Today I’m reaching back into the past and pulling out a post that’s part of my eBook, School of Hard Knocks – 10 Lessons Learned.

You can still get it for free by clicking the link above. However, that’ll change soon since I’ve decided to offer that one for sale on Amazon too.

Hey, I’m a struggling author (wow, felt a little weird to say that) and I need to make a buck or two.

This one on the political divide remains highly relevant, especially considering certain events that have taken place recently…

The separation clause is sort of a joke, when you get right down to it…

It basically says that we have politics and we have religion and never the twain shall meet.

But oh how they do and all too often.

And that’s true in other parts of the world as well. It’s just that in the U.S. we pretend that it isn’t.

I believe that opening rant alludes to a fundamental problem we have as a society with politics and governing…

We have too many politicians entrenched in religiously motivated positions. As if the constitution were a document delivered by Moses from the summit of Sinai.

So people and points of view get labeled as this or that. Emotions get heated up. And nothing ever gets done.

My Background in Political Schizophrenia

I’ve never been a politician…never even contemplated “running for office.”

Why would anyone in their right mind do that any way?

Is it really to serve, or to be served?

It seems to be the career route of many of the most ambitious among us…the real “heat seekers” as we used to refer to them in law school.

But over the years I have developed an interest in the topic, at times bordering on obsession. And my political viewpoints have changed drastically in the last decade or so.

I got the notion to apply for law school way back in the late 80’s. Before that fateful day when I stepped foot onto the campus of Campbell University Law School in Buies Creek, North Carolina in 1987, I’d never really given law, politics or government more than a passing thought. That is sort of odd coming from a political science major in my undergraduate studies. But really it was the philosophical aspects of my studies that interested me much more than the political.

Law school changed all that. I became deeply interested in how politics mattered, especially economically. That (and my voracious reading of the Wall Street Journal) led me to a very conservative mindset that prevailed throughout law school and my years in private law practice, as well as my initial entrepreneurial experiences.

In fact, I was a bible toting, Rush Limbaugh daily tuning, brand of right-wing conservative.

Later I did a year of post-graduate studies for a masters in law at Georgetown University. I remember being in the GULC student lounge way back when Bill Clinton debated George Bush Senior and how angry I became when Clinton kicked the old man’s ass up and down the podium.

How can that cocky communist get the best of an honorable Republican, I pondered?

Well, my thinking on those matters has changed…

boy has it changed!

I am often caught shaking my head (like many of my old law school day buddies) and wondering to myself…

WTF?

These days, if I had to give myself a label, it would be left of center…for many, far left.

The genesis of this radical change? Probably my decade long experience in Latin America, as well as growing older (and hopefully a tad wiser). But my expat experience has been, to put it mildly, eye-opening.

However, I really detest labels. I don’t want to be called a democrat, neither a leftist, commie, pinko, bleeding heart liberal and especially not a conservative, in the right-wing sense that the term seems to imply.

I like to think of myself as a “free thinker.”

I owe no party affiliation. Being down here in Costa Rica somewhat isolates me from all the political hubbub that goes on up north. We don’t even get Fox News down here anymore.

But I also know that politics plays an important role in our lives. And it is a topic worth thinking about.

The Right Ain’t Right (and neither is the Left)

So what is my general take on the topic?

In many ways it’s confusing. Conservatives would say that the role of politics or government should be limited to protecting the borders (and many would take a very expansive view of where those borders actually lie) and enforcing the constitution…no more, no less.

Liberals take a somewhat broader view of what role government should play in our lives.

But is either view right?

In fact, does anyone or any form or philosophy of government have it 100% right?

Listen, I’m no expert on this, or really any topic that I am writing about in this eBook, but I do know one thing with absolute confidence..the answer is a resounding NO!

Maybe the harsh reality is that the conflicts and compromises that politics engenders tend to assure that arriving at a “right answer” is not just difficult, but perhaps downright impossible.

Especially if “right” means the answer that pleases everyone.

If you step back and look at the big picture…or the consequences to society of this or that political view, it seems there are always winners and losers.

Prior to Obama we had two terms of Republican executive rule that greatly benefited the few, but the rest of us never received invites to the party.

Obama vowed to change all that, but has he? I would have to admit, not so much (despite giving it a pretty good effort).

So what’s wrong here?

Why doesn’t politics seldom work to do what it should do?

And what is that, exactly?

To make life better for everyone…not just those at the top, middle or bottom of the societal spectrum.

And that power does not necessarily lie with numbers at the polls, but rather the numbers of dollars thrown at the marque players in this high stakes game.

The system thus becomes one in which a warped version of the golden rule prevails…

One in which he who has the most gold, rules.

Bibles and Billfolds

What about the international stage, in the realm of foreign affairs?

What is true between our borders is even more the case outside of them. The U.S. fought a decade long war with a country half a world away with economic incentive at the forefront of every strategic decision made.

So the problem with politics?

Two-fold…

bibles and billfolds to put it bluntly.

We are governed by a bunch that thinks their answer is the only one because the guy upstairs told them so…

but it’s funny that those answers always tend to be ones that have the most lobbyist supporting them.

There are real winners in this game, as well as losers.

The winners tend to be the ones who have the most to lose, economically. Maybe that’s why they seem so dead set on winning.

The losers, those with nothing much to lose, but also who can really least afford to do so.

The result?

A high degree of dis-ease to borrow a phrase from the last chapter.

And that societal unrest is threatening, not just to those at the top, but also the rest of us normal folk (don’t worry I am not including myself in that description) who just want to go about our daily lives in peace and with some degree of order and stability.

The way the game is being played now, that degree of order and stability is being pushed to the limit.

Where is the breaking point?

I don’t know, but we might just be getting close. There have certainly been recent signals that we are.

The election of Barack Obama was a momentous moment for me. It made me feel proud that our nation had come to the point in my lifetime of being able to do such a thing.

But even saying that also makes me cringe a bit.

Why did it take so long?

Anyone who believes that any political view is 100% right should just ponder that question for a moment.

Politics is about power.

It’s not about being right and, sadly, not about people.

But it should at least try to be those things.

And until it does, the political divide will only grow wider and things will get worse…in my humble opinion.