Taking the politics out of politics

The body politic of every country, no matter its structure, is formed to serve the People of that respective country, the People who pay taxes to sustain it. Or so goes the theory.

A government and its services are a bit like an immune system. It is supposed to provide physical protection, infrastructure, and services which the People have paid for, circulating through government as an administrative structure through which services can be rendered across its many agencies.

On paper, it’s pretty straightforward. In practice, it is anything but. What should be a straight line between money into government and allocations to its various agencies in order to serve the People becomes crooked—sadly, in every sense of the word. It becomes subject to politics, the back-and-forth of opinions, and the self-interests of the politicians themselves, rather than the People. They have gotten in the way of what could be a smooth-flowing system of service and governance.

Politics has gotten in the way of good governance.

The interpretation of the nature of government—that is, its governing ideology—differs from country to country. No matter what they may call it, most nations are a blend of democracy, autocracy, and oligarchy. Almost all countries deny this; that is, they lie about it.

Capitalism & socialism are inextricably entangled

Each country is a blend of socialism and capitalism, no matter what ardent, purist socialists or capitalists may say. Foolish as it sounds, one side uses the opposite name to insult the other, while each is both!

We may not like this situation, but whether you go from the Americas to the EU, from Africa and India to Scandinavia, Russia, and China, it is simply a matter of proportion and what the hierarchy is in each respective country. Anyone who says “we are purely socialist, capitalist, or democratic” isn’t looking closely enough.

This is one of the great ironies with which we all live. The U.S. claims to be the champion of a capitalistic, free market, yet what does this exactly mean? It suggests a market where free-market competition, per Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, prevails. Yet, we see some of the largest corporations receiving billions of dollars¹ of government subsidies.

Further, under Republican President Trump, the U.S. government took significant stakes³ in private companies like Intel, to name one of many, across numerous sectors from energy to pharmaceuticals to the military.

The administration bought 15% of a rare earth mining company featured on 60 Minutes as the Pentagon invested $400,000,000 into the company. Host Bill Whitaker queried, “Doesn’t this have a whiff of socialism?” The answer, of course, is a resounding “yes.” But that won’t stop this President from calling the Democrats “Communists!” Of course, he is seeking to invoke the Joe McCarthy era in a desperate attempt to disparage them prior to the elections, following the playbook of his mentor, Roy Cohn, who was McCarthy’s own lawyer. This and the corruption of this administration have shown us how much we need to take “politics out of politics.” We deserve a well-running government that is about the People only, not its elected officials or semi-permanent staff.

Countries that refer to themselves as upholding free-market capitalism also offer their citizens free education, healthcare, and any number of social services, all of which could be considered socialist measures. The countries of Scandinavia, the EU, and virtually all countries across the world, to one extent or another, are reasonably called democratically socialist and capitalist countries.

Therefore, to talk about Communism versus Democracy and Capitalism versus Socialism is moot, archaic, and completely irrelevant. Only uneducated hacks would bother entering into such a discussion.

It has become an inherent irony, absurdity, and fiction. To finish this off, so-called Communist China has generated over six million millionaires² in recent years. Now what?!

Money in politics

The bottom line is that no matter what country we consider, the intense vying for power among political candidates, the overwhelming role of money in elections (especially in the U.S.), and the intention to actually “buy” elections has become so popular that the politicking involved in winning a race has wholly marginalized the People the body politic exists to serve.

In short, there is too much “politicking” inside politics. Keep people quibbling over crumbs and keep them divided. Provide reduced contact with their constituents.

Citizens United allowed for vast volumes of unaccounted-for dark money into politics. The role of money in politics was already beyond reason, and this legislation simply added salt to the wound.

The propaganda machine is in full swing: the same old stories

Politicians tell the same story over and over again, depending on the “trend du jour.” Today it’s “affordability,” which happens to always be a real story. Another day it’s immigrants, another day it’s Communism, and yet another, it’s the lack of democracy (not here, but in other countries).

The economics of the U.S. and virtually every country on the planet is completely out of balance. As my mother used to say, “The rich get richer, and the poor have more babies.”

What’s wrong with this picture?

If the military budget were reduced by 85%, there would be a flood of money into rebuilding the country’s infrastructure and providing subsidies as needed for rent, food, education, and medicine.

If the same were done across sectors, the severe imbalance between rich and poor could dramatically shift. But is there the political will to do this? Sadly, we know the answer, and it’s not a good one. No country needs a trillion dollars’ worth of bombs and bullets, even if you’re a terrible “deal-maker” and are challenged in making diplomacy work. With resilience, patience, and proper intent, diplomacy works.

Not right, not left, forward!

The conversation in the U.S. about the political left or right is a narrative advanced to keep both sides from doing what they need to do, and to keep us all angry, distracted, and divided over trivia.

