Is a Hopeful Vision of the Future Possible for America? - Dick Rauscher
Our nation is headed for the voting booth in two weeks. Those who still have hope and faith in the voting process will turn out and vote. Those who don’t….may not. It’s a question each of us has to answer in the next few days.
But the deeper and more important question might be, is a hopeful vision of the future possible in this upcoming election?
Democracy or Oligarchy*
There are many registered voters tired of living without hope. They believe their vote won’t change the future. Because they no longer believe a better world is possible, they’ll be tempted to stay home. The depression, anxiety, fear, unhappiness they feel about the future are feelings that could shut down their ability to believe that their vote would actually make a difference for our country.
Their sense of defeat could easily shut down their ability to embrace hope; their ability to believe in a hopeful vision for the future. The possibility is high that their lack of hope and faith in our nation’s democratic system will keep them from voting for a better life for themselves or the world.
This is exactly what the 1% and the multi-national corporations want them to believe, and do. They know the smaller the voter turnout, the more it will increase the power of their oligarchy* to influence, shape, and control the future of our nation…..and increase their personal wealth to even greater levels of inequality.
(*Note: “In an oligarchy, a few rulers control the government. These rulers gain their power and maintain their authority as a result of their wealth or another form of influence. The oligarchy rulers make decisions to benefit themselves financially and with little regard for the wishes or best interests of the people they govern. The oligarch may not be the official ruler of the country but may have close ties to and influence on those who are officially in power.” )
Hopeful Voters Want Their Democracy Back
Those who show up and vote in our democratic elections reflect the power of hope; the expectation that a better future “is” possible. They have faith in the democratic system. They trust that a leader can be found that offers a hopeful rational vision of the future. A vision they can believe in. They look for leaders that understand their problems and struggles; not bombastic politicians who offer naive optimism based on irrational rhetoric, hate, and an unrealistic fearful vision of the future.
Hopeful voters are realistic. They know change won’t happen overnight. They know that real change happens slowly. They also know that no leader is perfect. They want leaders they can believe in. Leaders that will work to improve the condition of their lives. Hopeful voters vote for leaders that have a rational vision of the future; a vision that adds value to the lives of all the“people”, not just the few. They look for leaders who offer hopeful, realistic visions of the future, not empty promises.
Hopeful voters support change and have faith in a future they believe will improve their living conditions. A future that helps all Americans feel safer; a future that ensures their children will inherit a better world. They are not attracted to politicians that offer the same old empty promises. They want change. They believe a better future is possible. But hopeful voters want rational change; not change based on dangerous, unrealistic, emotionally hateful bombastic rhetoric, and negative ultra-nationalism. A view of the future that builds walls that isolate us from the rest of the world.
Hopeful Voters Want Rational Change
Hopeful voters want to see rational change. Not bombastic empty promises. Not the kind of change that only benefits the greed of the 1%; the ultra-wealthy.
They want Citizens United reversed, and the money of the 1% and multinational corporations removed from our country’s political process.
They want to see real plans and goals to bring global warming, rising ocean water levels, and climate intensification to an end.
They want to see real plans and goals to end poverty.
They want to believe in and have faith in their leaders. Leaders that listen to them. Leaders that get it! They want to embrace hope. They want to have faith in a hopeful vision of the future.
They want to bring an end to the never-ending war that is creating so much suffering in the world.
And most importantly, they want these things for all Americans …..regardless of whether they are black, Latino, new immigrants, old immigrants, young, elderly, rich, poor, educated, uneducated healthy, unhealthy, male, female, straight or gay. All Americans.
Hopeful voters also have a deep compassion for suffering regardless of where it’s found in the world. They support and believe in the concept of the common good and mutual benefit……the idea that all people deserve to live hopeful lives.
Hopeful Voters Embrace Rational Wisdom
Hopeful voters embrace wisdom grounded in reality, not rigid irrational ideological beliefs. They see through empty wishful thinking, unrealistic rants, and bombastic rhetoric that’s only designed to appeal to the voter’s emotions and shut down their ability for rational thinking. They know bombastic ranting ignores the real problems and difficult obstacles that need to be creatively solved if we are to create a truly hopeful future for all Americans.
Hopeful voters have faith that a rational vision of the future can be reached and achieved. They know that creating a rational future for all of our people will require carefully thought out actions and realistic goals. They use their vote to support political leaders with the vision and ability to inspire realistic hope in the people. The hope that rational change is possible.
Our Nation Is Angry. Our Politicians Need To Wake Up
Our politicians and political parties need to wake up. They have lost touch with the “people”.When the “people” lose faith and hope in their leaders, they will walk away. They will become angry and begin to demand real change. They will search for leaders with a hopeful, realistic vision of the future. Leaders that offer a realistic path forward based on real plans and realistic goals to achieve that hopeful vision.
The Danger Of Anger
An angry nation is emotionally vulnerable and easily manipulated by an oligarchy. It is emotionally vulnerable to those who attempt to intentionally stoke the anger and lack of hope so many American’s feel in order to shut down our nation’s ability for rational thinking.
Rational thinking and hope are deadly to the power of an oligarchy. Rational thinking and hope is the deadly “black plague” that an oligarchy is always frantically beating the emotional drum to shut down and eliminate.
Conclusion
A rational voter in a democracy is a warrior with the wisdom and courage to slay an oligarchy…..and rescue the democracy that the oligarchy would love to sacrifice on the altar of personal greed, power, and control.
Our democracy needs a nation of rational warriors with hopeful wisdom, courage, and faith to vote for a better future. Stay at home voters; those who have given in to despair and are unwilling to vote, only increase the possibility that bombastic, self-focused, narcissistic politicians will win the November election.
Our nation is badly in need of change, but that change needs to be based on a rational vision of the future; a vision that includes all of the “people”.
A hopeful future for “all Americans” needs you to vote rationally when you enter the voting booth in November.
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Four Quotes To Think About on November Election: Oligarchy vs. We The People
“Inside the polling booth, every American man and woman stands as the equal of every other American man and woman. There they have no superiors. There they have no masters save their own minds and consciences.”
Franklin Delano Roosevelt“The fact that liberty depended on honest elections was of the utmost importance to the patriots who founded our nation and wrote the Constitution. They knew that corruption (wealth inequality)destroyed the prime requisite of constitutional liberty: an independent legislature free from any influence other than that of the people”. Barry Goldwater
“We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both”. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis
“To be successful, representative government assumes that elections will be controlled by the citizenry at large, not by those who give the most money. Electors must believe that their vote counts. Elected officials must owe their allegiance to the people, not to their own wealth or to the wealth of interest groups that speak only for the selfish fringes of the whole community.”
“In one way or another, this is the oldest story in our country’s history: the struggle to determine whether “we, the people” is a metaphysical reality……one nation, indivisible…..or merely a charade masquerading as piety and manipulated by the powerful and privileged to sustain their own way of life at the expense of others.” Bill Moyers 2016
