Candidate Critique: Why Constituents May Become More Ill-tempered

Likely you’ve noticed too the vitriol spill that began small, then burgeoned, and now continues its escalations on many fronts. It’s not just based on “How dare you call my candidate names??!! &^*#, There, take that. And that, you creep.”

There’s far more to it than that I think.

Regarding the psyche, we know that if a human being cannot gain positive stimulus, he or she will go after negative stimulus, for being ‘stimulated’ is a way of feeling and knowing one is alive and relevant. Thus, where there is lack of meaningful engagement, e.g. trivial engagement, many will turn, without quite realizing it right away, to fractious engagement.

I noticed, as I think you must also, that as election campaign season (Geez, if only it were for a single season, it feels like a Triathlon cum Iditarod would be easier and over quicker) continues, that serious, devastating, deleterious, death-dealing issues of the most critical natures are still consistently being left out of the electoral discussion, or are dealt with by saying just a dollop of something here and a dit of saying something there, but without any continual strong stream of thought.

Individuals have one psyche each; but the culture has a collective psyche as well, which also influences us. The collective has, via the candidates trivial pea-shooting at one another, been roiling, straining at the bit for meaningful dialogues instead of the equivalent of this mind-bleeding “Can you believe what they’re doing to us/ each other, now??!!

I think it would help calm a lot of the helpless irritation many are feeling if many of the critical issues that have gone sotto voce, could be discussed by the candidates daily… Following is not meant to be a short list of ‘horribles,’ rather a small list of items that I believe are surging and boiling in the collective unconscious …but without outlet. These and more are MUCH better given voice to, rather than allowed to fester in the collective unconscious…and eventually blow out the sidewall while traveling at high speed. Mood is dictated by positive stimulus. Meaninglessness augers anger.

So… if only the candidates would talk daily about meaningful specifics, I would love dearly if they would apply themselves to these, and more:

– when will the next president be closing one of the greatest exporters of torture and violence in the world? The SOA, the School of the Americas right here in the US, is where protests have been ongoing for decades now. The SOA is an institution where military and para military from other countries, specifically Central and South America, in recent decades, have come to be trained in techniques of warfare and torture (where have we heard this before) and then are exported back to their own countries to do immense harm to their own poorest people and indigenous populations. The current situations about torture and the lack of meaningful assertion of principle about “no torture” has its roots not in George Bush, but in the SOA, and I will be writing more about the SOA again very soon. That it continues to function is egregious. Our tax dollars at work. And, the candidates say?

–the burgeoning offshore manufacture of many of our medicines in China and other offshore sites with not a peep about quality control of those pharmaceuticals, cleanliness of facilities and cleaning of equipment with solvents. What will the candidates do about this situation of what amounts to a ScroogeMcDuck manufacturing philosophy, using cheap human labor without adequate oversight (I think) about an item, vital medicines, in which there is NO room for human error.

– huge dumping of cheap painted goods into the US in import stores, discount big lots stores, none of which are tested for toxic qualities, and many of these items are dishes, plates, cups and mugs and food trays, including dry foods. There has to be a new presidential plan, not just platitudes about having ‘to do something, yes.’ A real plan. What are BO, HC and JM going to do about this minutely and specifically? And what cost in potential human contamination will be paid until then?

– a war entrenchment cruelly now staggers longer than our time in WWII. As a military wife of 21 years USAF, I know for certain that it is not 4000 US soldiers who have died, it is over 36,000-plus dead, for when a soldier dies, his mother dies; his father dies, his best friend dies, his sweetheart dies, his children die, his little brother and kid sister die. An IED, a bullet, kills many, not one. Prudent warrior people demand a war have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

–The difference between a dream and a nightmare, is that a dream comes to fruition; a nightmare goes on and on and on and does not end. We’ve clearly moved from the American Dream to the American Nightmare when we have more wounded and maimed returned from this war, and they are hidden away and the press tends to treat their stories as too boring to honor on a daily basis. I was critical of Senator Gravel for saying he “visited” the VA to pick up his meddies there, and everything was “good.” Things are not good. Not by a long shot. What will the next president do for what is now a ‘50 year forward into the future’ issue? How will decades of help come to those harmed in mind, soul and body from following orders to go to war?

–a hemorrhaging of the US Treasury that makes the critiques of social security funding look like a mosquito bite compared to the utter dark black blood bleed-out of the money we’ve given and entrusted to our government. The fact is: not a single congressperson nor senator nor cabinet officer nor the President knows how much money we have, how much we owe, what an audit would show. No one knows, NO ONE knows what foolish studies and grants our money is given to.

