Politics: do you care?
I used to care much less about politics. I think I know why that was. I was younger and there was a lot more activity in my life (school, motherhood, taking care of a house, career stuff, all that jazz). But it wasn’t just that. It was mostly that the two parties were much closer to each other (or certainly seemed to be) in philosophy and in particular in attitudes towards this country and its people as a whole. So although it mattered and although I cared somewhat, most of the time it didn’t seem to matter all that much.
That has changed, and now I care deeply. And I think more people care these days, and that is one of the reasons political discussions have become so heated and people have gotten so angry at each other for their politics, angry in the personal sense, although I don’t engage in that at all (except now and then as the recipient of the anger).
But ever since I’ve been in the blogosphere—and that’s a long long time—I’ve noticed there are people who say they don’t care because both parties are the same. Now, you can say that both parties are dumb, or venal, or too in love with the deep state, or any number of things of that sort, because they certainly have things in common. But they are not the same, and the consequences of electing one over the other matter. Does anyone really think the country and the world would be in the same condition today if Hillary Clinton had been elected rather than Donald Trump? I don’t.
So I think most people care, and most people who don’t care don’t care for one of the reasons I just explained: they are distracted by other things in life, and/or they think the two parties and whatever candidates they’re offering this time around are essentially the same.
This post was sparked by something I saw in Ann Althouse’s comments section. It was written by Althouse herself, and it goes like this:
You’d probably be surprised if you knew how little I care about who wins the various elections I write about.
Now, that’s interesting. I note that she didn’t write that she didn’t care at all, so I suppose she might care but just not as much as one might expect from someone who spends a great many hours a day writing posts that often pertain to politics and elections. But it seems to be a disclaimer about caring a whole lot, which I find puzzling. Maybe she means it to be puzzling; I don’t see much of an explanation in the thread, although I didn’t read every word.
But this isn’t about Ann Althouse; I just use her as an example and a springboard for discussion. Why care? Why write about politics or even talk about politics if you don’t care very much who wins? Isn’t the outcome of a big election more important, for example, than who wins the World Series or who wins the other things people care so deeply about?
I’ve had discussions with people in recent years who say they don’t care about politics, even though they talk about it a lot. “I don’t have a dog in this race” they say (the sports analogy). Usually the reason given for being so blasé is that they don’t have kids or grandkids, and they themselves aren’t young anymore, so there’s no reason to care. I care, and it’s not just tied to my family or how much longer I may have left on this earth. I hope to continue to care.
How about you? My guess is that the readers of this blog may be somewhat self-selected for caring. But what do you think?
I care, I definitely care, but it gets so tiring and unending and depressing. I find myself in much better moods when for whatever reason I’m unable to follow things as closely.
Too much of anything is bad and we have become too obsessed with this stuff as a society.
A fun thing to do is get some rabid Trump hater to specifically state what he has done to affect them negatively. Same worked in reverse for Obama, by the way.
Live your life and worry about the things closest to you.
Peggy Lee was still alive. Talking about politics subtracted from time spent talking about Peggy Lee. (The lapse of time between her first and her last hit record was 28 years; do not believe that span of time has ever been equaled).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCRZZC-DH7M
I was indifferent in the 2000 election. I was not a Bush fan; I had volunteered for McCain. I thought Gore was the more sensible of the two, he and Clinton. My theory is that Gore went insane as a result of his loss and the entire Democrat party went mildly nuts about Bush because they kept thinking he was not fairly elected.
9/11 suppressed this a bit but then they went nuts again over Iraq, which in retrospect I think was a mistake. I supported it at the time but think Tenet missed the facts. Why Bush kept him on after 9/11 is a mystery, That’s where the Deep State began. Remember the CIA alternate analysis that Iran had stopped their nuke plan? That was the tell.
I care, probably a lot more than I used to. I generally vote Libertarian, and I used to not see any difference in the D’s and R’s. Now, and over the last 10-15 years, I see a LOT of difference between the two, probably because I started reading lots of blogs, including Instapundit, which has really accentuated the difference.
Althouse cares about Althouse.
It’s been years since I regularly attended to her blog. However, back then she definitely cared to prove she was smarter than everybody else and that her blog ought to make her more money.
