I’m contemplating running this piece soon as an op/ed in newspapers in my very red congressional district (VA-06).
********************
One of Aesop’s great fables is the story of the contest between the Wind and the Sun to see which of them can remove from a man walking along the road the warm cloak that’s covering him.
The Wind goes first, and it tries with all its might to force the cloak off the man. But the man feels chilled by the Wind, and holds it ever closer around himself.
Then the Sun gets its chance. Its warm beams make the cloak unnecessary, and the man takes it off himself voluntarily.
The Sun wins, as indeed it should: working in harmony with the well-being of others is a much better way of operating than forcing people to do your will.
But, unfortunately, powerful actors in our world don’t regard relationships that way.
Take Vladimir Putin. (Please!)
It is true that Russia has had some legitimate security concerns, as NATO has moved eastward toward Russia. And even the Ukraine would like to get in.
But the main reason that nations near Russia have been eager for NATO membership is that history has given them good reason to fear Russia.
If Putin wants the Ukraine to be a friend and ally of Russia, he could act in ways that foster friendship and trust, motivating its neighbors to want a closer connection. But instead he relies on force and threat to get his way at his neighbor’s expense.
Not mutuality of interest, as between the Sun and the man with the cloak. Rather, conflict of interest, as between the man and the Wind that huffs and puffs in an effort to take from the man what he needs for warmth.
It’s pretty much the same with today’s Republican Party. It has long been noted that the GOP ended up completely ignoring the “Autopsy” report put together by the Republican National Committee after their defeat in 2012. That report said that, in order to win future elections, the Republicans needed to change itself and its message to become more attractive to various parts of the electorate.
But in the campaigns and the governing to follow, the Republicans instead doubled down on cultivating their base and antagonizing voters on the other side, even though their posture was not popular with the American majority. (As witnessed by the Republican having won the popular vote for President only once – 2004, and that by a very tiny margin – in the past thirty years.)
Instead of broadening their appeal, the Republicans have chosen instead is to arrange to ram their power down the throats of the American majority. Rigging the elections to thwart that majority at the ballot box wherever possible, and abusing the rules of the Senate where necessary, to stop the government the people prefer from working its will.
The Republicans are not reaching out to move voters to choose them as their champions. Instead, in the spirit of Putin-like authoritarians, they are trying to silence the majority by depriving a big portion of them of their right to vote.
These are not just matters of political kinship. They touch upon the deepest spiritual level.
Putin and the Republican Party represent the very opposite of the Golden Rule.
- No way Putin would accept being treated as he is treating Ukraine.
- No way the Republicans would accept Democrats treating their President – who’d won fair and square – the way the Republicans have treated Biden and his legitimate victory in the recent presidential election.
Just as “Love thy neighbor as thyself” would – if universally followed – create a kind of heaven on earth. So also is the opposite of it – “Attack thy neighbor and seize what’s rightfully his” – a recipe for hell on earth.
The ways in which the human world can be win-win are of sacred value, making things more whole. Those who make everything into zero-sum (the winnings of one necessarily requires the losses of another) make the world more broken.