Usually, the opening essay of each edition of TLBR involves a look back at some recent noteworthy event. But in this issue, I want to take a look ahead, toward the upcoming midterm elections. With early voting already underway in some states, and about to begin in many others, we as a country are headed toward a reckoning of sorts on Tuesday, November 8th - a reckoning likely to stretch out for days and weeks (and, quite possibly, months) afterward.
The current consensus among most political pundits, backed by the results of more and more pre-election polls, seems to be that the Democrats are about to suffer significant losses in both houses of Congress, pushing the country once again into the throes of divided government. I still hold out some slight hope that they can hold their razor-thin majority in the Senate, but should the House revert to Republican control, a Democratic-led Senate will make scant difference.
So, given the growing likelihood that this predicted shift of Congressional leadership will actually occur, what are politically engaged liberals to do? And how ought socially engaged Buddhists respond?
Some of us might be cast down into a sense of pessimism, feeling that our hopes for a more compassionate, inclusive country are being washed away by the rising tide of intolerance and divisiveness. Some of us might even begin entertaining thoughts of moving out, leaving this increasingly polarized country for one more welcoming of our aspirations for social, economic, and ecological justice.
Either of the above reactions would be completely understandable.
But what I hope most of us will decide to do, should the polls and pundits prove correct, is to re-commit even more energetically to those very causes in which we are already engaged. After all, what else should a politically engaged liberal or a socially engaged Buddhist do, if not engage?
And over the next two years, such engagement will be more critical than ever - if for no other reason than because the 2024 presidential election, like the “rough beast” in Yeats’ famous poem, is already slouching its way toward us, ”its hour come round at last.”
Earlier this year, The Atlantic’s staff writer Barton Gellman gave us this carefully constructed glimpse at what that slouching beast might look like. Now would be an excellent time to read (or re-read) it, in preparation for the engaging that lies ahead.
Additional reading:
The author Anand Giridharadas provides an inspiring guide to the many possibilities for liberals, Buddhists, and other participants in what he calls the pro-Democracy movement to be more effective in their efforts to win the hearts and minds of Americans in the elections to come … “The pro-democracy side can still very much prevail. But it needs to go beyond its present modus operandi, a mix of fatalism and despair and living in perpetual reaction to the right and policy wonkiness and praying for indictments. It needs to build a new and improved movement — feisty, galvanizing, magnanimous, rooted and expansionary.”
Most of us have, at one time or another, learned from personal experience the risk of an unintended consequence resulting from a seemingly well-intentioned action. This analysis piece from The New York Times offers a revealing look at the unintended consequences of primary elections both here in the U.S. and across the ocean in Great Britain.
Closing notes:
Here’s a thoughtful reflection on living mindfully in these tumultuous times.
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And here’s another thought-provoking poem, “A Small Needful Fact”.
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You can follow me on Twitter here and on Goodreads here.
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See you with the next issue of TLBR in three weeks, on Wednesday, November 16th. Until then, please take care and stay well.
Excellent and informative.
Where's the book?