My solution to our divided politics: go deeper, go local, go offline
In America today, despite economic and societal prosperity at levels never before seen, indicators of inner well-being are upside-down.
Suicide rates are up. Depression and anxiety are up across the board and especially for teens. Coping behaviors like substance abuse, casual sexual behavior and other risky moves that often lead to really big problems: also up. Consider this alarming stat: “The number of deaths attributed to fentanyl overdose almost doubled each year between 2013 and 2016.”
As if this weren’t enough, if you are trying to be a “good citizen” and follow our national conversation about politics and leadership, there’s not much cause for hope there either. If you wanted a reprieve from the constantly bitter and divisive political environment, you’re not getting one anytime soon. It will only get worse between now and November of 2020.
I’m exhausted just thinking about it. But I’m not hopeless.
In fact, over the past 4 months or so, I’ve had a significant shift in my thinking about how to make a difference in American politics. It doesn’t start with politics at all. And certainly not with political leaders. People ask me almost every day what I think about the current political environment. I’m not sure my opinion matters all that much, but maybe you can draw some fresh perspective and a few ideas from how I’m approaching politics right now.
For one, I have to tell you, looking for the answers to these deep challenges in the next political leader will ultimately leave you feeling dissatisfied. Our elected leaders haven’t shown much ability to tackle big problems and their methods these days are mostly about dividing and conquering. Even the most hopeful tones come loaded with the assertion that the other guy is wrong. This black and white thinking can also dangerously color our worldview.
Here’s how it goes: First, at the leader’s urging, we believe “our tribe” is the only one with answers to society’s greatest challenges. Choose him or her and he or she will fix it. The other team can’t, they say. Once you’ve bought into this, it’s a short step to believing “their tribe” is not only wrong, but evil. After that, history tells us, you can expect conflict. You may scoff at me and say, “I would never escalate to that level!” To that I’d simply say: read your history books. They’re chock full of well-meaning people intoxicated by the rhetoric of divisive and power-hungry leaders and numb to the realities around them who end up complicit or complacent amidst unspeakable atrocities.
Republicans, be very careful about your allegiances to Donald Trump or the party. Neither are infallible. Democrats, beware of believing that whomever you nominate for president will fix it all. They won’t. Independents, we should be very cautious to adopt the dual mistakes of condescension on the one hand or impotency on the other. We most surely have participated in this mess somehow and I’ve also come to accept that we must work within a system that exists, whether we like it or not.
So what am I proposing, then, as different?
First, a little more background. I’ve spent almost my entire professional life (14 years) working in American politics while simultaneously attempting to be committed to my faith and a community of people trying to follow Jesus. This has afforded me lots of experience in navigating between worlds that aren’t always easy to navigate. Religion and politics, the two things you don’t talk about at dinner, are basically my entire life.
I spent the first 10 years of my political life serving Republican campaigns and large trade associations all over the country while also serving in some leadership role in my local church for most of that time. I was even the volunteer pastor of a satellite campus of several hundred for a few of those years. From 2006 until 2016 I was essentially forbidden from working in local politics because our firm’s owner wanted to stay out them. I can respect that on some levels, but it had a side-effect I didn’t realize until recently: I wasn’t using my most honed professional skills to serve my own community. I spent all my time in other places and working on other people’s issues.
This led to a strange dissonance as I was trying to lead and love my friends of faith right where we live while simultaneously engaging a political world that felt distant from that. Looking back I realize, as Tim Keller points out, that we are making culture no matter what. The question is simply where and how we’re making culture. I was essentially leaving the political culture-making of my own community, where I lived and raised my family, up to others.
Then in 2016, against the backdrop of many years of growing unease with the Republican Party and the chaos of the presidential election, I left the Party and my firm, helping to recruit an independent candidate for president and ultimately running Evan McMullin’s campaign. You can read that story here if you want.
This launched me into the emerging space of what I usually call “new politics” in America. It’s the loosely connected groups and people trying to chart a new path outside the traditional party structures through political reform, independent or third party candidacies and other non-traditional means. I spent the better part of the last three years working to help elect independent candidates across the country with very little success.
