As we saw in Part 1 of this series, Lao Tzu contends that the person who does not compete "does not meet competition." However, when discussing the US political system (and that of many other nations as well), it might seem like a nonstarter to suggest we move away from the spirit of competition.
It is built into the way our system operates. Two or more candidates face-off to see who will win. Where two or more candidates vie for one position, there will necessarily be one winner and one or more losers. Unless we revolutionize the manner in which our society operates, you simply can't get away from this result.
While there are other methodologies from managing a nation, I'm going to let that slide for now. What I will focus on this brief post is the strategy that the Republican Party has adopted and utilized to the max for the past two years. That strategy can be summed up succinctly as OPPOSE ANYTHING THE PRESIDENT ADVOCATES.
This kind of strategy engenders a type of competition that patently seeks to create disharmony at every turn. It takes the worst aspects of the competitive mentality and honors them as virtues. Stated a different way, it takes what is bad and promotes it as good.
However, the most damaging aspect of this kind of negative strategy is that, rather than genuinely attempting to solve problems, it seeks to exacerbate them. The GOP went out of its way to insure that our economy was in shambles come Election Day to further their prime political objective -- to move to the front (what was discussed in Part 2).
If you think that their big win on Tuesday will cause them to reverse course, then you're not paying attention. In press conference after press conference, the old guard and the newly elected stated rather clearly that one of their chief objectives for the next two years is to insure that Pres. Obama is a one-term president!
In other words, they are less concerned with the needs of this nation's residents and more concerned with sustaining and increasing their own political power.
In the next post of this miniseries, I will discuss Lao Tzu's belief that compassion and conservation are two hallmarks of the sagely leader.
Related Posts: Part 1, Part 2
It is built into the way our system operates. Two or more candidates face-off to see who will win. Where two or more candidates vie for one position, there will necessarily be one winner and one or more losers. Unless we revolutionize the manner in which our society operates, you simply can't get away from this result.
While there are other methodologies from managing a nation, I'm going to let that slide for now. What I will focus on this brief post is the strategy that the Republican Party has adopted and utilized to the max for the past two years. That strategy can be summed up succinctly as OPPOSE ANYTHING THE PRESIDENT ADVOCATES.
This kind of strategy engenders a type of competition that patently seeks to create disharmony at every turn. It takes the worst aspects of the competitive mentality and honors them as virtues. Stated a different way, it takes what is bad and promotes it as good.
However, the most damaging aspect of this kind of negative strategy is that, rather than genuinely attempting to solve problems, it seeks to exacerbate them. The GOP went out of its way to insure that our economy was in shambles come Election Day to further their prime political objective -- to move to the front (what was discussed in Part 2).
If you think that their big win on Tuesday will cause them to reverse course, then you're not paying attention. In press conference after press conference, the old guard and the newly elected stated rather clearly that one of their chief objectives for the next two years is to insure that Pres. Obama is a one-term president!
In other words, they are less concerned with the needs of this nation's residents and more concerned with sustaining and increasing their own political power.
In the next post of this miniseries, I will discuss Lao Tzu's belief that compassion and conservation are two hallmarks of the sagely leader.
Related Posts: Part 1, Part 2
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