Who The Hell Is We?

  The ever-present question in the political world, is how to grow, or at least, it used to be.    For the longest time, political parties have been all about growing. Growing their grass roots support, growing the base, growing registration, growing the number of elected officials affiliated with their party.

To be honest, this is still the stated goal of all parties, from the smallest, to the two major parties. Somewhere along the way something was lost, the desire to grow. In today’s current atmosphere, it seems as though all anyone wants, is to close ranks. Many people involved in politics seem to believe you can grow the number of people within your party, by narrowing the message. “Two feet bad, four feet good”.

As I often do, I will speak of the Republican Party based on my own personal experiences, though the Democrats have the same issues.

I have watched politics since I was a young man. In school, social studies were always my favorite and best classes. I became involved in the process, beyond just voting, around 2006 or so. I have traveled, what I consider,  a straight  path concerning my values and principles, though some of my views on specific issues have changed. This path has led me to find myself in line with, what many felt at the time, was a radical right-wing of the GOP, and to some extent it was. The path has also found me traveling with what might be described as a more, “established”, wing of the GOP.

What I have found is, in many cases, the two share many of the same problems and faults. Mostly it is a human nature issue, one that leads people to allow their personal feeling cloud their political judgments. Be it about which candidate to support, or even how we select those candidates.

When you talk to people involved in politics, you hear the word, “WE”,  a lot. But who the hell is, “WE” ?

The word, “WE”, can be applied to two, or two million, but it usually stands for a shared experience of some kind. “We went to the fair”.  “We had fish for dinner”.  “We are the Republican Party”. “We are conservatives”.

The word “WE”, creates a group, but it also creates a barrier, for if I am not a part of the “WE”, then I am outside. The more “WE”s we have, the smaller the groups become, and the more people you place outside your group. The problem in the American political process is, there are just to damn many “WE”s. And of course the problem with the “WE”s, is they are always followed by the “THEM“s.

I long for a time, though I know it to be idealistic, when “we” is writ small, and simply means mankind. But how can we get there, when in our politics, “WE” is writ large, and is everything. You have to be in this group, and if you are, then you can’t be in that group. If you are a member of this party, then every person of the other party is the enemy. You have to oppose this person or support that person according to some sub-group, of the group’s personal issues. That is unless, there is a political calculation, which makes supporting the very worse person for the job, from another party, seem opportunistic, then it’s okay to cross the isle.

You can’t support that person because they have the wrong letter behind their name. And heaven forbid you voice opposition of the chosen one of the party, then you are no longer trusted, and labeled a traitor. Whatever happened to supporting the best person?

I too want to grow. I want to grow the number of people who will have the courage to support the best person in every race. To put aside political affiliation, To set aside friendships. To ignore loyalty to anything or anyone, other than the best interest of the citizens of this County, State, and Nation.

I want to grow the intellect of the voters, I want people to be informed when they vote. No longer voting for the person they know personally, but vote for the person with the best ideas, closest to their own. Party affiliation is no guarantee you will agree with everyone who shares that affiliation. It is why, it is more important to share values and principles, rather than hoping to share opinions on specific issues.

We have to open our eyes and our ears, and hear and see, what is actually being said and done, instead of reading into it what we expect from a  person based on the letter behind their names.

If this nation is to succeed, it must grow its ideas, which means “we”  must recognize our commonalities, rather than focusing on our differences. It is not the two-party system which is corrupted, it is the voters who are corrupted. Corrupted by laziness, by misinformation, both from the media and the parties. The truth is out there, but they must first seek it.

I have become completely frustrated with the GOP, at all levels. This includes the voters. We here in Delaware are about to hold our state primaries, and considering The GOP gave us Donald Trump, I am deeply concerned for the future of the GOP in general.

Trump has not attempted to grow the party, oh he may go and speak at a black community church, or stand in Mexico in order to play at being presidential. But his overall message is about building walls to keep people, and in the end, ideas out.

I wrote a post not too long ago about Political Isolationism , but the more I think about it, political segregation might better define what is happening. All the groups and subgroups keep boiling down the ideas, trying to find purity, in reality they are shrinking the size of their groups, and the influence those groups will have.

Think about it this way, when you decide your home is too small, for whatever reason, what do you do? Well in many cases you add a room. Now when you add that room, where do you add it? Do you go to the small bathroom in the center of that home and attempt to make your home bigger by adding a wall there? Yes, you will have another room, but your home will not have gotten any bigger. Sort of like in a political party with all of the subgroups.

No, if you need more room in your home, and decide to add a room, you go to the outside of the home and add the room on there. There is no end to how large your home can become if you keep adding to the outside. (See local and state codes for actual size your home can be.)

And when you add this room, do you want the best lumber available? Or will you settle for the wet, warped boards laying close by? Would we be better served to make the trip across town to find better lumber to build with?

Would we not be better served, to seek out the best person for the job, instead of hoping to elect friends, neighbors and relatives, or even people of the same party?

And if, for whatever reason, we can’t add on, if the home is just too small? Then what? Well then it may be time to sell that home and build a new one. One that better fits your needs.

I am one man, with one vote. I will not cast that vote frivolously. Some may say one vote is meaningless, others tell me it is important not to throw it away on a candidate who can’t win. I will make an informed vote, one which my conscience can live with, at all levels. And to those who feel I am a traitor, or can’t be trusted, well that is their issue.

For me, moving forward, “we” will mean simply humanity, anything beyond that I find trivial. I will cast my votes based on that “we”, rather than the multitude of “WE”s that seek only to divide and reduce.

In closing, this is how I see political parties’  attempts at growing, all political parties.