It’s late Tuesday night and I turned off the TV after getting a sense of it all. One-party rule has been established in my beloved Wisconsin, and our political trends have tended to spread across the nation over the past 15-20 years, and so … well, you see the illustration I chose for today.
I keep hearing the sage words of the philosopher Tom Petty: “Most things I worry about never happen anyway.” I also keep hearing George Lucas’ wise words as voiced by Natalie Portman in Revenge of the Sith: “This is how liberty dies: To thunderous applause.” On the other hand, I have found over the years that Petty has been right more often than Lucas, and so I will try not to worry.
And that is enough about that.
With a minor revision or two, I am going to draw the rest of today’s post from a piece I wrote in July 2024, another time when I’d had enough of the puppet theater and resolved to make this space a politics-free zone.
What would I write about if I eschew politics and government as a topic?
Well, I have already spent a great deal of time emphasizing a very anti-political thought: “Love your neighbor, and everyone is your neighbor.” That’s certainly still a theme worth exploring.
And while I’m drawing a thought from the New Testament, there are plenty of directions I could go with this: “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.”
And, of course, “the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
I think I would like, from this day forward, to make this a safe space, where the theme is first and foremost, “Let’s love, neighbor, and pursue whatever is lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy in a spirit of joy, peace, kindness and all those other fruits.”
I don’t know about you, but I feel healthier already.
I’m glad you intend to maintain this space as a politics-free zone. You did, however, dip your toe into the swill at the onset. In reaction I would only like to remind you we lived in a one party state from 2000 to 2008. We also lived in a one party nation from 2024 to 2026. Fear not. Most of us survived. Many were hurt. Some killed. Many children were denied access to the quality education they deserved for s period equal to the time you and I once spent in first through eighth grade. This is a silent tragedy precipitated by a misalignment of vision and values. The consequences of this selfishness will only become visible in 20 or 30 years by which time the cause will be largely obscured and forgotten. People who would rather retain a few hundred dollars per household to spend on games of chance, shiny objects, and personal indulgence were pandered to by Republican strategists and politicians. Manipulating people’s votes by pandering to our selfish desires -to the worst in us – is morally corrupt. Leaders of character appeal to the best in the human spirit (which you outline at the end of your piece) not the worst. Avarice at the expense of the future health and prosperity of a society is a vice. I could go on and do in other spaces. I won’t here. I am optimistic today. The clear-eyed authors of our nations founding documents explicitly recognized the reality of the human propensity for corruption, greed, covetousness, nepotism, cruelty, and arrogance. They created a gordian system of counterbalancing institutions of governance to pit ambition against ambition. They set forth principles of liberty, free speech, and human equality. Recognizing the dynamism of society and the world beyond our borders, they created a system allowing for a reset of governance every two, four, and six years. We have just seen one such reset initiated by the people. Those newly elected must now be held accountable for catalyzing real change. The hubris of the executive must be restrained. The disproportionate influence of wealth must be structurally constrained. The erosion of personal liberty must be reversed. The cost of living must be reduced. The increases are due to half measures in the defense of sovereign nation, the (possibly illegal) imposition of tariffs, and the initiation of a vanity war in the Middle East. Our policy in each case must change. The current framework for the selection of national political candidates that has existed for little more than sixty years must be modified to reflect the will of the majority rather than the will of a passionate and often radical plurality. The electoral college system -a vestige of a compromise made to slave colonies during ratification of the Constitution – must be terminated. These are well-studied and often recommended structural changes. In addition to these structural changes numerous policy changes are also required. Words will not achieve these changes. Action is required . For the next two years the power to legislate and enact change is consolidated in Madison. In Washington. The power to legislate exists. The power to enact is divided. It will require compromise and wisdom. We shall see. In two years we will vote our opinion yet again.
As I wrote a couple of weeks ago after my last foray into this forest, “A very dear friend from my ancient past wrote, ‘funny that your perception of reality is so totally different than mine.’” I have no desire to engage on this anymore except, as I said, to lean on the wisdom of Mr. Petty and try not to worry. As you well know, music is where we find our common humanity, and I choose to look for my hope in places like that.