Opinion

Editor's Note: The following is a speech given by Steve Peace in 1998 along with additional supporting documents from research and extracted passages from earlier drafts of the speech. He believes what he said then. And, he believes it today. This speech is even more relevant today than it was back then as we see the continued downward spiral of politics and political discourse in the United States:

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In the midst of a pandemic with social and political unrest, a violent effort to intimidate Congress and threats of violence at state capitals, I keep thinking about new beginnings.

New beginnings often require a death to occur first. It may be the death of an idea from which a new innovation emerges. It may be the death of winter, as the earth sits fallow, waiting for spring. It may be the death of a family matriarch and the beginning of our role as the elder. Or it may be the death of flawed national values, from which a new nation arises, like a phoenix.

Editor's Note: This piece originally published in Press-Enterprise out of Riverside, CA, and has been republished on IVN with permission from the author.

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Looking at our recent polarized presidential elections — and even the politicization of wearing masks (to combat COVID-19) — it’s easy to say that the partisan divide in our country has never been greater. 

This shouldn’t be surprising, given that our single-seat, winner-take-all electoral system generally divides us into two large electorally-viable camps. If you and I are in different camps, I succeed by your camp’s failure and you by mine. Anyone who doesn’t identify with this internecine co-dependence is called a ‘spoiler.’ 

The Electoral College has cast its official votes for president, cementing Joe Biden as the president-elect of the United States. Democrats and Biden supporters are celebrating, while many Republicans and Trump supporters scorn the process. 

Let’s put aside who we supported or voted for in the presidential election (the distinction between those verbs is important). Let’s take a moment to take a step back and as independent thinkers look at the aftermath of the 2020 election as objective viewers.

One of the most interesting aspects of political psychology concerns the gap between the reasons for which people believe they hold their political opinions and the real causes of their holding those opinions.

Typically, that gap generates another one – between the content of arguments a person makes for her political position and the real motivation for her holding that position.