–There is NO aggregate that any government office knows on a monthly or daily basis, to the dollar, where we stand, how much we’ve borrowed, how ungirded our money truly is, what must be done to rein in at all quarters. What certainties do the candidates have about how to proceed?

–a gouging of the public that is unprecedented in limiting their ability to buy what they want where they wish (pharmaceuticals, for starters)

–and usurious credit card rates, raised at will and hidden in the small print…making 20% mafia loan paybacks look kindly. One of my friends just discovered his credit card is at 30%. That’s not a typo. I called on my own, and it has run from 14 to 27% in the last year. Think that many of the working folks buy food on their credit card. That $3 gallon of milk, in reality, costs $20 per.

–The greed machine is shocking and truly a shameful assault on the hard working. The mortgage fiasco…here in Colo., we are remembering the other Bush brother, Neil, who was one of the generators of the savings and loan failures nationwide. Think, Silverado. Government bail-out of the banks then too. Not so the people; the little guys lost their money while the criminals bought another BMW. We’ve yet to hear precisely how the current mess will be handled by the next president. It is already way too little too late by the current administration. Way too many people have already lost their homes. It cannot be another “good job Brownie.”

–water… Overdevelopment of the land, some seemingly trying to plate the entire landscape everywhere with box houses that often out here in the west, have NO water. So, water must be “bought,” and because so much is needed, water flows away from those who use it to farm, instead to those who use it to build…well, golf courses. And lawns. In the desert. What is wrong with this picture wherein life-dependent water for all humans is sold to the few instead of nourishing the many?

–It appears that there is already a water crisis and we are the beginning of grouping up for water wars: the denouement is kept under wraps, as states now sell their water to other states, bringing home the critical fact that when a state is overbuilt, is begins leaching the resources from surrounding states…and the state that sell water have now become dependent on the income. Surely water, aqua vitae, is a pre-eminent issue. We have yet to hear a peep about it from our candidates.

–Tuberculosis screening. You heard it here. Where are you hearing a discussion about all children and adults who work/ live in close proximity to one another at work and school being screened for TB? You haven’t. The reason being, that most do not realize we as a nation haven’t assessed the risk which I believe to be high, and therefore have done nothing to inquire nor intervene.

–Because we have a huge influx of people who came to our country without legal papers, including in New York City alone estimated about 10,000 Irish and as many Dominicans and Haitians, not to mention Latinos, there has been NO health screening of those gaining entry. One of the most prevalent health issues people from poor countries carry is TB. It may be dormant in the person from long ago. And/ but, it still may pose a significant health risk.

–I am a Latino and I don’t want to get into a dog fight about ‘immigration’ at the moment. I am, however, much more concerned that we not have an epidemic of something, that by having compulsory screening starting with kids, we could have avoided altogether. This is not a bashing. People who carry TB usually have no idea they are carrying it. What are the candidates saying about this? So far, nothing. Do they know? They ought. It is a real threat? We won’t know until /unless we inquire. And we ought.

I could continue on for 50 more bullet points. And I’m sure you have your own thoughtful ones to add to or overtake these here.

Maybe that’s part of why we see an increasingly virulent ‘discussion’ about and by the candidates. Not enough nourishing mind food put out by the candidates and pundits (I can barely believe that MSNBC pals around with a candidate to a college campus ‘talk’ complete with cheerleaders from the school, as though this is all about having a good time.) so everyone is tempted to start grubbing at the bottom, for something, anything that stimulates an approximation of passionate interchange.

In psyche, we know that if a human being cannot gain positive stimulus, they will go after negative stimulus, for being ‘stimulated’ is a way of feeling, knowing one is alive and relevant.

Without such stimulus, either negative or positive, it is said that there are physiological changes in the body, including in infants, a shriveling of the spinal cord and its neural pathways.

If that is true, then with the trivial nonsense the campaigns have been involved in during the past few weeks, all our spinal cords are probably only about an inch long by now.

On a serious note, interchange, without meaning attached, is anathema to most humans. Absence of meaning, only makes us crabbier and more tense, more charged up to be looking for, demanding substance.

Substance with regard to highly charged competitions, such as this nomination contest, is not relaxing in the usual sense, but substance that is authentic brings energy and thoughtfulness. Without substance we incrementally feel more and more deadened and fatigued. And dark.

Most of us know the diff. And want the real deal instead.
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CODA
If you are interested in how soul might inform politics sometimes, despite the ‘much talk but no walk” of so many leaders’ pronouncements, you might like to read one of my recent posts at my column, “El Rio Debajo del Rio, The River Underneath the River” at The National Catholic Reporter. The story I filed there recently is called “Massacre of the Dreamers.”