Peeking In at My Own
Political Process

Noticing Values And
Allowing a Shift In Perspective

by Susan Clemons

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the discussions continually being sparked and swirling around the subject of politics and the election and what it all means to me. Really looking at the process and noticing my own thoughts and reactions showed me that I felt something of a conflict going on inside of me. I realized it was a conflict that has been brewing for some time and I have finally been able to really look at it and find some clarity on what it represents to me in a way that has resolved at least some of the conflict and helped me to find my own form of integration.

At the beginning of the season when it looked like it was going to be Hillary against McCain I felt very little interest in the process. It just seemed like politics as usual with very little change. Yes, it would be nice to have a woman as president but I had my reservations about Hillary. There was something about her that just didn’t sit right with me. She seemed to be too much of a feminine version of the old white men that had been running things for much too long. I didn’t want that to be my symbol of the feminine.

Then Obama came on the scene. Someone completely unknown rising out of obscurity with meteoric speed. I felt both shocked and excited when I started reading about him and his life story. I was immediately drawn to him and felt that here at last was someone who represented my own values. Here at last was someone talking about the kind of changes I really wanted to see in the world. And, best of all, it looked like he was easily going to sweep the election. How wonderful. I was finally giving myself some objective symbols that said I was learning to consciously create what I wanted more quickly and easily.

And then Sarah Palin came rocketing onto the scene and landed slap dab in the middle of things upsetting my apple cart and spoiling the whole lot. Watching her acceptance speech was when I first noticed the conflict. I felt strangely attracted to her and at the same time repulsed by everything she seemed to represent. I couldn’t help but admire her story the same way I couldn’t help but admire McCain’s story of survival. I felt tremendous admiration for both of them. And so I noticed a different and conflicting set of values beginning to emerge.

And what was going on with Obama? His whole campaign seemed to fizzle and become drab in comparison. His silence seemed like one of the loudest things I had ever heard. That’s when my own conflict became really noticeable. And it’s when I realized I had to look inside and see what was really going on with me. What was all of this bringing out? So I sat down and really looked at the symbols I was showing myself.

First I have begun to realize that all 4 of the candidates in this election represent something I (and possibly most of us) want for myself. They represent people who have started out with huge limitations and have managed to go beyond those limitations and give themselves comparatively unlimited freedom. McCain had probably the most limitations in the form of all the struggle and pain of going through the Vietnam war and being in captivity and not only surviving but going on to thrive and reach for the stars. He’s the perfect example of the old masculine way of doing things. But boy has he become rigid and confined as a result both physically and mentally. Palin and Hillary represent the beginnings of the feminist movement of women reaching equality with men. Palin in particular has not allowed the limitations of religion, sex, education, experience, or background to get in the way of her dreams. She set her sites on the top and went for it and it looks like the stars are getting closer. She and Hillary represent my first ideas of feminine strength and equality. But… boxers and pit bulls… is that really the image I want?

Biden seemed to have it all to begin with. And then he lost what was most important to him right in the middle of it. He lost his family to a tragic accident. So he became the new image of masculinity and put family first and still managed to reach for the stars. Finally, there’s Obama. A racially mixed child raised by a single mother with an absentee father who didn’t seem to give a damn. But he was raised by a mother with the kind of values I admire most. A mother who believed in social integration and social equality as well as a desire to explore the exotic and unknown. To stretch herself to the limits and experience as much of the world as she could. A vision of feminine strength and equality that seemed to go beyond Palin and Hillary. And she passed those values on to her son. And so there is Obama a mixture of black and white, the exotic and the familiar, masculine and feminine. A living example of integration and tolerance.

I think it’s pretty incredible that at this point in the process all of the candidates are claiming to be for change. But McCain and Palin exemplify the old ways of creating change through struggle and hardship and aggressive attacks while keeping a top down hierarchy in place and forcing our policies on the rest of the world. Obama and Biden represent the new way of politics that embrace the integration of the old and new, based on reaching out in cooperative friendship to build community as the first step, and based on a grass roots movement to get everyday people involved in the social process of their own government again so that it works from the bottom up. That’s a goal that empowers people and encourages them to be involved in creating the policies that are the guidelines for our social environment.

I realize I admire every single one of the candidates in this race. Every single one of them have done some incredible things and have given themselves the kind of freedom I want for myself. But McCain and Palin represent the old ways. I can honor and respect those old ways while knowing that I want to move out of them and to embrace the new ways. So I’m noticing my values have changed and I’m allowing a shift in perspective that’s taking me to a whole new level within myself. It feels like a new level of freedom. Viva la shift!