An Emotional Argument for Politics

I recently saw someone talking about accidentally seeing a political CNN bit on television. They and their friends agreed how monumentally stupid it was. Now don't get me wrong, there is plenty to criticize cable news over and on the precious few occasions I watch it, I absorb everything they say with a skeptical eye/ear. But the sentiment in this discussion was that the media shouldn't be covering the political process and only focus on The Issues as if the two could be divorced. To some extent, I agree--mostly because the Both Sides narrative that major outlets peddle so that they can be seen as unbiased is infuriating, and that narrative is only possible because of the political process. But it made me think about how so many people of all stripes think of politics as this stupid thing where politicians are too petty and egotistical to get anything done, and if clearheaded people were in charge, everything would be solved. So that's what I'm going to talk about.

An Introduction

I grew up in Iowa in a very sheltered household that almost never talked politics. Although my parents were--well, are--religious, I can't say that they cared for conservatism as it exists in the US. I remember my parents following the 2000 presidential election, but I was young and knew precious little (I have no memory of how I learned that Gore had been in favor of having fewer students per teacher, but I recall telling one of my friends that I thought it was ridiculous. Oh, what innocent grade-school ignorance). They wanted Gore to win. I privately thrilled at Bush's victory when the results came in, enjoying that my parents had been wrong and I had been right. I stopped caring about who was in office by the next week and went back to worrying about violin lessons.

Over the next ten years, I learned that gay people existed, racism was a thing, the planet was in danger, and so on. These things were learned in as close to a vacuum I think is possible in the 21st century. Despite my parents' religiosity, non-heterosexuality was never ever brought up, and I only came face-to-face with it because I eventually met gay people at a summer camp (erasure of non-hetero identities in my upbringing turned out okay in my case). Racism was taught to me in a "the US had slavery" and "MLK Jr. was a hero" sort of way that didn't extend to "but it's over now" or "it's virulent and systemic." I was introduced to environmentalism by a girl a couple years older than me showing me global heat maps demonstrating that temperatures had risen in the past several decades (we were still both in grade school, it was in a book that was beyond my--and frankly, probably her--comprehension, and at that moment I was more interested in playing action figures with her younger brother). I was mildly celebratory when Obama won over McCain in 2008. 

My interest in politics spiked during my college years in the wake of the 2012 election and a kerfuffle on campus over antisemitism, but I largely remained disengaged. Though I came to to care more about matters of sexism, transphobia, homophobia, racism, and economic equality, I wasn't really plugged in beyond preferring Democrats. 

In true Millennial fashion, my political awakening started in the lead-up to the 2016 elections. I had some built-in Hillary fondness due to my mother's favorable view of her from the 2000's, but I remained sympathetic to Bernie Sanders until the Democratic National Convention. I worried a bit over the Bernie-or-Bust sentiments I saw from some of my friends on social media, but I trusted that things would work out.

Then Trump won.

The following year was consumed by anger and intense mourning. I followed the DNC chair election, special elections across the country, and the French and Korean presidential elections. I was appalled by what happened in Charlottesville. I voraciously consumed left-wing YouTube and became acquainted/disgusted with right-wing social media. It was horrifying to discover how rampant the wide-ranging hatred was that otherwise ordinary-seeming people from across the globe had for me and groups I care about (full disclosure: I am an Asian woman), having been ensconced in bubbles populated by artistic types.

Simultaneously, the rise of "socialism," and by extension, ACTUAL socialism and leftist beliefs, have brought me to wit's end. You don't need to be an economist or political scientist to appreciate how complex this world is. Yes, I wish that things were more equitable. But even as a teenager I believed that communism and socialism were great ideas on paper that could never be implemented in the real world because of human nature. I will admit that it was initially fueled by immature edgy cynicism. At this point it's a lot less edgy and way more despaired (maturity up for question). I'm bewildered by the belief that destroying a global institution (i.e. capitalism and thus the world economy) will eventually fix everything. The same crowd seems obsessed with purity tests and hold a unique distaste for compromise that I do not see in the conservatives (the right-wingers at least settle for incremental change). 

I've withdrawn some from politics since that time in 2017, but the philosophical underpinnings continue to preoccupy me. I'm pretty sure that all of this will amount to screaming into a void. I get the sense that most people who are sort of middle-of-the-road as I am aren't the type to shout their beliefs from the rooftops. Yet in the swirl of political discussion online, most voices are extreme, and people have polarized accordingly. I think I have enough to say that differs from that discourse to add my voice to the mix, present absence of an audience notwithstanding. If I can get just one person to cleave closer to the middle, I'll be satisfied. 

Before I start spouting political takes, one last caveat: as an American liberal, many of my arguments will be critical of leftists. I am most emotionally invested in convincing people who are sympathetic to leftist views to step back from the ledge, largely because we share at least some of the same beliefs, and the idea of a left-wing Tea Party forming within the Democrats terrifies me. Hard conservatives are too far gone to persuade; my beliefs are diametrically opposed to their own, while the issues at hand are also way too subjective and squishy (especially religion). I can't say I won't give it a shot every once in a while, but my chattering will probably be more directed at the left. 

Here I go.