Deep convictions, strong opinions, and tender love

There’s more than a year to go before the presidential election, and, already, I am weary of the campaign. When I can manage simply to view the candidates as performers, some talented and others not so much, and hear their speeches as scripts in an over-the-top television series, the political news is entertaining.

Even without Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart to point out their shape-shifting and self-contradicting ways, I look on in bemused disbelief as candidates twist themselves into parodies of “leadership.” I laugh, of course, but my laughter is almost always accompanied by groans of frustration.

We face serious and urgent problems as a nation. We need honest, civil, and solution-focused conversations about these problems. We’ve got to find ways to collaborate on the shared ground of commitment to the common good—to pursue pragmatic and workable strategies to give people realistic opportunities to make their lives better and to create conditions of empowerment and encouragement which nurture their efforts at self-development. And we must be sure that we do not abandon people who cannot care for themselves.