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This new political behavior [transpartisanship] is being exhibited by a whole new type of citizen, who has emerged as a result of the personal development movement, and the liberation of ancient spiritual practices from “protective custody.” They tend to be more connected with God, Spirit, Source, the Christ, the Divine, however you say it, and have a relatively well developed inner guidance system. They tend to be free from dogmatic belief systems and are more willing to “go within” to access truth (rather than relying on external “facts” presented to them). In other words they are reuniting spirit and politics. Their politics is their spirituality demonstrated.
These New Citizens act as adults and take responsibility for being the primary cause of their life experience. They trust themselves with power and understand the power of positive thinking, intention, and faith. They know that “as they think, so shall they be.”
One thing that they have in common is a desire to know what’s really going on. They tend to educate themselves and each other and don’t easily buy into propaganda intended to mislead or distract. In other words, they are the masters of their own minds, and not easily hypnotized, “hype-notized” or “hope-notized” by the latest media distraction.
New Citizens —as poignantly described by Franca Baroni in On Governance—have a stronger sense of personal authority than their predecessors. They seem to know who the highest authority in their life is. They are. They know where power comes from—it comes from inside them. They believe in self-governance because they have high enough self esteem to know they are the Creator of their life and thus take responsibility for working with other self-governing citizens to create our collective life. They understand that national sovereignty emerges from collective personal sovereignty.
They also have a form of intelligence distinct from the rational form of intelligence traditionally rewarded by our school systems. We call this heart intelligence. This heart intelligence helps one make more efficient decisions.
My experience is the heart somehow has its own brain. It also has a left and right side, much like the brain in my head. The right (masculine) side seems to be the side of courage; the left side seems to be the side of compassion. The right (masculine) side is the side of the healthy warrior who speaks the truth and knows when to say no. The left (feminine) side is the side of the lover who feels the consequences of what is done to “the least of us.”
In societies past, people trusted the upper class nobility to embody this heart intelligence. At this stage of our political evolution, it’s time to grow up and become noble ourselves. The New Citizen is the new nobility. Not the nobility of position and rank, but the nobility of internal and external congruency.
Excerpted from Reuniting America: A Toolkit for Changing the Political Game by Joseph McCormick and Steve Bhaerman
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After nearly a decade as a Christian Coalition activist and Republican nominee for the U.S. Congress in one of the most conservative districts in America, Joseph McCormick learned firsthand the most destructive force in our country today is Americans taking sides against other Americans. The turning point in his life came in 2001 when his political career, marriage, business and reputation collapsed, his relationships having been eroded by mistrust and hatred of his enemies. The pain of this personal loss was transformative and he began slowly rebuilding his life on more solid ground, searching for a healthier way to engage in politics.
Since 2004 he has organized a series of ground breaking private retreats that brought over 145 national leaders representing over 70 million Americans into dialogue in search of opportunities to collaborate. His passion now is to apply the tools developed in these gatherings to facilitating cooperation between grassroots groups from all sides. In time, this informal citizen leader’s network will serve as a resource for local, state and national decision makers searching for innovative, bottom-up, win-win solutions in this time of crisis. He is a former officer in the U.S. Army Rangers and a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and Yale University. For more information, click here.