I have procrastinated long and hard to sit down and write today’s blog. For those who know me well, you know I am apolitical, and for those who don’t know me you are about discover how apolitical I am.
There is a saying you should never discuss politics and religion with others. I think that’s the saying anyway. Today we are throwing that suggestion out the window to dissect the illusion the political system has created.
Are you passionate about the platforms and issues our political parties stand for and that each candidate uses during their campaign to persuade your vote? Does voting make you feel like you have a say, some control, maybe a little bit of power, and a choice?
What if you stripped all of the surface level topics away? Hang with me here…I know they are not surface level to many of you, and this is really going to stretch your perspective and the way you think about the system. If you can, take away abortion rights, taxation, immigration, and the other hot topics discussed at length for many, many months before an election.
On election day, no matter the platform and once you remove all the issues, aren’t you merely voting for someone to rule over you… control you… have authority over you?
Have you ever thought about it this way before? Is this freedom? Is this system broken or is it operating exactly as it was intended to function? Do you need to be ruled over to live a law abiding lifestyle?
I know this is really deep and goes against the grain of what we have been taught to believe since we were old enough to comprehend. Don’t rush this one. Perhaps even sit with it for days and weeks to come. Tether out your truth, ponder your philosophies, contemplate your thoughts, ideas, and beliefs around this topic.
I sat with a friend at my kitchen table in February and posed a question I felt I should know. In fact, I thought the fact I didn’t know would be met with ridicule or shame. And at my age, I should certainly have paid close enough attention to government or civics to know the basics, right? But when I asked my friend if the United States was a republic or a democracy I was surprised and relieved to hear the response “I don’t know.”
With the relief that followed I leaned further into my curiosity: What’s the difference? Again, “I don’t know.” Fantastic! My ignorance had been normalized, but then I felt concern replace curiosity. How many other Americans do not know?!
Democracy is based upon what the majority of the people want, and it becomes established as the fairest decision. Thomas Jefferson referred to this as “mob rule” because 51% is the majority and thus makes the rule. It doesn’t matter if the rule is really beneficial or based upon integrity, and in fact it leaves the loophole that if it benefits 51% of people while deeply wounding the other 49% it doesn’t matter in the slightest.
Here’s a made up analogy of this in action. Remember back to when you were in 5th grade and there was a group of your peers who dedicated their days to making life miserable for someone. And while you normally wouldn’t join in the bullying or destroying someone else’s day, you knew if you didn’t you would be left in the minority and on the receiving end. You also couldn’t tell the teacher what was happening because that too would create additional hardships for you. Even though the behavior didn’t align with what was morally upstanding for you, it occurred by mob rule while those in the minority were very wounded by the treatment they received.
A republic on the other hand is based upon ruling by the laws established. In this system, the changing of law is required to alter rule. This is what I believe our founding fathers created, a republic. “…and to the republic for which is stands, one Nation under God, indivisible…”
Yet our political parties alone are dividing us, weakening us, pitting us against one another, and removing the empowerment we could otherwise have. In the end, there is a centralization of control of those in authority and a disbanding of unity amongst the people.
Of course, I must mention based upon all of the studying and work I do with helping clients train their brains to work for them in a way that supports their dreams and desires, it’s clear democracy is easier to influence because you only have to sway public opinion. There are a multitude of ways to manipulate the mind, thought, and opinion which we’ve been examining in the previous blog posts.
From these principles two parties were formed, and neither party is flawless. They both have their pros and cons. They are a polarization of one another and the other parties such as independent or libertarian get lost in the shuffle. When looking at it through the lens of energetics, the Republican party is an embodiment of masculine energy: protective of the traditional values, provision, doing, linear, giving, and individualistic. In contrast, the Democratic party is the embodiment of feminine energy: feeling, being, community or “we” focused, and prefer to receive.
The thing about masculine and feminine energy is that it has nothing to do with gender, and neither is positive when out of balance. Every human, whether male or female, have both masculine and feminine energy. We were created to be a species that thrives when in balance.
Our political system is not a democractic and republican problem though. I argue it is an integrity problem or human nature problem, and what we’re seeing passed (laws, elections won, etc) through our system merely has the largest monetary backing to make it happen. In fact, the lobbying, influencing, and funding of initiatives has diluted the people having much of any say at all as those who donate the most have the most impact.
If money influences the scale to “win” an election and as we’ve been talking about the minority of people hold the majority of wealth, then the minority of people with the majority of wealth have heavy influence in our political system. The minority influence the thought of the majority and mask it as a democracy saying they are giving the people what the majority of people want. Read that again. It truly explains why politics is not about your vote and at the end of your day your vote is merely a choice of who exerts control and authority over you.
Your vote gives consent to all the other systems we’ve discussed so far to exert their control over you too.
How do we get so caught up in the platforms and the topics being debated? The topics often trigger our primal and survival instincts. Even though we are not living in the day of the caveman, when these instincts kick in the emotional response is much the same as when there was a true fight or flight threat. And as I’ve talked about in many posts before, when we are reacting in the thick of emotion we are limited in our ability to critically think.
This is yet another reason, if I haven’t given you quite enough reasons to date, to have the ability to regulate your nervous system, process emotions, and unlearn what no longer serves you.
Lastly, let’s talk about the communication of politicians. Have you ever noticed how scripted it is? They read off of teleprompts, they are given questions from journalists before the press conference so they can be prepared, they have a team of staffers to help them nail down their message and/or write their speech for them. Who knows, at this point in time, they might even be utilizing AI like ChatGPT to write most of their speeches for them.
In contrast, have you noticed how a business owner can sit and talk about their business, their vision, their values at length without a speech, a teleprompter, or staffers? And why do we accept this prepared communications from politicians being relevant? Why can’t politicians speak about their position, their stance, and the direction they are moving futuristically without the script
What would society looked like if each individual lived in alignment with God and Universal Laws? Would the governance of an authoritative body be necessary? Why the separation of church and state if the spiritual laws and principles could alleviate the necessity to control the people? I don’t have answers to these questions, even though I do have some thoughts about them. I think these points are important things to ponder.
When you’re ready to fully empower yourself with the ability to quickly unlearn what doesn’t serve you, heal past traumas, and learn how to regulate your nervous system I would be honored to be your guide. The best way to connect is by dropping into my DMs on Facebook or Instagram. I look forward to hearing from you!
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Peace & Love,
Janessa