Election 2004 - Triumph of Fear Over the Light by Diane Brandon

ELECTION 2004—Triumph of Fear Over the Light: A Call for Personal & Cultural Healing by Diane Brandon

The following is from an email message that I sent to clients following the 2004 Presidential Election :

Once again, I feel moved after a momentous national event to write and share with you my thoughts. It's not my intention in this to be overly simplistic, push any buttons, label others unjustly, or do any "shoulding," but rather to share some thoughts that may provide some measure of insight after an event that has been shocking to some. (And, indeed, I have been contacted by many spiritually oriented people who were shocked and dismayed this week.) It is not my intention to offend anyone and, if this material is not of interest to you, please just delete it.

I'm writing, of course, about the results of our presidential election. Many of us in the spiritual community, who found the Kerry-Edwards ticket to be more positive, forward-looking, progressive, and light-based, were quite simply stunned by the results of the election. At a time when so many of us felt that consciousness had truly been shifting in our country, it was a natural, so we thought, that the majority of voters would choose the "right" and more positive candidate.

Before the election, many of us felt that this election marked a clear choice between moving forward (and inclusively) and staying stuck (or even continuing to move backwards) in an atmosphere of exclusion. Many of us felt that the Bush administration's mentality and actions represented, among other things, an abrogation of individual rights; an "us vs. them" attitude that fostered xenophobia, ethnocentrism, tribalism, and ostracism of anyone who disagreed with the prevailing thinking in the administration; a throwback to the extreme reactionary and overly zealous nationalism of past periods in our history that denigrates and excludes anyone who isn't an American or doesn't agree 100% with the accepted American agenda; and a tendency to judge as less than equal those of different cultures, skin color, or religion -- in sum, an appeal overall to the less noble and baser aspects of human nature.

Conversely, we saw John Kerry and John Edwards as representative of optimism, hope, progressiveness, inclusion, openness, compassion, and generally a focus on the positive, with an appeal to the nobler aspects of humanity -- in addition to an embracing of all people in the world, regardless of color, culture, religion, or (Continued)