Why Good vs Evil politics will cost us all severely

"Where they speak out for the rights of a puny group. I will shout for the rights of all mankind. When my brothers try to draw a circle to exclude me I shall draw a larger circle to include them." - Pauli Murray

It's really tempting to support a candidate who says she will "fight" for me. I suppose it's good to have someone in a position of influence to fight for me right? But then I start asking, if she's fighting FOR me, then who is she fighting WITH? Who is she fighting AGAINST? If fighting for me means fighting against my neighbour then that will cost me in the end, perhaps more severely than the predicament I found myself in to begin with.

I think Ghandi said that "an eye for an eye makes the world go blind." In Alberta, we're entering what is likely to be a highly contentious election with strong opinions and ideologies battling for political real estate. The right wing UCP and their leader Jason Kenney are attempting to establish themselves as the heroic cowboy saving us from the socialist hell we've been subjected to because of our hasty dethroning of the conservative government last time. Meanwhile, Rachel Notley and the current left wing NDP government have another story. They are trying to brand themselves as the only option that is virtuous or caring. They are the moral warriors of that which is good and therefore they need to stop the Trump-like Kenney from turning our province into a deplorable bastion of white supremacists.

And then there's us. We work with, live next to, and often live with people with whom we disagree and yet we seem to make it just fine. We get along, for the most part, don't we? Most people know how to socialize with people that disagree with them. I've been doing it my whole life. The reality is that having conversations with people who disagree with you is KEY in preserving both order and social progress. Plus you tend to learn a lot! We have to understand each other better. And typically we do ok.

On the political stage however, it's not even an issue of politicians not knowing how to do this, they aren't even supposed to! If you say one positive thing about your opponent your base sees you as a traitor.

They have to be better but they won't be until we make them. We have the power, not just with our vote but with good ol' peer pressure. I cringe when otherwise smart and promising politicians stoop to the lowest common denominator and use divisive tactics to gain points. Ideally, we send the message to our "side" that these tactics won't be tolerated. Politicians will fall in line.

When you antagonize your opponent you embolden their supporters, making them dig their heels in deeper. You think your comments are "fighting the good fight" but they are making that which is evil in the other even stronger. If you are in a battle of good and evil, how certain are you that you're on the side of good?

The reality is that the line between good and evil draws through each and every human heart and we should be starting the fight against evil by looking for the worst elements within ourselves and correcting those before we project our evil onto other people.

I'm all for standing up for what you believe in but there's a way to do it without making things worse.

Speaking of making things worse. When we are all divided like this. When we make friends with someone but then see their facebook posts and think, "Oh no I can't be friends with person anymore because they support X", we become the problem. There are perfectly rational reasons to be conservative and there are perfectly rational reasons to lean liberal. We HAVE to be able to talk to each other and coexist. If you can't do this, then YOU ARE THE PROBLEM.

Moral superiority comes in all sorts of brands and packages these days. Don't buy into it. I'm a firm believer that anybody that I meet has something they can teach me. I don't care if we agree on whether 'Baby It's Cold Outside' should be banned or not (although they may not want to come to my house for Christmas).

This isn't just about political arguments though. It's a symptom, and a cause of what ails us the most. Disconnection and isolation. We worry so much about the mental health of our people, particularly our children. Some want to throw more money at the problem in order to make it look like they're at least trying. Mental health, in a large part and especially in a place as wealthy as Alberta, has less to do with money and more about people. How mentally healthy can we be if we feel hated at school, work, and home because of our gender, race, religion, or because of who we voted for back in 2015?

Social psychology tells us how to best unite. We need a common purpose. A shared goal. It's one of the reasons why we unite with our team against the other side. It feels good. It feels right. But if we really want to improve our mental health, our social capital, and the wellness of our communities, we need to step back and look at the bigger picture and find a larger circle that can be the thread that connects all of us throughout the political spectrum.