Morality In Politics

I watched the last half-hour or so of the first debate the other night (July 30, 2019), but it was the candidate's closing statements followed by CNN interviews with participants that turned into an ‘aha’ moment for me, and especially that of Marianne Williamson. A quick reading of her bio on Wikipedia suggests a “spiritual” person, and that’s okay but that stuff tires me a little. We are, however, simpatico on most of the issues. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marianne_Williamson

Don’t get me wrong, I guess she has a big following and has made a shit-load of money with her self-help books, speaking engagements, et al; good for her, I wish it was me. But, I think she has about as much chance of being the next president as I do.
 
That prediction notwithstanding, she made some great points in the debate last night and the one that worked for me in the interview was her comments about how we have lost our moral compass (those are my words, not her’s exactly) in politics and governing. No matter your favorite candidate, we do need a diversity of ideas, not the rubber-stamped crap that Trump and GOP are peddling.
 
A number of the other candidates, specifically Warren and Sanders spelled out some great ideas and policy proposals, ad nauseam. Williamson pointed out in a no-bullshit fashion that it takes more than a bunch of wonky-ass proposals and plans to put us back together, it takes morality, and that turned on a sports-field size flood light in my brain.
 
A point of clarification here, morality has nothing to do with religious beliefs. I’m an atheist, and believe me, I have more fucking morality in my little finger than that fat-ass-fake-Christian Trump has in his entire body.

Morality simply means you care. You care about people afflicted with disease, poverty, oppression, abuse, the list goes on - we are a clannish animal and that requires caring about each other to survive. You don’t have to believe in this God or that God to have moral fiber.
 
One last comment on the link between morality and religion (which means Christianity to most Americans). Buddhists are some of the most moral creatures on earth and they don’t worship God. Hindus, also a people full of morality may or may not believe in God - it seems to be flexible. About 22% of the worlds population subscribes to Buddhism or Hinduism - that’s about 72.6 billion people who seem to embrace morality without God. You get my point.

Back to Williamson’s statement and what I got from that. You can spout policy all day, and it can make a lot of sense, but if you are truly going to make a run at solving the problems that plague our planet you need more than that; you need people who give a shit, people who fucking care. That’s what she’s saying.

You can be the wonkiest fucking candidate in history (kind of like Warren and Sanders) but if the populace doesn’t give a shit about kids in cages on the border, or people on opioids, or refugees living in squalor around the world, or people without health insurance, all your policy speeches mean jack-shit.
 
So, it seems to me that morality belongs, not to the candidates but to us voters. Do we give a shit about people being slaughtered around the world, or starving, or being shot on the streets of Chicago? If we do give a shit, we can elect a policy-wonk knowing they will have the popular support they need to get the job done.

If you conclude you don't give a shit, then you can elect any lame-ass dork (like Trump) that you want because without people on the street and in government who give a shit, nothing is going to change.
 
So, ask yourself; do I give a shit? If the answer is yes, then decide which candidate you think is going to help you relieve some of your moral indignation at the bullshit going on in our country and around the world. 
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If you conclude you don’t give a shit, then pick out one of the thousand issues that really pisses you off (it will almost certainly not be resolved without someone caring) and vote for the person babbling about your one issue because in the long-run it won’t mean a fucking thing; they won't get elected and you can keep bitching.