Which Values Guide Your Politics?

Which Values Guide Your Politics? Robert R. Odle, Ph.D. an aspiring good citizen of the earth

… Have I tried to walk in his shoes? ....

We all have a set of values that guide our lives.  For me this are my top values:

• Compassion
• Honesty
• Love
• Transparency

No, I frequently don’t pull it off, I let Blame and Judgment side track me.  In his case, I am using the Biblical use of the word Judgement, where I focus on the other person and their worthiness to receive my approval.  Both of these actions/emotions focus on the shortcomings of someone else instead of shining the light on my own strengths and weaknesses.  I want to see the good in others and realize that if I can to walk in their shoes, live their life from childhood, I might be very much like them. Judging them without walking a mile in their moccasins is not consistent with my value of compassion.

I often find people’s political positions are in direct opposition to their personal values, or that is how it looks to me.  Most religions teach that they are their brother’s keeper.  But, as a nation we obviously don’t carry that thought into our political decisions … witness the 750,000 homeless people or the 400,000 mentally ill people in jail or the 30 million or so people without healthcare.  I think instead, our politics blame these groups for not taking care of themselves.  It is their fault they are homeless (and mentally ill) in the first place.  They are not my brother and I am not their keeper.  Is that just my imagination that our values change when we apply them in a political context?

Do we only apply our values when we see someone as one of US versus one of THEM.  Is that the difference?  Let’s say that someone is consciously (or not) prejudiced against African Americans.  When he sees an African American do something stupid, he might say something like what do you expect from them.  When he sees a white person do something stupid his response might be more along the line this line:  that guy is a dumbass.  The reason the individual is singled out in one case and the group is singled out in the other case is the US and THEM mindset.  I belong to the superior US group and they belong to the inferior THEM group.  

When we worry about the poor people swindling the welfare system we have decided the POOR is part of THEM, not US the honest people (that fudge our income tax a little or have some unreported income).  When we worry about THEM wasting our taxes, we are much less likely to think of the WHITE contractors that make billions of dollars on their work in the middle east as mercenaries.  Why because they are one of US.

When I look at my own values above (Compassion, Honest, Love, and Transparency), I try to find a political candidate that embodies those values in the way they conduct their personal lives and their political decisions.  The closest person to embody my values is Bernie Sanders.  The Republicans lack compassion from my viewpoint on a wide range of issues (health care, immigrants and their families, wealth inequality, high interest college loans, being their brother’s keeper, bombs versus negotiation,  etc.).  Hillary does not give me the warm and fuzzy on honest, or compassion for that matter.  I like Rubio when he proposed a common sense immigration policy a few years ago, but the Rubio campaigning for President I hardly recognize.  Obama the intellect, doesn’t do it for me, but Obama that sang Amazing Grace does ring true to my value of compassion.

However, I recognize people may be using other values to pick their political candidates.  So, I am curious, what values do you use in your political decisions?

what value guides your opinion