That’s Just Politics...Why is everything so political?

One of the subtexts in political conversation for the past twenty years, and amplified during a presidential election campaign, has been how to make sense of our shared frustration with democratic politics.  Separate from disapproving of this or that policy, here I am referring to the sense on all sides that the central nervous system our framers set up to allow us to make smart decisions peacefully and collectively is broken.

 

It is not uncommon to hear Americans refer to ‘politics’ as a dirty word.

What is politics?  Okay, I grant you that this sounds like a dull, academic question, but stay with me, because I think it will be a worthwhile examination.  According to one of the most assigned texts in the field, The Logic of American Politics…

“Inevitably social choices…breed conflict: conflicting interests, conflicting values, and conflicting ideas about whose values will be served and how to best allocate limited resources.  Politics is how people try to manage such conflicts…politics is the process through which individuals and groups reach agreement on a course of common, or collective, action—even as they may continue to disagree on the goals that action is intended to achieve…[and] politics almost invariably requires bargaining and compromise” (Third Edition, pages 4-5).

So, upon reflection we remind ourselves that politics is a process…that is a set of procedural rules (laws and regulations) we use to  (try to) achieve agreements…together…particularly when we disagree (since if there is no disagreement any particular conflict will likely work out on its own and not end up as a political question).

In this sense, some of our frustration about specific policy outcomes is likely being displaced into negative attitudes about a process that only works if we work with, engage with, people we disagree with…and may not like or respect all that much…requiring us to negotiate, cooperate, compromise and collaborate if we want to break gridlock and solve the problems that end up in our political process.

But there is no doubt there is also frustration with the process itself, and that is what worries me a bit.  Are we frustrated because we have lost the ability to negotiate with those who hold opposing views? 

Have we lost these skills because we have observed too many public and private sector elites modeling the least productive approaches to conflict…from the Dad coaching little league baseball going ballistic in the parking lot after a tough loss to presidents whose public pedagogy suggests that compromise itself is a form of weakness? 

Do we no longer understand the meaning of the words we cling to as political truths: democracy, deliberation, due process, individual rights, rule of law, and liberty?

Politics is a process through which we try to manage conflicts, even as we may continue to disagree, because we need to find a solution to these conflicts.  So, politics almost invariably requires bargaining and compromise…

Democracy cannot but be messy and frustrating (the non-messy options are pretty ugly), even more so when we misunderstand how it works and lack the skills needed to deliberate, but it is still the best approach we have yet created.  Our political system is certainly in the spotlight, perhaps failing us, but before we toss out the baby with the bath water, let’s consider that the process remains workable if only we would relearn the skills of democratic citizenship...starting at the top and insisting upon it from the bottom.