Spiritual Sickness

01/09/2006

Paul Munnis

Watching the GOP go through a meltdown is an interesting exercise for me. I have pondered over how it has come to this. I don’t mean just Tom DeLay or Scooter Libby or Jack Abramoff, but the complete failure of the GOP and their inability to produce anything positive as a result of their five year control of government. I also mean the negativism that oozes from their pores like pus from an infected boil.

Why? Why does this exist? What makes a whole group of people so darn miserable and so sick in spirit? Why can’t they lead? Why can’t they manage? Why can’t they govern well? Where are their values and their character? Why do they have to use name calling as a substitute for actual accomplishment? Why can’t they work well with other people?

One looks at their purposive strategy of dividing our nation as a case in point. The political goal should be one of uniting a nation and its people – just the opposite of what they actually do and all this in order to milk a few more votes for their Party. Then one looks at the agenda of tearing down American institutions whom both Parties have labor to establish. Then there is the matter of wanting to render meaningless the U.S. Bill of Rights and our U.S. Constitution by raiding our cherished safeguards and guaranteed liberties. Next is the matter of POW abuse and torture a wholly un-American response to war conduct.

One soon realizes that these are but symptoms of a much bigger problem. They have a failed spirit. They are too cynical. They do not believe in the simple American motto: “In God We Trust.” They are not investors in America but are illegitimate profit takers of our American wealth. As a management class they are a total failure. These are in fact a litter of spiritually sick puppies and they contaminate everything spiritual that they touch.

It is this malaise of the soul and of the spirit that leads them to be so negative about America and our people and to denigrate our potential as a nation of achievers. Like much sickness it is veiled by an aura that masquerades as the opposite of the sickness itself. Nationalism is portrayed as patriotism, Power corrupts because they lack moral fiber; religion and its message of hope becomes a mask to hide behind and produces wedge issues to divide people. The lawmaking and fundraising offices that they hold are an open invitation to them to steal and loot. Looking back one must identify these people as a marauder class. This comes from a sickness of the spirit.

This sickness is what leads to a world view of “First Strike. – Do unto others before they do it to you.” This is what leads to a Patriot Act that in turn is used to usurp powers not granted by Congress in a mad frenzy to grab even more power. It is this same malaise of the spirit that leads to corruption and theft and to raids upon the public treasury. It is this failure of spirit that produces a lack of compassion for fellow Americans who need a helping hand from time to time. This is sick spirit, one that fails to wonder in awe over the things that we could all accomplish together if we were not divided by these spiritually bankrupt people. They do not understand the call of Service to mankind nor how to accomplish it in a socially acceptable manner.

The GOP has no exclusive lock on this sickness of spirit either. It exists in the Democratic Party too. Wherever arrogance is seen in political behavior then the same sickness of spirit is there abundance becasue arrogance and spiritual sickness are soul-brothers.

This sickness of spirit is far too prevalent among the men and women who would be our lawmakers and our political leaders. We rely upon them to create a decent social contract between our people and our government and they use their position to destroy or malform the social contract. This is a failure of the worst kind and it comes from a deep despair over the real joy, wonder, and respect for life. It is couched in a belief that inner joy comes from the ownership of yuppie toys and the exercise of power, privilege, and wealth. This in turn leads to corruption and theft and illegal behavior.

Such people leave a wake of broken relationships wherever they wander and they lack in the trust and respect of their fellow man. They must settle for make-believe life in lieu of the real McCoy. They pollute and they corrupt everything that they touch. They are unhappy to the core and they would deny happiness to others. They mistake true joy among their fellows for naiveté and they then seek to manipulate the joyous until they bring pain.

Getting rid of such people seems impossible. Just as a pedophile is magnetically attracted to the gathering places of children so then poor spirits are drawn like magnets to politics.

So it falls to voters to look hard at the wanna-be leaders and to determine who they are, why they are running, to determine if they are mere wanna-be’s or “empy suits,” as Garrison Keillor calls them, or if they have a wealth of spirit and an ability to lead America using their time and talents.

If we have the least doubt then we must not vote for these sick puppies even if they are in our preferred Party lineup. What is good for America comes ahead of Party loyalty. We need to endorse candidates who are just the opposite, people who can pave the roads of America with hope and accomplishment, people who can ignite others with imaginative ideas and people who see the promise of the future—people who are willing to invest in America thus creating jobs and opportunity for all of our citizens. We must choose people who can bring us together as a diverse but joyful nation as our representatives in government. We must learn to live with limitations until we can find a way to implement beneficial changes rather than to lie, manipulate, promise, and then withold.

The future of America is not in the hands of the politicians—it’s in the hands of voters. We need to demand bold imaginative positive programs from our wanna-be politicians. We need to choose those who are anxious to lead us to quality in governance. We need to get back to using Capitalism for what it’s good at and in resuming our stewardship responsibility of the Commons. We need to reject the siren song of the free ride and realize that we must pay our own way and that it’s a privilege to be able to do so.

We need to remember that America needs to feed its hungry, cloth our people, house our homeless, educate our children, protect our natural resources, and provide healthcare for our citizens. We need to elect representatives of government who are on the same page as the rest of us. We need optimists and not pessimists to create a renaissance of the spirit of America. It should not be hard to do this for we are a smart, well-educated, and resourceful people and we can cope when we are given half a chance.

Our chance is coming in November to pick a much better crop of politicians for ourselves. Let’s use the remaining time to pick over this crop of present candidates and then reject the spoiled fruit. Then let’s appraise their performance in 2006 and 2007 and again weed out the rotten apples in 2008. By a continuous process of culling we can get the best people available representing us and then rejoice in the outcome.