The Secret Blessings of This Awful Election

Lost in all the hubbub of this awful election is the steady emergence of several new levels of social consciousness.

The most obvious is the rapid shift from an age of male-dominated power to a new balance of feminine and masculine energies.

In the United States, we are witnessing the demise of the old patriarchal order that has suppressed and abused women for centuries. And, intertwined with it, we are seeing the death throes of the overlapping order of white supremacy. It is perfect that both of these orders found their ultimate expression in Donald Trump. No one else could have embodied them so exquisitely – almost to the point of parody.

And, we are seeing exactly how his karma – his own actions toward women – has brought about his downfall and the collapse of the Republican Party, which has nurtured the seeds of patriarchy and white power for so long. The same phenomenon has brought down Roger Ailes, the former CEO of Fox News, which has long been the propaganda wing of the far right of the Republican Party. Ailes is now an “adviser” to Trump.

Christian Right leaders such as Jerry Falwell Jr. James Dobson and Ralph Reed are being called out for their hypocrisy in supporting Trump – by their very own followers, and especially by women.

As the old structures dissolve, we can finally turn to dealing with critical problems that our planet faces. For the world, this means that scientific evidence on climate change and the urgent need for environmental remediation will no longer be denied. International treaties and national environmental policies will be enforced and strengthened.

New movements are arising to raise consciousness.  Most young people reject America’s participation in overseas wars and the global Game of Thrones:  Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and all the many other military failures that have depleted our souls and our treasury, and have killed millions in the process.

In the Muslim world and elsewhere people are starting to recognize that militant Sunni Islamist groups such as ISIS and Al Quaeda have to be dealt with by Muslims themselves, not by American or European armies. Islam will have to find its own version of the Protestant Reformation, its own Martin Luthers and John Calvins, to restore it to wholeness or it will founder from within. Groups based on hate and a desire to return to seventh century practices cannot sustain themselves for long in an age of global communications, education and the empowerment of women.

The most powerful person on the planet will be a woman – for the first time. Women will be running governments in the USA, in Germany, in the UK and many other countries: a seismic shift of the same order as seeing a black man elected to be President of the United States eight years ago. Men are also showing up in positions of power who empathize with and support this movement: Pope Francis and Prime Minister Trudeau in Canada, to name two.

Other old ways of dividing people to manipulate them are also collapsing. We see it in Black Lives Matter.  Many young black people are in the vanguard of a new consciousness movement, challenging authority, prejudice and abuse of power, and forcing whites to see their own unconscious bias.

And we see the same sea-change too in the steady acceptance of LGBT rights in most parts of the world.

So, though this election has dragged on far too long and though it has been ugly and draining, it has been an instrument of change. Ugly behavior and attitudes that have festered in darkness have been exposed and challenged. The Republican Party is falling to pieces. We will soon have a more liberal Supreme Court. Women are standing up for all their rights, and most men are backing them. Black Americans are demanding equal justice, and will get it.

This is a revolution in consciousness, similar to that which happened in the 1960s. Dig out those old bell bottoms, wear some flowers in your hair, and celebrate on November 8^th.