We are in the midst of the presidential election and the Republican National Convention just finished up. I didn't watch it but have caught bits of it on different online news sources, also caught the reactions on social networks, and what I am noticing bothers me. On both sides of the political aisle, the chatter is all anti-other-party and I don’t recall any political person being “pro" anything.
Can it be that we’ve come to a point where all we really have is a two-party government run by people whose main drive is solely to be against the other party? Yes, I know each side has a platform with talking points, but that’s not what I’m hearing or seeing. And isn't it the rhetoric and behavior which truly defines what a party values?
I'll be upfront and disclose I tend towards the liberal side. (Friends and family are at this point sarcastically saying, "Really?") So I tend to follow more liberal news sources, blogs, twitter, etc. One source I started following is written by a Christian Democrat. After my Inherit The Wind post, I became more interested in the Christian Democratic perspective, thinking maybe a Christian who was Democrats would have positive things to say. Well, it was more of the same; negative; us vs. them. I don't think I have seen a single positive or constructive comment coming from that writer yet. The Christian Democrat writer’s sole purpose seems to be to spew the same negative rhetoric back at their opponents that their opponents are spewing. Which doesn't strike me as very Christian-esque.
But, before I start throwing too many stones, I’ll admit that I trend towards behaving in the same negative way. It is so much easier and maybe more exhilarating to be angry, to be against something, than it is to be for something. A fight is always exciting and easy to get emotionally caught up in.
But it doesn't take a huge intellectual leap to see the flaw in this approach, not only in our government, but our lives, too.
I was talking to someone about this recently, and they gave me a Mother Teresa quote, "I was once asked why I don't participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there." And I thought, That’s it! That’s the direction I want to go. That is the rhetoric of the party I want to vote for.
Isn't the idea of being positive and pro-something-- pro-anything-- better than being against everything?
And before you say it’s only semantics, let me point out that “war” is life-destructive and negative, and “anti-war” is angry and negative, but “pro-peace” is positive and life-affirming. Just think about what the two rallies would be like. An “Anti-war” rally would be lots of loud angry slogans and hate-filled speeches, whereas a “Pro-peace” rally could be equally loud, but it wouldn’t be angry or hateful. Nobody can focus on peace and remain angry or hateful; anger and hate are the opposites of peace.
When I heard a Republican congressman say, "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term President", that closed the Republican door for me. If, instead, I’d heard, "The single most important thing we want to achieve is to work with the current administration to achieve our platform objectives for the betterment of America and our constituents," I’d have been on board. I like many of the Republican platform points. I like many of the Democrats platform points. But I almost always vote third party because I don't like how either party behaves.
I don't think Mother Teresa would have liked seeing America’s current “anti” political campaigns, and she may not like an anti-anti campaign but that's the catchiest title I could come up with. What I’d really like to see is a political system that-- instead of being focused on defeating the other guy at any price-- is focused on what’s good for our country and its people.
