Almost nothing left to say.
By: Arnold Guerrero
Tags: Politics, America, Human Behavior, Humanity, Kindness

Photo by Matt Collamer on Unsplash

Almost nothing left to say.

Everything that could ever be expressed regarding politics in 2020 certainly has. I apologize, then, for this indulgence as we jump right in.

Like most people, my political views and philosophies do not reside in the extremes. My personal view is that the best we can do in modern America is to have a government, that through an ingenious system of checks and balances combined with an all-powerful force that compels negotiation, leans slightly left. Please read on if you don’t agree, I’m not discounting you in the least. In fact, my goal is to not insult a single human being. I know that I still may, but it’s the last thing I want to happen.

Note: “Inspires” would have been a prettier word choice than “compels”, but it’s not as accurate. While we’re talking negotiation, politicians may pretend like they won’t negotiate, some even promise to never negotiate. They know this isn’t true. Very, very few things are accomplished in government without negotiation. This is why colossal stimulus bills include everything from counting species of fish to supporting developing nations. Backs are scratched, skids are greased and deals are made. At times, there’s even gridlock — all by design.

Slightly left of center is actually a best-case scenario. It means that I want the philosophical and political “needle” of America to point as far from the center as needed, not to change the country, but to keep the country in an honest and positive direction, otherwise known as progress. In turn, I don’t want that needle to move past that point by a single degree. Admittedly, “progress” is a despised term in some circles, here’s how controversial that statement should actually be:

I want to continue trying to become better people who strive to live on a better planet. That is progress.

Here’s what I find interesting, most people who don’t agree with what they’ve read up to this point would agree almost completely if “Slightly left of center” were edited to say “Slightly right of center”. This means we all basically want the same thing, or very close to it. The majority of us do not want to live in extremes and we’d prefer not to hate each other.

Note: There is an argument for the necessity of political extremes, but we will get to that later.

Let’s talk about the environment.

I live in Arizona. I enjoy camping with my family, hunting, and love to hike. I want clean air, green trees, and water that isn’t full of microplastics. I don’t believe anyone, who isn’t a complete monster, wants anything different from that. We pretty much all agree that a clean planet is a good dream to have and is worth some effort in realizing.

The right, concerning environmental issues, in particular, grieve the economic ramifications of environmental policies more than they are enamored by their idealistic goals. This is for two reasons, first, financial security is built into their DNA. Think Myers Briggs, Enneagram, etc. — it’s a part of their nature and doesn’t make them evil. Second, institutions (industries) whose interests may not align with “green” initiatives, put a lot of resources into creating an array of content that feeds into and takes advantage of this nature of the conservative's psyche.

How about Equality?

All humans should be treated equally. Regardless of our race, gender, sexuality, political views, religion, or anything else. We’re not quite there yet and in some cases that is a considerable understatement. We’ve made great strides and owe a great deal of gratitude to countless people who fought to make that so. We should feel compelled to keep moving and to continue reaching for the ideal in how we treat our fellow man.

It’s important to consider the “right” emotional state of mind here. They want equal to actually mean equal. No special concessions should be handed out or accepted in the course of making your way as a citizen. They worked hard to have the life they have and feel all citizens should as well.

This is a basic capitalistic truth that, in general, shouldn’t be controversial. It becomes controversial when one takes into consideration the reality of what equal actually is (or what it isn’t, to be more accurate). You can’t start from equal ground where equal ground doesn’t exist. Sometimes we have to create equal ground where canyons have been dug. There’s a saying my Libertarian friends like, “a rising tide lifts all ships”. This doesn’t mean much to people with no ship, no boat, and in some cases were born holding an anchor. We can appreciate, however, that “starting from equal ground”, even as a concept in America, is light years further from where we’ve been as a nation, but we can do better. The quicker we realize this, the better off we will all be.

The Pandemic

As I sit here typing, it’s Christmas Day, 2020 and my family is away enjoying homemade ravioli, a cherished Christmas tradition in my wife’s family. I’m home quarantined, suffering from the relatively mild effects of the virus. Mostly I sleep and take Extra-Strength Tylenol when I’m awake to treat the muscles and joint pain. The house is silent (not even a mouse). In general, I feel our nation’s medical and scientific community is reliable. I don’t struggle with not understanding the behavior of this virus, or how it affects some people slightly and kills others. I wear my mask. I social distance. I know pandemics happen. I have patience as we figure this out. I don’t get angry when we don’t get everything correct the first time.

What if I felt differently? What if I believed that hospitals are boosting infection numbers for money, or thought that this was all planned to hurt our current president? What if I felt, like some do, that there is a huge conspiracy intertwined in this “pandemic” with an end goal to take away my personal freedom?

I’d probably look for evidence of this everywhere. When I see a video of a nurse getting a vaccination through an empty syringe, my first thought wouldn’t be “This is actually a marketing/media photo-op.” Which it was. My first thought would be to imagine some maverick patriot using their cell phone to record and expose the scheming of the deep state.

If this describes your position, please hear this. I get it. I know we have to constantly keep the powers of our government in check, value our liberty, and cherish our freedoms. I fully agree that absolute power corrupts absolutely and it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that a powerful state could be using this pandemic for some evil purpose. I just don’t believe it is happening in this case. I have weighed the evidence for myself and choose to trust the medical community, particularly regarding the vaccine, which I consider a marvel of modern medicine and ingenuity.

