’s talk it out. There are no easy answers and that’s okay. I don’t need easy and you shouldn’t want easy. Easy got us here: sadness, grief, anger, and frustration.

"Easy" – the idea that our politicians could and would fix it, that we “deserve” better, that we don’t have to do the work because they will – “Easy” got us where we are. And this place is at best unsustainable and at worst, a total failure of a citizenry to care for one another.

Something’s got to give.

Let us bring the LOVE. Bring the HOPE. Bring compassion, bring optimism, bring a willingness to roll up your sleeves and do the work. Bring your words and let’s work on this together.

Who’s in?

This is an open invitation to anyone who wants to write a blog on the topic of Love & Politics to contribute to this space. It’s safe here, I promise. You are welcome here. You don’t have to agree with me or anyone else. Just tell us a story. Make a case. Make an effort.

Leave a comment if you’d like to contribute or reach out to me kasie@clemsonroad.com and let's talk.

Choose love, people, for everyone's sake, choose LOVE

My heart has been breaking in my Facebook news feed today.

So many of my “friends” are speaking out against accepting Syrian refugees. They say the refugees threaten our national security. They say we don’t have the resources to sustain them. They say they can’t be trusted. They say our leaders who show compassion are weak.

Then they say we should consider letting in the Syrians if they are Christian.

And my heart hurts.

Where is the love?

Just when I think hatred has been stirred by the fear and that the fear mongers and the haters are winning, I see this beautiful tribute from one victim’s husband and I’m crying.

LOVE.

I remember the families from the Charleston shootings offering forgiveness and LOVE.

LOVE.

Only love is strong enough to combat the hatred ISIS is perpetuating. Not the military, not closing our borders. It’s the worst kind of isolationism to send our troops to kill them and close our doors to their victims.

What the hell is wrong with our world?

Why aren’t we speaking more LOVE?

Only LOVE can save us. Prayer cannot, not when the people praying are also refusing to help. War cannot when the soldiers we send are flushing more victims into the world with nowhere to go. Politics cannot when the criminals are running a help desk and our politicians are tweeting fear and hate.

I tell Hollie constantly, “Speak with love. Act with love. Find the love and let it determine how you respond.”

People are angry. They are afraid. They are being told what we don’t have. But what we do have is love. Find it. Feel it. Give it. It is the one resource which never runs out and is violently contagious. It is the one action we have that is proof of a higher being: the source of love.