Jeff often talks about how politics offers us opportunities to do integral practice, because politics has a lot of juice. “It really reaches down to our lower strata of development, down to our power and security chakras, which determine how we see the world,” he says.
Interestingly, and perhaps for the first time ever, we have presidential candidates whose developmental centers-of-gravity span four entire stages of development. Hence, they each speak to different parts of ourselves.
Trump, for instance, has classic Red (warrior) tendencies. Red is chaotic, unpredictable, and often sees the world as divided into predator and prey, perpetrators and victims. Trump doesn’t talk about policy ideas or his vision for the country. He brags, and postures, and says “I’m going to be the best jobs president God ever created.” No need to explain how. When asked why he would torture, he replied they did it to us first. Which is perfectly reasonable to an eight year old.
People don’t hang on to defeated ideologies forever. There’s going to be some people who are going to go to their grave with “Make America Great Again” caps, but their kids won’t. –Jeff Salzman
Senator Ted Cruz represents the traditional, Amber stage of development. “This is a strata that is well occupied by candidates in history. This is Republican territory. This is social conservatives, religious, nationalistic, pro-American to the point of being anti-immigrant.” Traditional is an absolutistic mindset—you’re either on the side of God, or the side of the devil. There’s no middle ground.
Kasich most likely represents the modern, Orange stage of development. These are not the die-hard believers. It’s harder to get people fired up at this stage—they’re just so rational. Which may explain why Kasich is losing (though polls say he would give Clinton and Sanders a run for their money in a national election). Hillary may even be a modernist, with post-modern and even integral tendencies. It’s a bit harder to pin her down.
Bernie doesn’t have to win the nomination to have won a tremendous political victory. –Terry Patten
Jeff brings integral author and teacher Terry Patten on to the show to talk about the Clinton/Sanders race. Terry is one of the few people in the integral/evolutionary world that is an activist in the political realm, (in 2012 he created a PAC to raise money for Obama in the integral community). With Hillary’s victory in New York, Jeff wonders if we can begin to look past the Bernie-Hillary rivalry and embrace the Bernie-Hillary reconciliation.
Sanders has brought a challenge from the progressive wing (Green altitude) of the Democratic Party that is akin to a political revolution. The Democratic Party cannot unite behind Hillary without Hillary embracing some essence of Bernie’s message. He has to be reckoned with, says Terry. “I have hopes that a Clinton presidency can actually be a unifying force in the nation, but she’s not going to get there unless she first acknowledges and really validates this revolution that Bernie has fought and won.”
All that, plus your comments and questions.
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