Today in health, it is election day. And so we're going to talk a little, little bit of. Politics, I guess my name is bill Russell. I'm a former CIO for a 16 hospital system and creator of this week health set of channels and events dedicated to transform health care. One connection at a time. Today doesn't have as a sponsor because it's an editorial.

I don't want you to get the impression that this reflects the views or opinions of any of our sponsors, nor does it really reflect the views or opinions of any of my fellow, staff. This is really my editorial based on what I'm hearing and seeing. In the world and I wanted to share a little bit of it with you.

So it's here, right? It's election day 20, 24. And if my conversations. Are any indication of what's going on in your head? It's a day of fear and dread, no matter who you support. And that's our topic of discussion for today.

So I want to start with, you've been lied to. If you're a Trump supporter, or if you are Harris supporter, you've been lied to not just once, but every day for the last two years. And probably longer than that. Right now in your head is a pack of lies. I don't know which ones are lies, but neither do you. When good people with good intentions, with the best interest of their neighbors and country. Listen to lies over and over again, they become loaded guns in the hands of powerful, special interest. This is especially true of good people with good intentions because they're standing up for their friends and neighbors with a, a burning. Righteous indignation. And based on the election results tomorrow, your righteous indignation will need an outlet. And it is likely going to be targeted at anyone who voted for the candidate.

You didn't vote for. That's going to happen. There are low IQ people who are ready to explode and it's going to happen. Tomorrow half the country will be ready to explode. And the other half of the country is going to feel, I don't know. , Vindicated or whatever they feel, but that's the situation. And the people who are ready to explode, they're going to say, how could you vote for such a person? And that's where the fear and dread comes in. I want to talk about some lies that, that I do know are happening and I will tackle three of those lies.

And here's the first one. You are who you vote for. And with each of these lines, I'm going to have a question at the end, and you can determine whether you fall have fallen victim of this lie. So here's the first one. You are, who you vote for? You identify with who you vote for. That has rarely been the case in history. It is more true today than it has been in the past, but that's a topic for a different lie. Um, let's stay with the first one. More often than not, there's a particular issue or set of issues. That you vote for based on the position of the candidate. Perhaps you're a business owner that is struggling under the weight of taxes or regulation of some kind, and you choose to vote on your immediate situation. You place your vote. Likely what comes along with that vote are some other issues that you deem. Less important that you may not agree with or in the case of this election, a person who you may not identify with.

And my question on this one is have you lost the ability to see a reason why someone would vote for the opposing candidate? If you can't see a single reason why someone would vote for the opposing candidate, you fallen victim of this lie. The second lie. Your political identification is your identity.

It is not, you are so much more than the person you voted for or the political. Affiliation that you have chosen. Your son or daughter, your cousin, a nephew, a father, a mother. You're a friend, a neighbor, a coworker. You're a coach mentor manager. You're an influencer.

Powerful political operatives with loads of money. Figured out that they needed an army of volunteers to win elections. Not actual volunteers, mind you, but people who are so invested in the outcome, that they will talk to their friends, go to rallies and be politically activated. None of these things are wrong.

Mind you, , they are good things in a democracy. However, the appetite of these people. Is insatiable to grow this volunteer army. They will use every marketing and sales trick in the books, including preying on good intentions of good people to make them think that the other party is not only an opposing view, but an enemy. And opposing view is debated, but an enemy must be destroyed. Your political identity is a small part of who you are.

And it's a small part of most of us, but it has been ratcheted up by those with the most to gain in the process. The question for this one is, do you view someone who votes for the other candidate as an enemy?

Final lie. It's not clearly, there's more to talk about in terms of the lives, but this is the last one I'm going to talk about.

This election. We'll be the end of our country, as we know it. It may be. But our country has faced far worse than a bad president. In fact, there are stretches where we've had several bad presidents in a row. We faced civil war. We faced world wars. In our arrogance, we believe that this election is the most important election in our lifetime. Think about that phrase. It was dreamed up by a PR firm that wanted to help news outlets drive ratings. If this is the most important election of our lifetime, you have to stay glued to this news outlet.

The stakes are so high that you have to vote a certain way and convince others to do the same. The volunteer army has to believe that we must win because the stakes are just too high. So they elevate the stakes more and more, and we hear ever increasing extreme statements of what the outcome of this election will mean to the country. You've may have said some of these extreme statements. Th the question around what this one is.

Do you believe that this election will result in the end of our democracy?

So let's tally it up. If you answered yes to any one of these. You're believing lies, but if you two or three of these. Then you're likely in a bad head space. And you may have already turned off this podcast. I'll be honest with you. I haven't been following this election all that closely. I know it's hard to believe, but, uh, and I have in the past, I used to follow every poll analysis of every poll discussion of every poll.

Wake up in the morning and see what each candidate. Has said, and the reaction of my favorite personality on what was said. I would classify myself really as a, I guess, a political junkie in the past. I love the race. Uh, however, I I've, I've found that I'm not a pleasant person to be around. When I do this.

My mental health is manipulated by too many forces outside of my control. These forces do not have my best interest, my families or my friend's best interests at heart. Um, you know, they want clicks eyeballs. They want me to be triggered when the lady next to me in the grocery store says something I disagree with. So I chose this year to disconnect from the race. I see the headlines, but I don't dig in and read them in depth.

