Politics and the Evolution of Consciousness

My politics are neither Left nor Right. I was born in 1975, so the incessant clanging of the culture wars had faded to a lingering echo by the time I even knew we had a president. Growing up, I found history to be more informative than the contemporary politics of Washington.

While I believe that democracy is the cutting-edge of political systems, I do not believe that it is the final evolution of human self-governance. Our system is deeply flawed, as evidenced by ecological degradation, unconscionable disparities between rich and poor, the wars we wage, and the concurrent rise of both health care costs and illness. Despite having a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, enormous amounts of political and financial power are still held in the hands of a super-elite minority. Democracy is better than its predecessors, but it is not the end of the road. Not by far.

However, I do not advocate the overthrow of this young democratic movement. The fatal flaw to this system can not be found in its structure, but in its components: human beings. We are the fatal flaw in every political system. If not for human greed and arrogance, monarchies would be a perfectly viable system of government. Monarchs are supposed to protect and serve the people and are given the power they need to do so. This isn't a problem until the power they are given is used inappropriately.

Our system of governance does the same thing that monarchies did - it puts power over vast populations into the hands of a few, so that they might govern us effectively. By converting to a democracy, we made those who govern accountable to the people, rather than constantly conveying the power of one despot to his despotic children, regardless of the wisdom or altruism those children may or may not have.

Unfortunately, while this built-in accountability has diffused some of the worst excesses in government, we clearly still have a top-heavy power structure that exploits the masses. This isn't because the structure is inherently prone to abuse of power, but because the human spirit has not evolved beyond the need to abuse power. How else can we explain the corruption that we see in our elected officials - the people we ourselves chose to be in positions of power!

When George W. Bush was campaigning in 2000, he promised to be a "uniter, not a divider" and to bring a new brand of "compassionate conservatism" to Washington. I never believed him. My own politics aside, I could see that he was a man of politics, power, and ego; it seemed obvious to me (and to anyone who cared to pay attention) that he was completely incurious when it came to good governance, and wanted only to be powerful, to be liked, and to implement his ideology. Yet not only did he get his party's nomination, but over 50 million people voted for him. Four years later, when Bush's popularity was below 50% and John Kerry's best campaign message was "At least I'm not Bush!", President Bush actually won and got more than 62 million votes. He has now left office as perhaps the most hated president since Herbert Hoover.

Out of those 62 million people who voted for Bush after he had four years to show us his mettle, how many do you think blame themselves for the state that this country is in? With a voter turn out of 60.7% in 2004, how many of the 39.3% of eligible voters who didn't vote do you think take responsibility for not using their power to hold him accountable? We have the leaders that we have for a reason, and it comes down to what we value - not what we say we value, but what we actually value.

Things are changing, though. We've just elected our first Black president, one who managed to fend off scurrilous attacks on his character due in no small part to the people being unwilling to be manipulated once again. Willie Horton ads are - hopefully - permanently a thing of the past. Obama's victory, as he reminded us on election night, is not his victory but ours. We overcame our past prejudices, we let go of our need for infantile leaders, we chose not to give into our fears - in other words, collectively we evolved in spirit.

Our continued evolution will be measured in terms of our compassion for others, our increasing inclusiveness, and our ability to choose what is right over what we want or what we fear. As our leaders continue to reflect that evolution back to us, we should be mindful of what we see. When our leaders are blustering, ego-driven, and full of vitriol, we know that we have failed ourselves. When they cooperate with others, act selflessly, show humility, and find common-ground solutions to our nation's problems, we know that the human spirit has evolved into something that we can be proud of.