You gotta love Jay Leno. Get this one: “To give you an idea how bad the Democrats are doing, in a stunning reversal, John McCain now 10% ahead of Hillary Clinton and 7% ahead of Barack Obama. And this is after Iraq, a recession, and no health care. Imagine how far ahead he’d be if the Republicans had actually done something.”
Now that’s funny.
But the poll he cited was true. All the squabbling on the Democratic side is producing the backlash that has been predicted, and in a recent survey of Americans of both parties, voters put Sen. McCain ahead in their preferences for the White House.
I keep looking at this election season from a spiritual point of view, and I keep asking, is the way these campaigns are being run in alignment with the highest spiritual ideals? I think the answer to the question, at least in the Democratic primary, is obvious. Perhaps a better question might be: What could cause them to be? What could cause the candidates to begin displaying the kind of ideals that we would want displayed at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?
It feels to me that Sen. McCain is really trying. He fired some people the other day, outright, when he heard that they had engaged in some not-so-nice tactics within his campaign. Likewise, Barack Obama got a quick resignation, the next morning, from a key foreign policy adviser to his campaign who made a very personally attacking and unkind remark about Hillary Clinton. For her part, Sen. Clinton has not moved as swiftly or decisively in the face of untoward behavior by people connected to her campaign. Note the Geraldine Ferraro flap.
And now Sen. Obama’s campaign people have said that they are going to fight fire with fire after stinging attacks on the senator from Illinois by the Clinton brigade just prior to the Ohio and Texas primaries — attacks which, political pundits say, won her that slim-margin popular vote victory in Texas.
If only politics could stay clean and wholesome and good during campaigns. Conversations with God says that “what you do in your politics is your spirituality, demonstrated.” If that is the case (and it is), then Americans have much to be ashamed of as a nation — because, frankly, we don’t do politics very well.
Actually, everything is your spirituality demonstrated. Every economic decision is our spirituality, demonstrated. Education is our spirituality, demonstrated. Our whole society is a demonstration of our spirituality.
“Spirituality” in this context is defined by me as “our basic, most fundamental, most sacred values; our most sacred ideas about life.”
Now, if our politics are NOT a demonstration of our most sacred values, then our politics are bankrupt. (There are those who say that this is precisely true.)
What we can do to bring spirituality back into politics is insist that our political leaders and those who would run for office adhere to the highest spiritual ideals of our society as a whole. I am convinced that the machinations within our political arena do not reflect the values of American society collectively — yet when negative campaigning turns an election season around, and brings a slim victory to the one using such tactics, what does that say to us about us?
Why can’t we just say to all of our candidates, “Hey, you know what? We want no more attacks. Just stick to the issues! Tell us where you differ on the issues, and then let us make our decision.”
But as long as we respond favorably in the polls and at the ballot box to negative campaign ads, those ads and those tactics will continue.
Of course, candidates using such an approach defend it to the end. “We’re just trying to get the truth out,” they say. Or, “Drawing distinct lines and showing the differences between candidates is legitimate.” Yet it is not what is being done, but how it is being done that makes the difference, that sets the tone, that marks the course of a campaign.
I wish that everyone reading these words today, if you agree with them, would simply send a letter, an e-mail, or a telegram (yes, they still have telegrams!) to the candidate of your choice (or to all the candidates, for that matter) saying, “You will never get my vote — no matter HOW qualified you are — if you engage in negative campaign tactics and dirty politics.”
Would you do that? Would you do that today?
AND WHILE WE ARE ON THE TOPIC…Gosh, I just hate to see Hillary Clinton doing this…
Today she told the press that she would have walked out on the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright had he been her pastor.
The Boston Globe carried a story that said, in part: “Hillary Clinton has largely stayed out of the fray over the inflammatory remarks made by Barack Obama’s longtime pastor. But in an interview today with reporters and editors at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Clinton weighed in, telling them she would have left her church if her pastor had said the kinds of things about the US government and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright did.”
The Globe reports Hillary as saying…”He would not have been my pastor. You don’t choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend.”
Oh, my goodness. Hillary, Hillary, Hillary…is this the only way you can win in this campaign? Hillary, did you walk out on Bill when he was having his fling with Monica Lewinsky? Hillary, Hillary…give it a rest. Gee, whiz…can’t you just debate the issues? Is it simply a pathology with you? Must you play dirty politics at every turn? This does NOT….repeat, does NOT…make you look like the kind of president we want in this country. This makes you look like the kind of president we HAVE.