So there I sat, in December of last year wondering what, if any, positive and lasting impact I could have on our politics. It felt like everything I did was failing. I was pretty strongly considering just throwing in the towel and shifting my focus to something else. It must be either a waste of time or I’m just really bad at it.
But, I couldn’t let it go. I especially couldn’t just walk away from the God-given gift of 14 years of experience and leave it on the shelf, unused. I was uncertain about the path but knew I needed to keep engaging these deeper questions underlying it all. Questions of meaning and purpose. Questions, especially, about how to live together in spite of some very real, very tough differences about how our country should operate.
I’ve concluded the following and am structuring my life accordingly: our ability to influence the national political environment must start with a commitment to love and lead those closest to us. Without a truly “lived-out” foundation in our own real, non-digital lives, we cannot expect to lead others to any deep or significant new places on a bigger scale.
This means living it out in the kinds of projects we engage as well as living it out in meaningful ways in our own community. For my wife and I, we are re-establishing and feeding our “roots” here in Archer, Florida. That means family, friends and neighbors. That means our local church, our local school, our local businesses.
We started a vintage flea market in our front yard. Over a thousand people showed up. You can read that story here if you want. Kinda crazy. We’ve engaged our local school with my wife leading the way as a reading tutor, classroom volunteer and advocate for a great school culture, not just in our kid’s classrooms but schoolwide. We’re recommitting to spending more time with our friends and making sure we ask the tough questions of life while also having a great time together. We’re serving in our local church and seeking ways to give of ourselves. We’re getting to know our neighbors.
Two of those neighbors I’ll call “James and Lily.” They live in a pull-behind camper about the size of my kitchen. Lily is battling HIV/AIDS. James battles addiction. They’re African-American and especially in this area, they’ve never been afforded the privileges that I have in life. James is an incredibly hard worker. He’s been doing work around my place and I’ve watched him labor, keep his word and care about the quality of what he does. Who cares if his breath smells like alcohol sometimes. I’ll give him work and listen to his stories and feed him and love him and sometimes we’ll sit down and have a beer together. I love seeing the hope on his face when he realizes I love him without strings attached.
I’m intentionally seeking out clients with whom I disagree on some key issues but am aligned on others. One example is the ACLU. When they approached me about working with their national political team on criminal justice reform and issues where “conservatives” align, I was thrilled. I told them, “listen, on a lot of your issues, I’ll likely never get there with you. But on poverty and criminal justice, I’m nearly 100% aligned.” We all agreed that was ok, and we’ve been working hard together, including on the successful amendment in Florida to restore felon’s voting rights.
I’m also serving an amazing and exciting new project on a national scale that will include intentional counter-programming against the divisiveness of 2020 through a docu-series, book, immersive musical tour and a new network of allies. I can’t wait to tell you more about it when the time is right.
I’m trying to serve my clients by being honest with them about what I can and cannot do — and trying to give them the best of me while mitigating for the worst of me. I am going to fail them in some way, I’ll bet. I’ll miss a deadline or fall short on a project or screw something up. But maybe if I also give them the best of me some good things will happen.
I’m trying to love my friends better. They deserve to know me more fully and I want to be more open and honest. Maybe my openness will give them courage to share too, and in being more fully known, to be more fully loved. We had some great time together this weekend, tailgating and telling stories and laughing before we hit up the Garth Brooks concert. Now that’s livin’ — and I didn’t even post a selfie.
I’m trying to love my parents and in-laws and siblings better. They have put up with me for this many years. They have so enriched my life, loved me in my darkest times, supported me even when I was an idiot. We shared some wonderful time this weekend as we celebrated Easter together.
I’m trying to love my kids as fully as I can. To be present, which means not having my phone in my hand. To really see them. Hear them. Feel their emotions. Absorb their tantrums and comfort their tears. To say “yes” to playing with them more than I say “no.” And most of all, to make sure, no matter what, they know I love them.
I’m trying to love my wife better. She’s gonna need you to pray for her.
So there you have it. As I said, I believe our ability to influence the national political environment must start with a commitment to love and lead those closest to us. Because without a truly “lived-out” foundation in our own real, non-digital lives, we cannot expect to lead others to any deep or significant new places on a bigger scale.
But perhaps when we sink our roots deeper, the tree will go larger, and many can rest in its shade. Lord knows we could all use some rest right now.