I actually get it.

The left has a tendency to error away from its own best financial interests by striving for the “good” at most costs, including prosperity. This has obvious negative consequences, even considering that in our lifetime, the greatest prosperity happened during Democratic Administrations. If that statement rubs you the wrong way, don’t worry, we’ve all seen the very negative effects of leftist political thought in action as well. Neither side should be too braggadocious.

Influence

I work in advertising (on the creative, slightly less evil side). We love to identify what motivates individuals and groups. It is easy to pander to those motivations and use them to move public opinion and even action. Often in politics, constituents are influenced towards private interests that are in direct conflict with their own. Duh, right?

Do you want to have people question the government's response to the pandemic? Create some clever posts highlighting a random death count error and then insinuate the problem is rampant. Go ahead and put thousands of dollars behind the post’s engagement. Find an attractive conspiracy theorist on youTube and promote their episodes through various, powerful, media channels. Do this until people feel stupid for not questioning what has now become known as “mainstream medicine”.

Yes, we’re all being manipulated, and not just the people who lean the furthest right that I’m unfairly picking on. Convincing you of that isn’t my point. My point is that we can out-smart the manipulators. Even now, some of our fellow citizens, our neighbors, are recklessly entertaining the thought of an actual modern civil war (mostly regarding mask mandates and the thought of another shut down). We must outsmart the people who find power in our division. We really don’t have to hate each other. Our needles aren’t as far apart as we’re told.

The Second Amendment

For the record, I’m a proponent of gun rights. I feel the ability to arm myself as well as a person who intends on hurting me, my family, or even just a fellow citizen, is an important right in the world I live in. Firearms are not evil, but humans sometimes are, and that’s why, unfortunately, they’re needed for more than just hunting food.

I do support stricter gun regulations if they are sensible and will demonstrably reduce school and mass shootings, which were much too tolerable in America by the way. (For young people who may be reading this, mass shootings happened regularly in the time before we had to wear masks everywhere).

Mascots

I find it a very good thing that sports teams are changing names that make mascots out of people. Some of us don’t understand why it’s important. I would explain in this way, it’s a step closer to becoming better, more compassionate people. It is simply a small step of progress. Granted, those names weren’t killing anyone. Right? Were they? If you really want to understand this issue, social scientists ask us to consider what these names are actually doing systemically. It’s a subject worth educating ourselves on.

Change is certain, so let’s find a common rationale?

Certainly, we can agree that the human-mascot names aren’t helping anyone. On the other hand, would it help someone or a group of someones, to declare the practice “not acceptable” any longer? I believe so, so let’s do it. Let’s do it enthusiastically. There are a thousand potentially great names for a Washington Football Team or a Cleveland Baseball Team. I suggest The Generals for Washington, borrowing from an old New Jersey team. As for the Indians, they have a slew of cool names to pull from in their history, including the Rustlers, Lake Shores, and even Spiders.

(Maybe not the Bluebirds though)

We NEED each other.

Just as negotiation and gridlock are a feature of our democracy and not a bug, so is the balance of our political philosophies. While many of my republican friends have expressed fear for some of the most left-leaning members of congress, I know they’re needed for balance. And, we’re not that different in the first place! In the 2019–2020 election cycle, the top recipient of money from “Big Oil & Gas”, by far, was Donald Trump, but in second place…. Joe Biden. (It may be important to note that the next 17 were Republican Senators and Representatives.)

Be kind maybe?

Let kindness be our future. We’ve tried anger and bitterness. We are seeing where diametrically opposed media and “alternative facts” are taking us. Most of the media we consume (not just MSM) wouldn’t dream about working to bring Americans together unless it were somehow in their best financial interest to do so. Maybe we can figure out how to make that a reality? That’s another article I suppose.

Recognize the spin. Look for what is left out of the story. Understand that the strategy of divide and conquer is very much alive and well in America and being utilized to great success. Never speak of another dammed civil war. Find common ground. Help write good stories, stories of compassion, and true patriotism. Make becoming an American great again. Do this by treating our fellow citizens like we would want to be treated (The Golden Rule). Let’s be awesome neighbors to our fellow nations. This shouldn’t be hard for us, we’ve had to do much bigger things as a nation than simply being kind.

On the Golden Rule

This may hold credence with you and it may not, depending on your view of religion (Christianity in particular). No judgment from me either way. Most Christians are familiar with the concept of the “narrow gate” as mentioned in Matthew 7. The narrow gate is what Christians must go through in order to enter heaven. It’s often explained to mean being virtuous or not sinning — so being your generation's idea of a “good Christian” would be entering heaven through the narrow gate. It was brought to my attention recently that the context of the narrow gate may be greatly misunderstood. Directly before the narrow gate is mentioned we are told what the narrow gate is (I won't reference scripture and verse numbers because those didn’t originally exist, in fact, I think they help the bad contextual problems we often see in religious beliefs). Okay, what the narrow gate is…we are told, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” The Golden Rule is the Narrow Gate.

So even if the Bible or any other religious text holds no relevance to your life, know that thousands of years ago, there were people telling us that simply being kind is the highest state of existence.

A quote from one of my favorite bands says “We’re all born of broken people on their most honest day of living.” I love this line. We all started from the same place, we’re all struggling to make our way in this world. Let’s stop trying to make it so damn hard for each other. Sound good?

Arnold Guerrero

Spinning through space, with you.