What Is Really Happening

The Pres­i­den­tial elec­tion is not actu­ally about elect­ing a Pres­i­dent. It is merely the tip of the ice­berg of a num­ber of com­pet­ing philoso­phies that have very lit­tle if any­thing to do with any polit­i­cal party. There are a few con­scious play­ers in the game — indi­vid­u­als know­ingly pro­mot­ing one phi­los­o­phy over another. For the most part, it is a lot of noise and ban­ner wav­ing with very lit­tle sig­nif­i­cant thought. It is acted out on a mass scale that cul­mi­nates on vot­ing day. The day after, regard­less of who wins, the strug­gle con­tin­ues using other issues and forms.
Here is what, in the broad­est human terms, is really hap­pen­ing: There are peo­ple that believe that real­ity is pri­mar­ily sub­jec­tive — that the world is or should be what they imag­ine it to be. When the world does not ful­fill their felt needs, they become very unhappy. They are usu­ally very pro­duc­tive ide­al­ists with a lot of tal­ent. On the other hand, there are peo­ple that believe real­ity is pri­mar­ily objec­tive. They are more inclined to do con­crete things. They build things. They believe in stan­dards that they con­sider either inspired or at least deeply tra­di­tional and worth con­tin­u­ing. These two cat­e­gories are world­wide. Yes, there are gen­er­ally con­flicts between them. Every world reli­gion gen­er­ally has two basic fac­tions along these lines (they like to label each other as “con­ser­v­a­tives” or “lib­er­als” but these terms are ulti­mately irrel­e­vant). The Bible uses “brother” sto­ries to illus­trate the dichotomy: Cain and Abel; Esau and Jacob; the Prodi­gal Son (and his Older Brother); Phar­isees and Sad­ducees, etc.
There are many com­plex­i­ties within the Pres­i­den­tial race that can­not be solved by hav­ing the elec­tion. In short, regard­less of who­ever wins, the issues between the Tra­di­tion­al­ists, Mod­ernists, and Post­mod­ernists will not be solved. The issues and per­cep­tions run together like can­dle wax on an old can­dle holder (like you see in clas­sic Ital­ian restau­rants). It is not some­thing that can be solved by an elec­tion. Elec­tions are just the dra­mas.
A lot of demo­niz­ing goes on (Cain kills Abel; the Older Brother rejects the Prodi­gal Son, etc.). I have learned not to side up with Cain over Abel. I have also learned that some­times I am the Older Brother and some­times I am the Prodi­gal Son. My ten­dency to demo­nize arises from my own spir­i­tual alien­ation. The scape­goats I see are just the shad­ows of what I do not fully under­stand about myself. I can make choices with­out mak­ing victims.