We need to stop and prevent all wars, which are barbaric. We need to stop wasting our tax money, spending billions on interest instead of serving the People on every possible level; after all, the purpose of government is to serve us—that is its raison d'être alone.

If you want to get anything done of value for the People, the left-right conversation needs to be set aside so meaningful actions can be planned and implemented.

We can look at other developed countries in the EU, Scandinavia, Australia, and New Zealand to get a pretty good, working idea of what is possible, what it costs, and how to bring it about. This isn’t rocket science—it’s real, focused thought and leadership-in-action.

This is what politicians should be doing every day, not what they spend most of their time doing. What they do now is fundraise for their next campaign. Honestly, who ever heard of anything so unproductive?

Remove incumbency, and elected officials while in office can actually do something substantive in the five-year term limit I propose for all elected offices. I recommended this in A Better World’s newsletter 25 years ago. No politician has yet considered it—they’re making too much money.

Trillions of dollars of our hard-earned money paid in taxes have gone to murdering millions of innocent people across the world for centuries at this point, serving no good, humane, or evolutionary purpose—just the aggregation of sales for the military-industrial complex and the vainglorious egos of politicians and presidents.

Those trillions of dollars represent the leadership’s inability to effectively enter into diplomatic communication with others. Egos prevail instead of common sense and a true commitment to peace, strong trade relations, and serving the People they are supposed to represent.

If there weren’t so much politicking in politics, we could have a strong national infrastructure instead of old, failing bridges, lead pipes in many cities, outdated wastewater treatment plants, cratered roads, and minimal national railways.

The U.S. could be an international leader in green, renewable energy and advanced transportation systems, and get back to supporting science and technology instead of gutting institutions that have provided these for decades. The past many administrations have allowed the U.S. to slip behind in the world, with the Trump administration being the very worst. The U.S. has lost its role as a world leader in science, medicine, technology, and humanitarian activities.

And what about the climate crisis?

Politicians can be defined in large part as short-term thinkers. For their marketing purposes, whatever buzzword has a momentary allure, they are all over it.

But the long-term, serious matters that face us all—anything that doesn’t speak to short-term profit—go by the wayside. But Nature doesn’t work that way.

We have had leaders and cabinets that are embarrassingly uneducated in many areas, including environmental and climate science. As a result, our planet is heating at an alarming rate, yet we have proven solutions to address this effectively—we lack the funding.

So our ship is going down for the sake of promoting the short-term profit of fossil fuels. It’s hard to imagine that people you would think were smart outside of number-crunching end up not being very smart at all.

Proof of this is that the greatest challenge of all time is not opening up the Strait of Hormuz, but dealing with the planetary issue of an energy and economic system that is destructive—in effect, suicidal. No one wants to talk like this, and fewer want to think like this, including my colleagues and me. But hiding from the truth is not a prudent way to reckon with it.

The most painful part is that we have the money and we have the solutions; we just have to bring the two together.

Politics is the sport of the rich

In the U.S., at least, politics has become a sport of the rich. It has become about slandering opponents and going to any extent to undermine them instead of entering into constructive debate.

Consider the heinous ruling the Supreme Court passed on Citizens United, which allows dark money to circulate throughout the system. We all know that corporations are really people, right? Of course, everyone knows that a legal document in a file cabinet is actually a person in hiding!

This one piece of legislation marginalizes a fair, ethical, and reasonable democratic process from our elections and puts them squarely into the laps of the rich.

This is yet another example of how politics and politicking have infiltrated a system designed to serve the People, serving us minimally while more effectively serving those who buy influence with vast volumes of money.

America, Congress, and the White House have been for sale to one extent or another for decades. The People are an afterthought. They make promises to us that are rarely fulfilled. The promises they do keep are to line their own pockets with insider trading information. Some congressional members enter office poor as church mice and, in relatively short order, become millionaires. How does this legally happen?

Self-interest has no place in government

Self-interest and greed are wrecking our political system. Greed is an illness, which suggests that most of our politicians are quite sick.

Politics is supposed to be about service. Thankfully, numerous politicians know this and do work on behalf of the People. But the temptation to “do favors” for lobbyists so campaign coffers can be healthily enriched is great, and it is an inherent flaw in the system.

Enlightened self-interest, however, says that when the People are served well, so is the elected representative. Their sense of fulfillment and meaning comes from a fulfilled electorate. This is the intent of the system, which has been lost due to self-interest and ego.

Taking the politics out of politics—and abandoning the divisive notion of left versus right—is where we need to evolve. It keeps elected officials from clear thinking when solving problems on behalf of the People and allocating tax dollars to serve us instead of them.

As the noted green economist and futurist Hazel Henderson used to say, quoting the Green Party motto: “Not left, not right, forward!”

