There are some strange things going on in this election of the next President of these semi-united states. Strange indeed. I’m not talking about orange tans or colossal comb-overs or Revolutionary War airports. I’m not talking about our current Comrade-in-Chief or the Grand Old Party at all. I’m talking about the Democrats!
We’ve been having these elections for over two hundred years and without exception – to my limited knowledge – all of them have primarily been about the candidates’ agendas. Through the years these platforms have been about bringing the country together, social reforms, strengthening the military, international relations, civil rights—you name it.
It’s common for candidates to tell us that politics as usual isn’t working and that they have the answer. But until now, as far as I know, no Presidential candidate has ever proposed that the bottom-line solution for America’s problems is love. The very idea!
Enter Marianne Williamson—best-selling author, lecturer, and activist. She wants us to fix the USA by harnessing the power of love. It sounds to me like she wants us to not just “treat the symptoms” of a sick society, but Williamson also wants us to do things to cure the actual cause of the disease. Imagine that.
Why, Marianne Williamson even wants us to “wage peace”! She wants a cabinet-level department called “The Department of Peace”! Here are some things – directly from an email she sent me – that “The Department of Peace” would do:
- pursue a strategic, scientifically based approach to reducing violence and heal trauma,
- create a cabinet-level position to advise the president on all matters of peace,
- strengthen the connection between the Department of State and Department of Defense research and promote peace-building techniques and strategies in America,
- E\expand existing policies and programs that effectively address violence, suicide, domestic violence, and drug abuse,
- invest in community development, conflict mediation, trauma-informed education and community wraparound services, and
- provide a federal platform to the peace-building community.
Somebody needs to tell Ms. Williamson that, while he wasn’t so brazen about it, Jimmy Carter tried to spread some spiritual love around and look where it got him. He couldn’t get much of anything done (except the Middle East Peace Treaty—which was huge), and he didn’t get re-elected. Why? Because, with few exceptions, Washington D.C. doesn’t speak the language of love.
That great musical theologian of the 80’s and his disciples—Huey Lewis and the News—sang about how great the power of love is. Why, they went so far as to say that love just might save your life. If that’s true, could it save an entire nation’s life? Then, pray tell, with all the brains we’ve got in the USA, why hasn’t a Presidential candidate ever run on this platform before? I’ll tell you what I think.
I think no one’s run on a platform of love because, up until now, no one’s had the kahunas to. Even in a country supposedly founded on Judeo-Christian principles (that I think have a lot of teachings about love in them – correct me if I’m wrong). Many have said, “Well, all that love stuff is just fine in its place. We all ought to be helping our neighbors. But it just don’t work that way in the gov’ment. You got your “communities of faith” out there. That’s where love outta be the rule, but you cain’t have it in politics. Never was meant to be there.”
“They tried all that in the 1960’s an’ ‘70’s. It was a part of why we had to get out of Viet Nam. It was a big part of the Civil Rights Movement. And it sold one helluva lot of Coca-Colas. All them damn hippies shoutin’ out ‘All you need is love’ – if those peaceniks had held on a little longer, we’d probably all be wearin’ flowers, holdin’ hands, and singin’ “Kumba–f’n-ya” today. Could you imagine that?!” I could.
About 2000 years ago some Jewish guy tried putting love into politics. He got killed for it. But love didn’t die. It just keeps on changing folks.
What’s love got to do with it? Everything.
Hey, Marianne! You go, girl!
…and that’s the view from The Balcony.
