In these tumultuous times when we feel like we’re up against forces of evil, it’s easy to become righteous and lash out at those we perceive as bullies. One thing I need to be careful of is not becoming the monster against whom I rail.

I have very strong feelings as I’m sure you know about the candidates running for the highest office in this desperately troubled Nation. And I express them freely because I really do see them as monsters. And I don’t mean monsters in an inhuman sense. I mean monsters as people who are not regulating their more maladaptive impulses and who are lost searching for fulfillment and connection in places that harm others. I mean the monster that comes from an inner child that was never properly cared for.

When I look at both Donald Trump and JD Vance I see so much misdirected loathing and pain. Trump exhibits it more like a spoiled child who never grew up.

JD Vance is a little more complex in that he clearly never had a Northstar until predatory venture capitalist named Peter thiel started paying attention to him and making him feel special.

Now he thinks that’s the only way to live. He thinks he has all the answers and he wants to impose them on everyone. It’s the common flaw of the right wing. It’s so ridiculously apparent that you don’t even have to read Jungian psychology to see it.

Now having said all that, I post my outrage because I’m paying attention. Because my sense of normalcy, empathy, and compassion all gets triggered. But at the same time it’s important that I don’t become that, which I find so distasteful. So I’m trying. To quote Samuel L. Jackson in pulp fiction, I’m trying real hard, Ringo, I’m trying to be the shepherd.

So I am bound to rub at least some of you the wrong way. Do not take that as a referendum on you as a human being if you do support these ideas I so despise. I can dislike a person’s views while endeavoring to find the human inside who holds such views. That really is the only way we’re going to reach each other in this extremely broken society. We need to cut through the algorithms like the Gordian knot they are and actually listen to each other — without the knee-jerk “what aboutism” that pervades social media discourse.

As far as I’m concerned, Trump and Vance deserve vitriol because they’re in a position where they are exerting what I see is a very toxic agenda onto innocent people. But aiming the same razor of Truth that I slice them with at people who are attracted to their message is only going to make that message stronger. But sometimes you have to stop the bleeding, both figuratively and literally. Schenk v. the United States leaned on the premise of speech creating a clear and present danger. With power comes responsibility. These overgrown children with access to adult power have been downright reckless and people have suffered.

So what do we do? How do we stop gazing into the darkness and start talking to it?

We need to come together in love. I know. Know I know. You’ve heard it all before; ponytail liberal white man preaching peace and love. I get it. But I truly believe if you walk the walk in love and I mean love in all of its meanings, the rest will follow.

Namaste frosty