People shouldn’t fall for divisive politics, for the politics of division and hate, which are harmful and dangerous. We should look instead to the politics of providing for those in need, which applies to virtually everyone and creates good tracking for all. Isn’t that what we want? Of course we do!

Tax money? It’s ours, not the politicians’

There is no such thing as a handout. It’s our money, going from one pocket out and back into another.

There can be a policy of “giving a fishing rod, not a fish,” which most people would prefer, as people want to work and be a useful part of society. But sometimes people are hungry and need to eat before they can fish.

There is an odd sentiment in Washington, D.C. that suggests social programs are “handouts.”

Congress is overseeing the expenditure of money, but they forget that it is our money. What a convenient amnesia! When funds are allocated to programs for the People, some members of Congress say that this money is expendable or “discretionary.” Aren’t these interesting, rhetorical, highly political descriptors!

The funds are coming full circle: from the People and back to the People, in what should be an organized, coherent system orchestrated by a government whose purpose is to do just that. A perfect circle.

Term limits: five-year limits and no incumbency

People go into the military typically to serve for a selected number of years, then leave and go back to civilian life. They are in the military to serve their country, certainly not for financial self-enrichment.

So, too, I suggest we should regard service in elected government positions. Come, serve one’s country, and leave. It used to be called “the citizen legislator.”

For elected positions, there should be a five-year term limit for every office. No re-elections, no incumbency—serve and leave. That would take billions of dollars out of a system corrupted by Citizens United and other means used to game the system. This should include Supreme Court justices, implementing a system of apprenticeship and turnover.

Elected members of Congress would not vote for such legislation unless we, the People, compel them to. This change would shift the system significantly and press representatives to perform within the window they have. The same goes for the President all the way down.

Is there waste?

Of course there is, and it should be excised. There is no place for waste, and an efficient government of elected officials and employees dedicated to serving the People would be able to absolutely minimize it.

Organs of government are not unlike organs of the human body: they coordinate with each other. Following Nature—biomimicry—needs to be the basis of a well-organized government.

The founder of Aveda, Horst Rechelbacher, wrote a book on this subject decades ago, and I interviewed him when it was first released. That’s how he ran his near-billion-dollar company.

An end to waste and corruption will not come by wielding chainsaws and foolishly slashing budgets, but by a thoughtful, considered analysis of where and why these failures are occurring. Horst knew that there is no waste in Nature—everything is used and recycled.

That doesn’t mean destroying long-standing, otherwise highly valuable agencies such as USAID, but rather getting rid of the waste and corrupt forces by applying discernment, while upgrading the upstanding aspects of these service-oriented agencies.

I believe that the Mahatma Gandhi model of governance is appropriate. No massive White House is needed. A hut in this day and age might be a little too modest, but that is certainly the right direction. There is much in between to select from.

The President is considered far too much as royalty, when he is only a servant of the People. It should not cost taxpayers $3,000,000 each time he wants to play a round of golf.

This is nothing short of obscene. If he wants to play, he pays. Pay to play—he is very familiar with his own business motto.

The man who claims he wants to end corruption and waste in the cesspool of Washington has added to it profoundly. The Reflecting Pool, fully polluted by algae, is a perfect expression of that approach.

It is also true that we have easy, inexpensive solutions that we are unlikely to implement because of this same old-boy form of politics.

In short, politics has too much politics within it instead of clear, coherent thinking about how to serve the People, because allegiance is to a Party or to oneself. This is a tragedy of immense proportions. Until we decouple politicians from their first allegiance to their Party instead of to the People they are there to serve, the same problem will continue.

The Founding Fathers warned us from the very beginning to avoid political parties, but elected officials did not listen. As a result, we have a fractured system where human decency is holding on by a thread.

Honoring our 250th anniversary

It is wonderful to feel good about one’s family, community, and country. This can only happen when one is honest about their history of actions and where there is a single tier of real justice.

In our case, while the U.S. has done much good in the world, it has also committed heinous acts abroad and here on its own soil. From wantonly starting wars to mind control, the U.S. government has perpetuated unspeakable acts for decades.

Any real honoring must include an apology to those who have been harmed and continue to be. Frederick Douglass’s 1852 July 4th speech speaks truth to power and makes clear the pain and division in this country,y which continues to this day.

The Native Peoples of Turtle Island have also reminded us through the centuries of the cruelty our government has foisted upon them in so many horrific ways. Shall I mention the Chinese, the Japanese, the Hispanics?

I hope that the next 250 years are a good deal more golden, humane, just, peaceful, and compassionate than the last 250.

Going forward

We as a nation are ready for real representation and, by the looks of it, will be demanding it in the upcoming election cycles along with more citizen participation in the democratic process.

We have solutions to many of the challenges we currently face—with the largest of them all, the Climate Crisis, all the way down to providing natural healthcare to poor people on the ground.