Today is the First Day...

Friday November 5, 2004

“Today is the first day of the rest of our lives.”

I think I have seen that quote on numerous banners of the years. It’s a truism, to be sure—appropriate for any occasion but never more than in the wake of general elections.

As I predicted in my comments earlier this week, the “paralysis of analysis” has set in. Most talk radio hosts and the TV news channels are featuring interviews with pundits, incumbent politicians and news analysts. It’s amazing how wrong some smart people can be! However, the more astute among them were much more cautious about their predictions the day before Election Day this year. No one likes to appear with eggs on the face!

For years I have maintained that leaders who have their fingers on the pulse of the people have their fingers on the pulse of the nation just as pastors who have their fingers on the pulse of parishioners has his fingers on the pulse of the Church.

In my opinion, opinion polls do not convey the pulse of the nation. There are far too many variables and I suspect that in recent months, opinion polls have been used more as marketing tools for both candidates and, I might add, for news networks to get the attention of prospective viewers and listeners.

Among his many comments, Mr. Bush addressed himself to those who voted for Mr. Kerry, asking for their cooperation and expressing his own willingness to engage them in dialogue toward a unified future.

Of course this is political rhetoric. No doubt Mr. Kerry would have expressed the same. Though I do not question Mr. Bush’s sincerity, I have the feeling that he believes that he is on the path of righteousness and will not be dissuaded from the course of action he has pursued over the last four years. For all practical purposes, the administration will function as a one party system for the next four years. He now has a mandate—at least form 51% of popular voters. That doesn’t sound like a mandate to me.

Democrats have only themselves to blame. They are no better at dialogue than the Republicans and there is no reason to believe that had Kerry won, the dialogue would have begun in earnest though I do believe he would have opened the doors to international dialogue the likes of which we have not witnessed in four years.

But this website is not as much about raw politics as it is about sincere believers within the Catholic fold and how we deal with social and political issues. How does our faith impinge on politics and how do politics impinge on faith? Not an easy topic to unpack. The right and the left have strongly divergent answers. Many believers view a ‘centrist’ as a pollyanna or as a wishy-washy political pleaser. Some do doubt are but then they are not really centrists but pleasers.

The word ‘dialogue’ keeps coming up on both sides of the aisle. Indeed, there’s no other way. However, dialogue is more than a word. It is a set of learned skills among which active listening is the most important. I suspect most of us do not know how to dialogue or if we know the skills, we don’t apply them. I dare say, many of us use the skills to manipulate or shmooze the listener to change his or her mind. Even a genuine debate demands careful and attentive listening. There’s nothing like answering a question that has not been asked or responding to an issue that has not been identified. There was lots of that kind of dialogue during the recent presidential debates.

Honest dialogue enables both ‘parties’ to discover new truths that lead to new solutions to the problems that plague our nation and our Church. Extremes produce extremes. Tyranny leads to tyranny. The far left justifies its position and propositioins by the position and propositions of the far right and vice versa. It’s a dead end street for sure.

Mr. Bush seems bent on pursuing his political venues at home and abroad. As of Tuesday, we know he enjoys the strong support of those who voted for him. I hope he will keep his fingers on the pulse of the entire nation and surround himself not just with a political pundits who feign intelligence but with true wisdom seekers who understand the lessons of history. Those who have not learned from the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them. How many times have we heard or read that comment.

What to you think? You can post it for dialogue on my website forum. Just click forum, register your user name and password.

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