Can we get smart in
the Democratic primary about our common welfare? In a spiritual path that I
walk, we have traditions that set the guardrails for our behavior with each
other and in all aspects of our lives. We joke that the traditions are
there to prevent homicide while the self-reflection parts of the path are there
to prevent suicide. Since there are 12 of them, I try to focus on
one each month. This month I am studying tradition one with the guiding
principle of Unity. It reads:
Our
common welfare should come first; personal progress for the greatest number depends
upon unity.
"Coincidentally,"
a friend of mine (who also follows this path) mentioned to me today that she
thinks people who want to defeat Trump have to get really smart really fast
about how we don't let (and participate in) the opposition dividing us.
She noticed how she as an undecided who wants to go all in to defeat the
incumbent was already starting to feel impulses of disunity.
She heard, like many
of us, that a certain celebrity who may have espoused beliefs that neither she
nor I share, is supporting a presidential candidate whose values we otherwise
support. And she noticed that she had the surge of a thought, "oh my
God, I can't support this person." And then she noticed, "oh
wow, this is how they do it." "We can't let them do this to
us."
Granted, all primaries
are at least temporarily divisive and highlight the differences amongst
candidates and then we inevitably come together in the general to
support. Remember, despite all kinds of bad feelings about losing in the
electoral college, that coalescence did happen in large part
in 2016. Folks from all walks center to left came together, many of us,
like myself, holding our nose (due to old & new resentments against her) to
vote for the Democratic nominee. As a
result she handily won the popular vote. Unfortunately, she also lost in
key battleground states where there was depressed Democratic energy and
enthusiasm. This coming together regardless of result is bound to happen
in the 2020 general.
We also know that
between Russian bots and their allies in the US, there are forces already
meddling in US politics and trying to divide Democrats or depress turnout in
all kinds of ways. These operatives have already been hard at work
dividing us. They know exactly how to do it. They know that we can
turn on each other quickly over issues of gender, race and other matters.
This is a tender area
to even talk about because to imply that we remain united regardless of
differences that have been highlighted may risk implying that issues of gender
or race or whatever else they are trying to divide us over should take a back
seat to other issues. I don't think that. But what I do think is
this:
Our
common welfare should come first; personal progress for the greatest number
depends upon unity.
What I know about the application of
this tradition or principle is that it never seems
convenient. And when I feel attached to my rightness my point of view and
what I want and believe (as I totally do at this moment by the
way), I am singularly uninterested in the concept of common
welfare. Or, more accurately, it seems like a cop-out or a fake
thing perpetrated by "the man." But what I have learned is that
in many other circumstances, principally my marriage, my family, my
neighborhood, my spiritual communities, my work life, that if I can get my
little self out of the way and get interested in this question "what is
our common welfare?" and ask for humility and guidance on this matter. I get it.
I say aloud to the universe something
like this, "please show me what our common welfare is here and how
to be interested in it. I don't know. I don't know how to
tell what is really important. Please don't let me be caught up by
differences between us. Please let me actually care enough about this
higher good that I get myself out of the way of it."
And it works. It actually manifests.
Often I reluctantly resentfully give way and later realize it was the right
thing. More rarely the peaceful knowing descends on the front end.
It matters little because I come to know that the common welfare mattered and I
come to support it.
My guess is that if this works in my
little spaces, it will work in the Democratic primary. Who is with
me?
1 comment:
I'm with you!
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