I've 'enjoyed' Susan's
anti-Hillary diatribes, especially her cartoon. Not that I agree with her
biases--I actually voted for Hillary (without holding my nose too hard).
But I'm stunned that so
many of my colleagues took the bait she threw at us--and jumped all over
her.
Her cartoon, for example,
articulates the entrenched "meme" or biased and emotionally charged view of a
large segment of voters who have voted or will vote without reference to FBI
Director Comey's last-second letter of "reprieve" for Hillary.
I predict that this
letter won't change Susan's biases at all. She's totally stuck in "their"
popular anti-Hillary meme, and nothing you or I or Mr. Comey can say will
change her mind.
So what does this mean
for all of us? Can we even relate to people--relatives, "friends", workmates,
or (goddess help us) even old "colleagues"--who have bought the same political
malarkey Susan has swallowed whole?
How can we make any sense
of how Susan can be so misguided, given the depth of our common understanding
of the way life is?
Or, for that matter, how
can we embrace people with whom we have developed personal trust and mutual
esteem, once we learn they're "living on a different political planet"?
Surely this is the moment
for the 'transestablishment' dynamic. We need to speak to the hidden
suffering
of those who are angry
and fearful and feel disempowered by their loss of economic, political, and
cultural status as once-prosperous members of the middle class. And also to
the segment of the electorate who feels Hillary is WAY too Establishment, is
in bed with Wall Street and Corporate America, and has used the political
system to disenfranchise them and dismiss their candidate.
Finally, it has become
obvious that the political process may come to an electoral outcome, but that
does not allow for healing or reconciliation between warring political
parties, who will feel obliged to take the political battle to the next
level--the halls of Congress.
Acknowledging and
honoring the humanness of those we see as "our" political "enemies"--and
eliciting their inclusive wisdom and insights into profound humanness--can be
challenging as long as we take their bait and reflect their hate. We need to
get WAY beyond this political impasse.
Marshall
BTW, American political
cartoons in the 19th century were historically WAY nastier than anything Susan
has sent us. But their distorted perspectives made political points and served
an important function: they dramatized the way "ordinary" people perceived
political shenanigans.
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FBI: Review of new emails doesn't change
conclusion on Clinton
By Eric Bradner, CNN
FBI Director James Comey told
lawmakers Sunday the agency hasn't changed its opinion that
Hillary Clinton sh... |
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