Losing our Credibility, One Ego at a Time

Once again this year, we will choose a leader to help America to be the best nation it can. The leader is commander-in-chief of our nation’s defense, and, whether we like it or not, are always aware of it or not, is the face of our nation for the rest of the world. Like so many others who care about our nation's future, I have discussed candidates and issues with friends and family around dinner tables and in living rooms.  People in the Shenandoah Valley where I live are diverse, like in many regions of the United States, with a myriad of views on how this country should operate.  We differ dramatically on fiscal policy, on beliefs of foreign diplomacy, of peace and war, of personal gun ownership, of term limits, taxes, government land ownership, and everything in between.  Our richness as a nation lies in the incredible diversity of cultures and beliefs that are represented here.  That diversity of cultures and beliefs is inextricably linked to our ability to engage in constructive discussion of those beliefs, and to distill information and reality into meaningful discourse.  Whether you believe that gun control reform is necessary, most people would agree that the gun lobby has confused the issue and manufactured fear in their members and the public to the point that we find it hard to have an informed debate when we try to address how we might reduce violence.  I agree with many people that with so many guns on the streets, new measures for control might just be to the detriment of law abiding citizens, that it may not reduce violence at all.  However, squashing intelligent, passionate debate with lobbying money and fear mongering isn’t doing any good.  The movement toward anti-communication and anti-dialogue is scary, and if meaningful gun control conversations can be bought with money, think about all of the other larger issues that the US can’t make progress on, due to special interests paying their way into our living room conversations.  As the world’s largest economy and superpower, the world looks to America as a beacon of how things should be, of how things could be.  We might not want that power or responsibility, but it is ours, and with sloppy politics, we squander our opportunity to lead.  How many of the candidates are part of this same Congress that hasn’t crafted a budget?  Our fiscal policy and trade policy are important for global relations, but I would argue that the way that we communicate and work on hard issues is much more important.  While many issues are too large for us to change right away, we can start in a small way by discussing things openly, by remembering how fortunate we are to have the power to influence the world.  We may see exclusionist, xenophobic comments from political candidates as funny and comical but by giving them our attention, we continue to destroy our collective credibility.  However, we have an important responsibility to remember how destructive they can be to our image as a welcoming, opportunity-filled nation.  When we examine the news and the political debate coming out of our country, I think we should ask ourselves how a citizen of a foreign nation, with that brief snapshot in time, would see us.  Would they see the United States as a pillar of justice and democratic ideals, of religious freedom and financial opportunity, or would they see in ours a nation that excludes some from its religious freedoms and is run by special interests, a once-great nation preoccupied with weaponry and decentralizing our successful government, all the while without a balanced budget?  I would prefer the former.  We have so many blessings and opportunities here.  The time for honest, intelligent dialogue and solutions to our big problems is now, and we owe it to ourselves to start making real change.  Lose the pride, the ego, the feigned indifference, and talk.  We have to do the hard task of negotiating real issues in a civilized way. The world is watching.