United in our Status as Americans (On Conflict Resolution)

Wow - what a month it has been!  

In the last several weeks, we’ve seen high drama unfold across the American political landscape, to include a Presidential debate better lost to memory hole of time, growing calls from inside the party for the incumbent President and duly-elected Democratic nominee to step aside, a near-assassination of the former President and Republican nominee under the watchful eye of the Secret Service (as played by the Keystone Cops), selection of the current Vice President as replacement Democratic nominee - through a bottom-up, grass-roots process conveniently involving no voters nor convention of electors, a remarkable public-perception makeover of said candidate in the mainstream media - and yesterday - a parody ad for Kamala on Twitter spurred a call from California Governor Newsom for censorship of such (obviously satirical and labeled-as-parody) content, and a retort from the world’s richest man referred Newsom to a renowned authority on such matters, Professor Suggon Deeznutz.  You can’t make this stuff up!  

We have been, and remain, in Clown World, but my gosh is it entertaining.  

And - it’s terrifying.  The truth is that the American business sector, and most of its people, prefer to chug along quietly without spending too much time and attention on the divisive topics of the day.  I fear, however, that the Red-Blue tribalism has truly gone too far, and I wonder to myself how we can rebuild respect for one another and how can our political system and messaging be reformed to encourage unity rather than division?  To prepare for today’s blog, I read up on conflict resolution and revisited some of my podcast conversations with conflict resolution experts and strategic planners - and the same principles apply whether we’re talking about a small team - or a large nation - so join me if you will and we can ponder together.  

(Break)

One can find articles on conflict resolutions that posit three steps, or four, six, or seven or even more - but the one I’m sharing today has five - because it seemed to hit the sweet spot between sufficiency and excess, and because 5 has always been one of my favorite numbers. And, it’s from American Management Association - which sounds very proper - and you can reference the link here if you’d like to see their discussion.  

Granted, I’m no expert on conflict resolution - I describe myself as an inch-deep and a mile wide.  But - being a mile wide has certain advantages - and I learn things from all kinds of podcast conversations - including my own from my guests - like this favorite in the category, Experience #134 with Sean Follin.  I didn’t realize before this conversation how much conflict resolution and strategic planning go together, but as Sean explained - even within a successful large organization there is competition between departments and divisions for resources and attention and praise - and that is inherently, conflict.  And - this is the conflict essentially underway in our nation - everyone wants resources or attention or praise - or all of the above - and there’s only so much to spread around.  But, we can’t solve it in this paragraph - and so let’s continue.  

First, I’m going to take you through the 5 steps of the AMA process, and then I’m going to do my best to discuss the steps in the macro - as introduced above - and then I’ll leave it to you to apply in the micro level - in your office, at a family dinner, in your neighborhood HOA meeting - however you like!  

1. Define the Source of the Conflict
2. Look Beyond the Incident 
3. Request Solutions
4. Identify Solutions Both Disputants Can Support
5. Find Agreement

OK, wow, look at all that structure - this’ll be easy from here!  

1. Define the source of the conflict.  Well, I guess, it’s power, and specifically, control of the Presidency (and potentially either or both Houses of Congress), in the 2024 election.  Many (especially RFK, Jr. fans) are curious why the obviously mentally-declining Biden was muscled-in as the Democratic nominee, and who knew what, when, and if Kamala was the plan all along, and who is really or has been the decider in recent seasons - or is it a committee?  And, obviously there's a dispute over what happened in the 2020 election and on January 6, and dispute over all the madness around Covid, and over what happened in the 2016 election.  Trump has dominated our political headlines since 2015 - and to be clear - I’m not happy about it.  And - I’m glad he’s not dead by a sniper’s bullet.  

Trump has been a lightning rod of attention for the media since the start, and it’s hard for me to understand how a billionaire real estate developer and entertainer from a rich family so resonates with so many with blue collars or no collars - but he does.  He’s an egomaniac, and a narcissist, and he imagines himself, already, as the greatest President that America has ever had - and perhaps - ever will have!  

And - I think in some ways that is the source of the current conflict.  Trump is all about the individual - specifically, Donald Trump, but many of his supporters feel he speaks for them - and their individual rights - and this is counter to the modern Democratic party, which seems more focused on the wants and needs of the collective, and especially the victims of our biased economic systems.  The Republicans haven’t really had a strong voice in leadership since Reagan, and even if you think he’s a crook or a racist, you can’t argue but that he gives a good speech - here’s his 90 minute acceptance speech at the RNC if you didn’t catch it.  

And - to meet fair airtime requirements, here’s Kamala’s first big speech in Delaware, and what the heck - here’s a talk from RFK, Jr. on Face the Nation from recent days, discussing the current state of the race, and why he’s staying in as an Independent candidate.  High drama in the Presidential race for sure - I have no predictions that stand up to my own cross-examination!  

2. Look Beyond the Incident.  For me, when I look beyond the current landscape, the big things I see moving the pieces around on the board are financial interests leading policy, and often leading policy that is opposed to our flourishing, as a nation.  That’s the deep and lasting power at play. 

Eisenhower warned about the “Military Industrial Complex '' in his departure speech, and the risk that weapons manufacturers and contractors of various sorts would wield their influence to keep our nation in neverending wars abroad.  And our Founding Fathers knew also of this human inclination for corruption.  They warned about getting involved in foreign entanglements, and recognized the ethical challenge of managing power - even for good men - and set up a government with checks and balances to try to protect against it.  But here we are funding most of the UN, and expanding NATO well beyond the North Atlantic.  Turkey is in NATO - you know that right? - and they are helping Hezbollah attack Israel - but if Israel attacks Turkey we are contractually bound to come to Turkey’s defense.  What could go wrong?  We’ve given $200 Billion to Ukraine to continue its’ war against Russia, when they could have sued for peace in February of 2022 and lost only a fraction of their men and territory compared to today - but we told them not to, because we still had old weapons to get out of inventory - and we wanted to further harm Russia’s economy and military capacity.  Oops.    

