Conscious Politics for Social Change

I had an uncomfortable realization today as it relates to my feelings and opinions regarding the current candidates and next year’s presidential elections. It appears I am lacking faith in the American public to truly be conscious of how they are forming their opinions more so than I lack faith in our ability to improve the current state of affairs relating to multiple issues. 

I most appreciate the candidates who are willing and committed to seek and speak truth and are not sidetrack by focusing on discrediting the other candidates. Here's our greatest challenge right now...to positively influence the minds and hearts of Americans to begin using their own minds and wake up to the reality of our political process; one that is in desperate need of massive reform.

The sad truth is that most American’s don't realize that they are unconsciously adopting the views of commentators and political analysts who have written off all candidates but the top four who are winning in the polls.

How can we get to truth and honest opinions and commitments to action on the issues when candidates are not all invited to participate in the debates?

Answer questions honestly and from the heart and the candidates set themselves up to be ridiculed - a distracting and manipulative technique that most Americans don't even realize they are giving permission to.

Think about it. What the hell does a question about whether or not Kucinich saw a U.F.O (which stands for an unidentified flying object – not an alien spaceship) have to do with the issues that are driving us to self destruction as a human race?

How can you get to know all of the candidates when most of what you see in the news is focused on the top two poll winners in only the Democratic and Republican parties?

And what happens after the elections? Most of the candidates are so busy slamming their opponents that I wonder how they will come together afterwards and leverage all of their strengths for the good of the nation, the world and the next generations.

One sound byte can kill the career of a politician. The media largely decides what people hear and we know how easy it is to start a series of discussions that really are irrelevant in the bigger picture.

We need to wake up and begin to form our own opinions.

We need to question how the media and political analysts are influencing our beliefs.

We must become more aware of how FEAR is constantly being used to manipulate polls, elections, and how non-issues, finger pointing and discrediting others have become disgusting ways to side-track us from hearing more about what is most important.

Our next elected President will be more of a reflection of the consciousness and political, spiritual, and social maturity of the American public than the actual merits, experience, vision, priorities and competencies of our next leader.

We love gossip, mudslinging, drama and conflict and as a culture are addicted to fear. This needs to be healed in the minds and hearts of the American public before we ever see the current conditions of the world change.

Americans need to demand more honesty and give credit to those who really are putting themselves out on the line by simply speaking their truth, as opposed to running a smear campaign against the others – one that appeals to the lower, fear based mind of the current level of human consciousness.

We must turn away from the commonly accepted, unconscious but politically brilliant manipulative tactics and stop acting like high schoolers voting in a popularity contest. We are not voting for homecoming king and queen here folks, we are voting for the next leader of the free world.

Character, track record, vision, truth telling, stances on the issues, and an ability to lead in incredibly diverse times with a vision of peace are mandatory if we want to ensure a future worth the burdens we are passing on to our next generations.

We need to WAKE UP and begin thinking for ourselves, using not just our fears and media sound bytes to inform us, but also our hearts.

Which candidate offers us both a mind and the heart, experience and vision, honesty and humility?

Which candidate is not just bad mouthing and discrediting others as a distraction?

What issues are truly most important to you and which candidate honestly is dedicated to them?

How are you truly forming and ultimately passing along your opinions?

Are you watching the debates or just catching up via politically tainted newscasts?

Here is an interesting website, but please take the time to truly understanding what you are voting for when you take it.

Visit http://www.speakout.com/VoteMatch/ and see which candidates are a match for how you feel about the issues.

And, watch the video below where commentators are actually speaking honestly about their own impact on the polls.

Then, leave a comment on the blog about how we can become more conscious as we move forward in the elections…

Comments

[Cindy]

I do agree that the media plays too big of a role in politics and the "talking heads" do need to just stop talking.

Then there is the fact that much of the media is owned by wealthy republicans and you've got that bias to work around.

The last presidential race showed us how people get manipulated by fear and how the republican party uses that. How do you stop that? Encourage people to turn OFF the TV and not listen to the fear based ads and rhetoric. Engage people in conversations about what is important to them and then help them to match up their values and concerns with appropriate candidates (through using a tool such as the one you listed in your post).

I did alot of calling voters for MoveOn in 2006 and encouraged some of them to stop watching the ads on TV because it just confused the hell out of them. Getting involved on a grassroots level like this, talking with voters either over the phone or face to face is the answer. This is how to wake people up and how to get them to start to think for themselves. People really do want to do the right thing. And unfortunately they get manipulated by immoral people who are power hungry.

Do you know there were people in the midwest who voted for bush because they were told by their pastor that kerry would ban the bible? This is how things get totally distorted and how we end up with someone like bush in the white house.

When it comes down to who to vote for in 2008, the choice will be clear. Ask people the following questions: If you want us to stay in Iraq for 10 more years ( which is what it would take according to General Petraus) or do you want an end to this war? Do you want to continue a war which, according to the CIA, has doubled the number of members in Al-Quada and not made us safer? Do you want China to own us - we now owe them 1 trillion dollars to pay for this war. Do you want us to continue to spend $25 million an HOUR in Iraq and not have the money to fix bridges , schools and provide services to our citizens?

If you want us to stay there for 10 more years vote republican, if not, vote democrat.

I think that makes a pretty clear argument for people to come to their senses.

[John]

A very good point. All too often, we disengage our minds and hearts from the voting process, instead letting affiliations and various propaganda decide for us. Unless you are actually thinking and listening to your heart, you can't really say that you voted. You may have punched the card, but it's not what I would call "voting".