Tom Cotton said something that helped me understand some of the political stuff happening and why some friends can still support Trump no matter how disgusting he is.
When Tom Cotton introduced the idea of how fighters can fight each other but might not really dislike each other and shake hands when it is over, the whole paradigm made sense. It’s about how one thinks. Is it a game level support or has it become your identity. It makes a difference because if you are caught up in the game conflict you cannot see the big picture.
We all have relatives who are rooting for the other side and can’t see beyond the present political fight. When you watch a boxing fight or football you are focused on your team winning and not looking at things like lack of integrity or even people’s color. You bought into supporting that side or that person winning,. You’re a Broncos fan or supporting someone running a race and it doesn’t go any deeper than that. A lot of people are not very deep. They just choose sides. Choosing sides just for the sake of the game is very different from it becoming your whole identity.
I think about my sister-in-law who lives in an all white area and works for the church. When I visited her I saw only one black person in the whole church and I went to 3 different services. I know underneath she is racist. I could tell that she was proud that their area is all white. They can tolerate one black person as their christian duty but if a lot of blacks showed up, I know it would rock their boat. They would not see them as people in their church. We cannot discuss politics because she likes Trump. She doesn’t care if he is a liar. He supports her white side. White is her identity. She doesn’t buy into the larger human race as equal.
It seems there are three kinds of people in politics. Republicans, democrats, and the unaffiliated, independents.
If you identify as Republican or Democrat, you take sides. You root for your side just like a boxing match. It could be just a fun game of who wins as long as you don’t make it your identity.
People who make being Republican or Democrat their identity is very different from those who don’t label themselves. Those who label themselves staunch Democrats or Republicans have to buy into everything their side represents and ignore what they don’t agree with. People who want to stay objective may take sides on some things, support some things, but not buy into the whole identity and maybe they are just there to watch the game and only participate where it is important. They can keep their personal high values so if they see one side taking unfair advantage they can call it out. Each side stands for something and if you choose sides on an identity level you have to condone or dismiss anything that doesn’t fit with your beliefs or values. Some people who are rooting for one side totally give up all their values to that identity. Actually right now the Republican party seems more like a dog fight. Their values don’t reach any higher than that.
At one time the Republican party meant freedom in business and reaching for the American dream. They represented capitalism and entrepreneur ism. The freedom to
get ahead and have a brighter future. In many ways, Democrats in the beginning represented care taking and Republicans looked at them as supporting people who don’t have enough ambition to take care of themselves and embrace the freedom they had to take charge of in their own lives. In the beginning, most people could see both sides as most people were struggling to survive this new freedom and the beginning of our country. I need to research this but it seems that the sides have changed values. What used to be Republican is now more Democrat. An Republicans stand for nothing.
In recent time, the capitalists have become thugs. To win at all costs without any moral constraints. They took the idea of freedom too far.They don’t care if their leader kills the other side – it is winner take all. People who took Republican as their identity forgot to look beyond the small part they agreed with. Some just don’t like blacks. Some are only looking at their self- interest in the stock market. Some just didn’t realize how changed the Republican party has become. Both parties are just mad at each other. It is not about values or beliefs, it is only about wining and that is what has taken over politics. Both parties have morphed into something different than when they started. It seems everyone has lost sight of the big picture.
I like Brian Tyler Cohen and saw Chris Cuomo on there. I agree that we need to be independent to fix this. We have to leave the fighting and reach for something larger. Party fighting is the main problem as it focuses people on taking sides and low level thinking.
A part of me liked the rebelliousness of Trump but my eyes were quickly opened to his total self interest, corruption, and insanity. He will take everyone else down with him if he looses. He is all ego. Win at all costs. Everyone will pay with him. Although he had some good ideas, his ego is too much in charge. He is all he cares about.
I didn’t like the passiveness of Biden but saw that at least he had some integrity. I researched his past and the trauma of loosing his good son and wife. He has experienced pain in his life and has the ability of self-reflection. I can understand his still trying to care for his wayward son. It is hard to deal with a child you love and difficult to let go of their journey. I don’t believe this affects our national security but if it does, I am sure the other side will find it. I see him as too old to try again even though I am older than he is. I see too much ego in his vice president if something happened to him. Although she stands for women’s rights, something is off when I look at her. Passion could be exploited if values are not aligned correctly. I see her at risk for the hunger of power over.
In a boxing match, integrity is not what wins. The most aggressive and strongest survive at least for a time. but all boxers get old and decrepit. And then they loose their following. It looks like DeSantos is biding his time waiting for the old boxer to fade away. He is the most aggressive while not being crazy like M T Green. When it gets to the main focus of winning, people lose sight on other values. You can get so caught up in the game that you forgot you had a kid in the car especially if you are part of the team behind the proposed winner. When do they come to their senses? Only when their fighter has been put in jail for outright abuse so terrifying that they also might be held accountable. When all is lost they might then excuse themselves that it was just part of the game. They were were just playing along. They didn’t see the abuse. They only wanted to back a winner. Check out the X system. Cuomo is right – we need a trans-formative person to take over.
in action. They will kill to win if they can get away with it.
The Democrats are trying to live and act out of the Synergistic Y system but it takes a lot of skills to pull this off. The leader must be assertive to have followers. Aggressiveness doesn’t fit the whole model of real caring for others. Co-dependency and passiveness will be rampant. They can be corrupted too since many people live in scarcity and feel pity especially when they are also caretakers. It will take a lot of leadership skills for someone to win on the democratic side. Is there anyone out there? We need to start with someone who has a passion for goodness, that can see the real possibilities of a democratic nation doing what works for the highest good of all. Someone who can stand alone. It will take someone with a larger vision than the average person. Someone who understands human nature. One who can bring out the best in others despite their faults. Someone ambitious for the right reasons.
A social worker friend responded to the above with the following. “I was thinking last week about how Barrack Obama is one of my most favorite people in the world. I feel like he was the person who had a larger vision than the average person, who understood human nature. Ok, now what, he can not run again, but I see a President really has a human services specialist, along with making major decisions to create bills that need to be signed, and of great awareness about the role or our Army, Navy and Marines.”