In addition to the military complex, we’ve grown so much as a nation that we now have a medical industrial complex, mainstream media complex, social media complex, pharma-industrial complex, an academic institutional complex, and many, many more smaller players.  All funded by, promoted by, allowed by, regulated by, or otherwise interlaced with federal and state government bodies or agencies.  There’s insiders and outsiders, and if you’ve never heard about this stuff - you’re an outsider - as am I.  It’s symbiotic, really - except for the mostly parasitical element of it for every other sector of the population and economy.  

Too much power creating too much sway, when most of us just want to live a simple way.  

3.  Request Solutions.  This is where we have to gather perspective and listen to the various stakeholders.  

If we’re honing in on the various power complexes that use political offices to influence policy to benefit their causes, the source of that power is the interface between the organizations.  War heroes go on to become Pentagon staff, or lobbyists working for Lockheed Martin or similar.  Tough to have clean incentives in a situation like that.  

Similarly, the Pharmaceutical Industrial complex pays 75% of the costs of their own regulation, leaving the tail wagging the dog a bit, and the fact that NIH staff were paid hundreds of millions in royalties associated with the mRNA technologies deployed in Covid nation has many raising eyebrows about what the incentive structure there is causing and will cause in the future.  There are strong government and industry ties to big ag and big tech and big everything, basically.  

Ok - those are problems, not solutions - but I’m just me, and this is ultimately a group exercise.  To me, a major problem is BIG - too big creates too much power, which always leads to corruption.  

Maybe we could have a tax system that scales not with how much income you make - which is a disincentive to make strong profit - but instead bases your tax rate on some formula between revenues and assets - and how much of your revenues were paid you by government contract - you pay more the bigger you are, and are taxed higher on work for the government!  I’m being a little silly perhaps, but the point is we have to take a good close look at what the incentives are - and be creative about what we might change.  The powers that be will be very focused on not changing anything, so we have to be thoughtful and take in information from many quadrants and constituencies.  

4. Identify Solutions Both Disputants Can Support.  What can both sides support?

I think we have a lot more common ground than disputables in this country, but the power concentrations in blue and the power concentrations in red have a lot to gain by keeping the middle off balance.   

One thing we can support is stop fighting wars!  On the side of my new-to-me RV / Mobile Podcast Studio “Tank”, we have the image of an army tank - and a flag on a stick coming out the cannon, with the phrase “Build, Do Not Destroy”.  It’s my subtle war protest, and a way to take some of the morbidity out of the nickname that couldn’t help but stick, and the fact that it’s a converted ambulance that who knows how many folks have died in!  

One of my first blogs, back in 2013 I guess, was titled “War - America’s Grossest National Product”, because even though we’ve got many companies making planes and bombs and missiles and such, and those companies pay big salaries and make nice profits and pay out lots of payroll taxes and such into system - every one of their products is used to kill people and destroy the buildings and bridges and tanks and airplanes that the other team has built!  Our call since the Garden of Eden has been to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it” - this is the bringing of order from chaos, of civilization to the wilderness, and we as humans have done this across the earth.  But everytime we use a bomb on someone else’s turf - we throw them back into chaos, we steal their fruit and end their multiplication! 

Now - mind you - I’m no blinders-on pacifist, and I do know there are dark forces in the world.  But I also believe that one reason The Donald gathers so much shade from the DC-types and the insiders, is that he was quite successful at avoiding growing our war footprint, and he made a lot of progress toward limiting our weapons-buying marketplace through the Abraham Accords.  

Sorry, ranted there a bit.  What else?  Can we agree that only citizens should vote?  My heart breaks for all the suffering caused by illegal immigration the past few years.  The sex trafficking, the abuse from cartels, the damage to communities ill-equipped to feed and house these mostly uneducated and impoverished individuals and families.  But we can’t reward bad behavior, and if we don’t have restrictions on who can vote in our country - we don’t actually have a country!  Europe is on its way toward going away, demographically, with some major cities over 50% immigrant populations - mostly Muslim refugees - (from our wars over there) - and they’re having babies and the locals are not!  We won’t recognize most of Europe in 30 years, and borders are sure to change.  

How about the Bill of Rights?  Can we agree on that?  Free speech, right to fair trial, all that stuff?  I know the gun part is a little sketchy for many - but remember how corruptible power concentrations are from earlier? - for me, that’s why we need it.  Just in case.  

Can we agree to be a meritocracy of humans, being and doing things together, and acknowledge that we together are the human race, filled with a wonderful diversity of cultures and colors and lifestyles, and we have a lot to learn from each other?  For me, this is better done with intentional thought and conversation and a servant’s heart than required through regulation or fear.  One Tribe - American.    

5.  Find Agreement.  More than anything this season, I’d like us all to agree to be civil - but do not shy away from dialogue.  We should know what we believe, but we should also be curious about what others believe, and why.  With greater understanding can come greater agreement over what unites us, and perhaps find common ground even among topics where we are divided. 

And please everyone - be rational!  Democracy in America will not end if Donald Trump is elected to a second term, nor would the communist-globalists be in control with the election of our first President who is both female and person of color.  We will march on. And we will be much stronger if we march together, united in our status as Americans.  

Hug your crazy MAGA-hat-wearing or radical leftist neighbor or co-worker today!  And maybe talk about some things that actually matter - like how are your kids doing?, how do you like your Prius?, or what do you think the changes in U+2 will make on the housing market in Fort Collins?  You know, local stuff, stuff that matters.  Thanks for reading.