Oh, the outrage! The audacity. The abuse of position and power! Who expects anything less from from a world obsessed with pitting one against another to improve their position, gaining leverage in their crusade for power.
It didn’t take long for the texts to start coming in from my conservative friends regarding Biden’s last-minute (preemptive) pardons. Cue the past video clips from four years ago of supporters, commentators, and impartial experts expressing concern over Trump doing this before leaving office. Republicans shout, “hypocrisy!” They are now justified. Can there be any doubt how bad Biden and the Democrats are? The nerve!
Who can deny that this is an abuse of power? One would think that no one, but there you would be wrong. There are defenders out there justifying, explaining, and downplaying this hypocritical action. How? Better yet, why?
Ah, but are we really that surprised? Is it that jarring to think a life-long politician’s final act in office would be a selfish one? As ignorant as I can be at times, news of the act was far from a surprising to me.
Jump ahead a few hours. Trump has returned to office, and as the hero takes the stage, he boldly extends pardons to hundreds and hundreds of individuals charged in the Capital riots of January 6th. Now the other side can feign outrage. Again, why is this surprising? Wasn’t it predicted? Could any other act be more fitting? Imagine an incoming president taking office despite being convicted of criminal charges, who has lived a life full of controversy, unflattering accusations, and sketchy dealings, and who has not hidden his questionable intentions, narcissistic tendencies, and exceptional hubris. I cannot think of a more apt act on his first day than one of liberating his defenders and soldiers.
Let us leave the surprise aside for now. Better yet, let us leave all the particulars aside. They matter far less than the larger issue. For then we can look at the situation with clear eyes and, perhaps, an unbiased perspective. Is it time to wake up and see that this is the world we live in? This is what power-seeking does. And it is about power. It always has been. Step back and take it in. It is a reality we could clearly see were it not for our obstinacy and denial. We most assuredly could have anticipated this state if we had opened our eyes long ago.
There are no good sides here. There are only sides. Is there a lesser of evils? Maybe, but who is granted the authority to determine that? It is an answer that will change with each person you ask. So why attempt to do so?
What do we have? We have interests. A diversity of them. A vast, complex, myriad pool of interests vying for an ever-larger share of power. Not looking to share power, but to possess it. This is the world we live in. It is our reality. The compilation of achievement, enlightenment, knowledge, progress, evolution, egocentricity, and so much more. It is the best of us mixed with the worst of us. My interests and desires are more important than yours. My priorities and vision of what the world should be are superior. My ideology more enlightened. My beliefs truer.
This is our beautiful democracy at work. A democracy that stifles the voices, desires, and potentials of so many. Why defend its flaws when they are so glaring?
Stop for a minute and look at the world before you. Set your interests aside and see what we have done. Is this what you want? Can you honestly say that your side is the “good” one while the other is in the wrong? Many can do this without qualm. I am not one of them. Despite beliefs I may have that my way of thinking or living is better than others, my ideology only allows me to state with certainty what is important to me. I cannot venture out and state for others the path they should take. Yet this is what our government does. This is what it does for every one of us. It is the world that we know. And yet my ideology is the one scoffed at and ridiculed! Imagine that!
We will continue down this rabbit hole so long as we remain blissfully ignorant and tacitly complicit. It is not one side that has pushed us over the edge, and it is not one side that will save the world. In fact, it is precisely that thinking that will take us further away from anything resembling progress, freedom, and true liberation.
Power does not inspire freedom or provide safety. Nor does it accept the individual for the individual. Power divides. It depresses. It imprisons all those who do not hold it. So long as our politics, our policies, and our governments stay the course of power-seeking, we will remain in this war of sides battling for a greater share instead of finding peace and true human progress.