It’s Father’s Day on June 19, a date also celebrated by Americans of African descent for that day in 1865 when news of the Emancipation Proclamation reached their ancestors enslaved in Texas. Juneteenth, as it’s called, is a kind of Independence Day or Freedom Day for anyone paying attention. The Emancipation Proclamation, as we should all remember, was issued January 1, 1863, virtually two and a half years earlier, but who’s counting? Certainly not the white slaveholders in the South, who had been counting on winning the Civil War (fought primarily over their right to own people, so they wouldn’t have to work themselves). But that war was won by the anti-slavery North a little more than a month before, on May 9, 1865. And by June 19, the news had finally spread to Texas, where Black people were still in chains. Hence, Juneteenth, Freedom Day.
I tell you this piece of history today because these dates, so important to our legacy as a “free country,” have been superseded by Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, Sunday holidays that fall near them if not on them, when we honor our parents for loving us and raising us, but not our ancestors who loved freedom and fought for it for all of us. Who could object without alienating Mom and Dad? It’s a dilemma for sure.
But we have a suggestion to combine your love for Dad with your love for the preservation of our democratic republic, where in this election season, we are clearly still fighting with each other over the idea of liberty and justice for all. Have we got the perfect Father’s Day gift for Dad? Yes, we absolutely do! It’s a psychologically based book Kathryn Robyn and I passionately wrote together, called: Political Straight Talk: A Prescription for Mending Our Broken System of Government. It’s not specifically about slavery or the Civil War, but it is about the vision of this country in contrast to the one we have. What kind of country are we that we keep electing politicians who are not clear about what We the People means or whether all human beings are created equal or what being endowed with inalienable rights should look like? Our book is an inquiry into our psychological health and character as Americans. I am pretty sure you’ve never read anything like it.
It would not only be the consummate gift for Dad, but also for Mom and all your friends for any occasion. Think of it as a presidential campaign gift, great reading in preparation for the political conventions coming this summer!
I know it’s our book, but we only wrote it because it was a book we wanted to read. And no one else had written it! You can believe me when I say this is a book worthy of reading. In fact, it’s a book worthy of putting in your library to refer to as the political parties start throwing things at each other. Seriously, though, the reason it’s unique is that through the use of psychological principles, we explain not only why our government is not functioning optimally, but barely functioning at all. We severely criticize our politicians for the self-serving manner in which they serve themselves, their political parties, and those overstuffed corporations that put them in office in the first place; this all being done at the expense of serving We the People, which our Constitution states that every elected official should serve.
We talk about what everyone knows: how the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and the middle class are getting squeezed. And we talk about what not everyone knows: how over many election cycles, Congress and the presidency have prevented the free-flow of expression, resulting in violent outbursts in the streets and special-interest groups perverting the democratic process. Obviously, this can’t continue indefinitely, so what can we do to stem the tide?
Has Benjamin Franklin’s experiment in democracy failed? Has his fear that the Founding Fathers’ promises will cease to stand come to pass? We see the erosion of our government happening before our eyes as political parties fail to come together into one ethical legislative body, refusing to put aside their selfish interests for the good of the country.
Together, Kathryn and I trace the history of American politics and talk at length about the psychological means we all use to protect our egos from imagined injury and what we need to do with ourselves to protect our country from withdrawn, defensive, and destructive political thinking. We thoroughly discuss the psychological reasons for our current political debacle and provide specific recommendations for fixing the broken system that threatens our freedoms and opportunities.
We offer a unique twist in demonstrating how mentally ill thinking exists on a continuum from logical and well-reasoned, “normal” thinking, with the emotions recognized and understood and well-managed, to illogical, delusional, and/or hallucinatory “abnormal” psychotic ideation, where feelings are so mixed up and yet denied that paranoia and selfishness are mistaken for reason.
Specifically, in chapter 12’s “If Stages of Personal Development Apply Equally to National Development Is Despair Imminent?” we discuss how the development of a nation’s character is not unlike the process an individual goes through in the development of character and self. We argue that psychological similarities exist between a broken system of government and a person who feels broken in mind and spirit; the metaphor applies to the politician as well as the electorate.
For example, quasi-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump displays a political style that has historically been seen as abhorrent in the field of politics—rude; disrespectful of colleagues, opponents, citizens of this country and the world at large; disinterested in precedent, scientific and news facts, strategic agreements with allies; and uninformed on how the government operates—as opposed to the kind of deportment we expect from a statesperson or national leader. He frequently makes statements that appear almost delusional, where his thought processes appear so grandiose and unrealistic that what he’s saying borders on the absurd. He is very likely an example of the difference between someone who is insane and someone who is being exploitative, narcissistic, and self-serving, which is evident in how he is able to control such non-presidential behavior at will. In other words, if he believes his crude, boorish, and provocative behavior serves his political needs at any given time, he acts accordingly. In sharp contrast, he will flip flop and speak in more rational terms, contradicting himself completely from what he said earlier, if this restrained appearance will get him more mileage.
In our view, Donald Trump’s presentation violates not only the cardinal principles that leadership in the world’s most powerful nation should stand upon, but also those that should guide any human being with character. Kathryn and I describe those principles as the simple truths of life: integrity, empathy, compassion, and other-centeredness, or service. These are the values that children were once raised with, that indeed our Founding Fathers built into the Constitution from their “Four Foundations of Freedom.” If every generation asserts that these truisms have become more relative and less constant in each succeeding younger generation, we all seem to agree that they are barely existent in the character of many politicians. However, in Trump’s case, his character flaws are so blatant and his character so inaccessible, that this in itself disqualifies him from being president of the United States. That’s because his political reality—at least what he has promised the American voter through reality distortions and outright untruths—is absolutely impossible to construct. And if it were, none of us would want it. How he makes the unachievable believable is exploitative at best if not simply dishonest, and undesirable and grossly misleading at worst.
In a nutshell, Political Straight Talk is timely. Kathryn and I feel this book is a must-read if you want to understand what we need to do to save our republic as a democracy and hold our heads high in this increasingly chaotic and disparate economy. And whether you and the dads in your life are in agreement politically or not, this book will open the conversation between you with a civil and stimulating discussion.
We invite you join the national conversation we think is necessary by clicking ORDER A COPY NOW. You will also find free preview categories for all four of my books at the online bookstore when you go to that page.
Pingback: Cıvata
Pingback: Otopay