A healthy democracy requires a decent society;
it requires that we are honorable, generous, tolerant and respectful.
~ Judge Charles W. Pickering

So many possibilities for all of us to be more curious,
more discerning, and more courageous.
~ Cheryl Persigehl

Some change can be planned. With developmental change we improve on what is. Like learning a new language, for instance. And then there’s transitional change which, at the individual level, can feel like transformation but, in fact, has been done before. It’s known. Examples are going from single to married or changing jobs.

Transformational change is different. It is the emergence of a new state out of the death of an old state. The new state is unknown until it takes shape. Did you know that the iphone just turned fifteen in June 2022? It has transformed communications and education for huge numbers of people around the world. Who could have predicted?

By definition, with true transformation, there are no guarantees about whether the outcomes will be ones we judge to be either positive or negative. Especially in the short term. As I watched this interview below with Sarah Longwell, I noticed my trepidation about the upcoming midterm election – right on the heels of the most recent Jan 6 Committee Hearing. If the ‘anti-democracy’ Republicans gain power, according to Sarah, they are saying they will launch impeachment proceedings against Joe Biden. Perhaps that’s the small stuff compared to how this change could affect the US’s posture globally. Like our alliance with NATO and support for Ukraine. We don’t know. That’s what I notice is on my mind in our day-to-day world. The yang of transformation.

And then when I step back and remember that there’s a bigger picture, I feel comforted. What that bigger picture might be is not totally clear but I have a few clues. I view the Universe as benevolent and the Source of Love. While there may be suffering in the near term, all is well in the bigger, longer term view. The yin of transformation.

Sarah Longwell, Republican Political Strategist, Defending Democracy Together
Interviewed on Amanpour & Company, October 14, 2022

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Don’t forget: According to “The Washington Post”,
the majority of GOP nominees running in a few weeks are election deniers.
~ Christiane Amanpour

Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy,
and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery
out of the most extreme liberty.
~ attributed to Plato

Longwell was asked to explain what she meant by a previous comment she had made about how Donald Trump was ‘unleashing something:’ 

LONGWELL

We now live in a world where if you have scandals, tremendous moral failings [like Herschel Walker]; if you deny the results of the [2020] election – which by the way, isn’t viewed as a bad thing – it’s viewed by Trump and many Republicans as a prerequisite to winning a Republican primary. Those are the forces that Donald Trump has unleashed and it has changed, in very substantive and meaningful ways, how the Republican Party is constituted. I mean, it holds no resemblance to the party I joined that was oriented around things like limited government, personal responsibility, free markets, American leadership in the world, character counts….That’s just not how Republicans talk anymore. Now power and holding power is the rationalization for everything. And they also want people like Donald Trump who they see as fighters and they have no interest or care about the moral qualities of these people. [At another point she talks about how they like DeSantos and see him as a fighter and ‘Trump without the baggage’.]

~~~~~~

What does this mean for people like yourself who joined a very different party than where it is today?

LONGWELL

Well, look, there’s really not a place for people like me in the Republican Party. Just like there’s no longer a place for Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger. In fact, both Adam and Liz are doing the same thing I am right now which is that we have all endorsed pro-democracy Republicans where we can. But, for the most part, we’ve had to endorse Democrats against very dangerous anti-democracy Republicans – especially at the governor and secretary of state levels where you have these election-denier candidates who are going to be in a position to certify the 2024 election. There are only two political parties and when one of them has decided that they are no longer committed to democracy – which is something we see from Donald Trump in these Jan 6 committee hearings and something we see from all of these candidates who are running in the 2022 election – there’s nothing to do but to support Democrats in hopes that they can beat these dangerous Republicans.

~~~~~~

What do you think Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney’s legacy will be, given they are the only two Republicans on these Jan 6 committee hearings? What do they leave behind?

LONGWELL

Let me just say how deep my admiration is for Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney. They have both been remarkable. They have given up their careers in order to stand up for the Constitution; to do what they believe is right. I think both of them have bright careers in front of them. You never know what seeds you’re planting with your leadership, but my hope is that what they have done will set them up for a future where they are the next generation of leadership because, goodness knows, they would be a dramatic improvement.

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Perhaps voting has never been more important.