I didn't watch the debates. I didn't listen to the media. Pundents in short, I've decided not to fill my head with these lies. When you listen to lies every day, they eventually become your truth. That is their intention. And that is how they've activated you into their army. If you've listened to this show at all, you know, I like to end with,, so what, so I like to give you some hope and some path out of this. And clearly it's not to be politically disengaged.

I believe in being politically engaged and knowing what you believe in. Understanding your viewpoints. That's not what I'm advocating here. Here's what I'd like to advocate for though. I'd like to advocate for a little humility on all of our parts. And when you melody is present where we are better people, better citizens, we build better communities.

And I heard a talk a little while back on this subject. And I loved how simple the framework was, but how powerful the concepts are. And it's three types of humility and what it leads to. And the first is intellectual. Humility. So intellectual humility leads to curiosity. When, when you know everything, we don't need anyone else to add to our body of knowledge.

We lose our curiosity. Intellectual humility says that there is more to learn. They have not amassed all the knowledge that there is on the subject. It says that there is probably something I can learn from everyone. And I believe that I believe anyone. I come in contact with today. I can learn something from. Intellectual humility leads to curiosity. The second one is emotional humility. And this leads to empathy. Emotionally humility recognizes that our feelings and responses are not always the definitive truth and that others may experience emotions a little differently than we did. It, it acknowledges our vulnerabilities and our limitations.

It fosters a willingness to listen and understands others' perspectives. When we practice emotional humility. Uh, we opened ourselves up to empathizing with others, appreciating their experiences and emotions. Without judgment. You know, the, the empathetic connection, not only deepens our relationships. With one another, but also enhances our ability to support and uplift those around us.

So emotional humility leads to empathy, and that's gonna be so important tomorrow morning. The day after the election to have empathy for one another. But the one I'm probably focused on the most right now is political utility. And political utility leads to civility. Political humility acknowledges the complexity of differing opinions and the value of engaging. In respectful. Dialogue. With people who hold different views, right?

It's easy to have respectful dialogue with those people who agree with you. And so we've started to try up right. Get into our tribes of people who believe what we believe. So we can have respectful conversations there. , you're not demonstrating civility there. The question is how do you respond when you have people in the room with contrasting views? Politically humility encourages us , to. Approach these discussions with an open mind. Recognizing that our beliefs are shaped by our experiences and that others have. Equally valid perspectives. This type of humility promotes a civility and discourse allowing for a constructive dialogue, rather than a divisive set of arguments to be formulated. , When we practice political humility, we cultivate an environment where we're differing opinions can co-exist. It fosters understanding and cooperation rather than conflict. , and it reminds us that. While we may stand firm in our beliefs and we should stand firm in our beliefs. The way we engage with others can significantly impact our collective ability. , to address. , complex issues. So practicing humility. Intellectual humility leads to curiosity, acknowledges that there's always more to learn and fosters curiosity about. The knowledge others can provide emotional humility is empathy. It embraces our vulnerabilities and recognizes the validity of others' feelings leading to a degree of empathetic, connection between people. And finally political humility. Leads to a civility. It promotes respect and understanding in political discussions, allowing for a constructive. Engagement and cooperation despite differing beliefs.

So for half the country, this election was validation.

And for the other half, It created a fear of what is to come. If I could be so bold, I'm going to say you're both wrong.

Uh, each election is a nudge in our system by design. We don't like a direction, so we nudge it in another direction. If we're wrong. There are systems in place to ensure that the minority party has a voice. There are protections such as the filibuster to halt the most egregious ideas. There are courts which have stepped into address executive branch overreach across the last two administrations from both parties. There are states that have mechanisms to protect their, the rights of their citizens.

And finally, , there are your fellow citizens. Who. When faced with any egregious overreach. We'll pick up , the sign and March with you in protest, regardless of who they voted for. So I'm here to say you're both wrong. It won't be as good or as bad as what you think. That's not to say that there aren't risks to our democracy.

There are, there are those who would like nothing better than to, to see our form of government toppled. The biggest threat to our democracy during its existence was the civil war. With, that. As the playbook, the enemies of democracy have hatched a plan to pit us against one another. This plan only works.

If we, the people allow it to work. What I'm advocating for his, that we identify and root out the lies that we have adopted. And adopt humility. Intellectual emotional and political humility. I'd like to see us raise the discourse back to a level of civility and respect for one another. And I appreciate you listening to the show and this editorial, we will go back tomorrow to doing what we usually do, which is talking about healthcare and healthcare.

It, the intersection of technology and healthcare. We'll be the discussion again tomorrow and , we really only talked politics once every four years and usually in only one or two shows. So, and we don't talk direct, , about candidates and those kinds of things. We will talk policy and issues of from time to time.

But, we really tried to avoid that mostly because we understand the situation that we're currently in that 50% of the country is in one camp and 50% is in another. And, , my political leanings or anyone on our shows who are our hosts. Host their political leanings. , are not really the topic of this.

If you want a political podcast, you can find them and you know where to find them. If that's what you want to listen to. So we'll go back to that tomorrow. I do want to thank you for allowing me this time. 📍 Thanks for listening. That's all for now.