A New Type of Political Leadership

The main issue is how to encourage and facilitate the emergence of courageous and visionary leadership at the highest level of personal integrity. Leadership, elected or non-elected, is needed that will help our society "homestead a new promised land" based on the virtues of a new type of "emancipation proclamation" for an awakening humanity.

Nearly two-thirds (64%) of Americans "prefer that the politicians [they] vote for hold higher and more evolved moral and ethical values than [their] own. This sentiment is strong among those people who scored higher on both the PFCI and SMS scales. Of the 8 Types, WNL and SCT were especially keen on leaders with higher and more evolved values than their own and to a lesser extent was a significant portion of the ETV type. Overall, those who score high on the Spirituality Index prefer leaders with higher and more evolved values.

These new types of leaders represent and can galvanize our highest aspirations – principles of a whole system of interconnectedness, and the recognition and exploration of the unifying field of consciousness: "underneath it all, we are all connected as one."

From this perspective, it may be that forming a new political party is not the primary issue, but rather what is the most important and pressing matter is the development of a broad social movement with a new type of leadership based on new paradigm principles and higher consciousness – our future-present. In this context, a national campaign could succeed in both launching a new type of political party, as well as winning the hearts of and minds of America – yes, even a majority.

So what might this new leadership look like? We must develop leaders of a new type who will help usher in a positive future. Some of those who emerge may already be in positions of relative influence. Some may already hold elected office, lead commercial businesses, be educators or health professionals, or lead non-profit or non-governmental organizations. Others may be people who have tried to make a difference but found the structural limitations of our society an overwhelming challenge requiring greater resources than they were able to marshal. And others may be "ordinary" people stepping forward for the first time.

There are already elected officials from various states supporting "positive future" values and actions. One example is the initiative for a Cabinet-level Department of Peace that, as of 2004, has been supported by over 50 elected representatives. Of course making this a reality is another matter since it will need to be brought to a vote by elected representatives who currently operate under tightly controlled rules and behind the scenes agendas that generally preclude true innovation for a positive future.

What is most needed at this time are new structures and processes that are entirely dedicated to helping support what is new and vibrant of our positive future, in the present time.