Change....Long Term and Short Term
Why is it that politicians seem to loose their connection to the people they are working for soon after they get into office? Have politicians always been so self serving and distant from their constituents or is this a newer trend? Could it be that our brand of democracy is destined to implode on itself? Can we stop this trend before we loose everything? Is there anything we can do short of revolution to get our leaders and government back on track to do the job they were elected to do?
To begin with, we are making the mistake of expecting our leaders to be different from the rest of us. It's not going to happen because they are us. We look for others to do the right thing when we aren't always willing to do the right thing ourselves. Change begins at home.
True change comes from within. True change starts at the core, the base, and works it's way outward. We the people are the core, the base, we are America. When we change as an individual, our world changes around us. When we become that which we are looking for in our leaders, our leaders will change.
Honest people do not tolerate dishonesty in their world. Clean people do not tolerate filth in their world. Energetic people do not like to be around lazy people. Change yourself and everything changes. If you want honesty in government, be an honest person. If you want a cleaner environment, start picking things up. If you are concerned about the welfare and treatment of animals that are raised for food, quit eating them. If you think we are too obese as a society, loose some weight. If you think we are too shallow, quit buying gossip magazines and get a real hobby. My point is, we must become the change we want to see take place around us.
The only real long term solution to improve our government and leadership, and indeed the only long term solution for any change, is by way of spiritual transformation, or awakening. A spiritual awakening is needed when certain aspects of who we are no longer serve us. Then, we either change or get stuck in a rut. The only real change, the only kind of change worth considering, is the kind where we shift our awareness to a higher point of view. We do it naturally just growing up. But too often we get stuck in a mental rut, and we just sit in these ruts and ferment into old age. How can we expect our leaders to be any different? For long term and permanent change, we need to change from within. However, that does not mean that we should ignore the short term solutions. There are always short term solutions....
I have decided that if our state legislature does not pass a budget by November, I am going to vote for every new challenger on the ticket running for state office, regardless of party line. Can you imagine the precedent the state of California would set, the power that we the people would be demonstrating if every politician running for re-election was voted out? This kind of power transends political parties. This is the true power of the people speaking up in one voice and rising above political party lines. The rest of the country would look at our state in awe. Maybe it would catch on. Just maybe we would do the same thing on a national scale if Washington sat on it's ass for the next two years or only served their own special interest groups. This would send a real message, a message that says "Were mad as hell and were not going to take it anymore!"
In order to do this, we would all have to get beyond the "our party is good and the other party is bad" mentality. Once we let the politicians know who's boss, to know that there really are consequences for not doing their job,we can go back to voting for our own respective political party.
So if your looking for real leadership, to have people in office who will demonstrate the best of what our country is all about, I say first, be the change you wish to see in the world around you and second....vote them all out!