Always, in the broad sense of general attachment to the ideas, observation of the processes, following the shifts and changes of the human passing parade of characters and events, as well as concern for the merely partisan (self-interested) aspects of the nations’ or states’ policy to be implemented by my hoped winner (i.e., Reagan) or devoutly wished loser (B. Obama, H.R. Clinton).
But then, I grew up in the D.C. suburbs, delivering the WaPo to my neighbors in the a.m., neighbors who themselves were more often than not going off to work in government departments and agencies, or beltway bandits on contract to the gov’t. Politics was the local business, like steel in a steeltown, corn in farming country, cattle in ranchlands, or oil in the oil patches.
Then I discovered the rich literature of political philosophy and the long train of thought leading to the American founding, a thing of beauty like no other. Who — having fallen for such a wonder — could quit her? Not I.
I’ve cared about politics since I was a teen in the sixties. Never totally fixated but staying aware and trying to do my bit. During the 80s I was a minor progressive activist in Bay Area on nuclear and Central America issues. In the 90s I was relieved that Clinton was elected and I could focus on my career, which I did.
Then 9/11 happened. I switched sides and had to recalculate my politics from the ground up. That’s how I ended up on blogs.
I’m probably always going to be interested because I’m an ideas person. Ideas and ideologies fascinate me. Thinking about politics energizes me.
My theory is that Gore went insane as a result of his loss and the entire Democrat party went mildly nuts about Bush because they kept thinking he was not fairly elected.
The internal dynamics of the Gore clan seem to have been suboptimal in certain ways. They had that odd configuration you saw among people who got their start during the Depression – two children, with ten years separating elder and younger. By some accounts, Nancy was the one with the personality best adapted to public life, but mother and father were intent on grooming their son for a political career. By some accounts also, Nancy sank into alcoholism before cancer took her. Her brother sent up red flags – performing poorly as an undergraduate, failing out of one graduate school, and dropping out of another – but for some reason mother and father never hit the reset button. He then lands a job as a newspaper reporter where he works for about five years ‘ere his father’s old seat in the House opens up. FWER, the voters of Middle Tennessee proved to be brand loyal. What Lily Tomlin said: sometimes the worst thing that can happen to you is for you to get what you want (or what you want in a way).
So, fast forward to 2003. He’s 54 years old, his mother and father (and sister) are dead, his prospects for returning to public office are modest (given the change over time in the dispositions of the Tennessee electorate and given how just about everyone he campaigned for in competitive races lost), the one occupation he’d had previously is in an imploding industry, but people are willing (for some bizarre reason) to hand him lucrative sinecures and investment opportunities on a silver platter. I see a very disoriented man.
No, I don’t care very much. If my taxes go up or down by 10% (and that would be a big change, by historical standards), it won’t affect my day-to-day life much. If abortion is more or less restricted, it won’t affect my day-to-day life much. Over some longer term, faster or slower economic growth will have some effect on the lives of my children, but you would have a hard time demonstrating that government policy choices within what you might call the OECD consensus have much effect on economic growth.
“How small, of all that human hearts endure/The part which kings or laws can cause or cure.”
I have always taken an interest. My wife, on the other hand, hates when anyone brings up politics. She pays attention to the news but dislikes immensely talking about it.
y81–“How small, of all that human hearts endure/The part which kings or laws can cause or cure.” In thinking about Neo’s question, that quote came to my mind. But I would have to guess that you don’t live in California, or operate a small business. The government (federal & state) should pay a good part of my salary here at the office, as so much of what I do as manager/bookkeeper is implement their laws and collect and send money to them. More in more they are calling the shots whether it’s employment policy and guidelines or what you have to do or can do to remodel your property (permits, fees, laws!) I’ve always cared about politics and have voted in all but one election (a local one here in Los Angeles) since I was 18. But in the last 10 years, I spend a lot more time praying about these matters then digging into them. I stay aware via my husband, Neo & Ace. I definitely do not have the stomach for too much of it.
It would be all well and good to ignore the grubby business of politics, except that it is politics that creates the framework and sets the ground rules for our daily lives, on our livlihoods, has a major bearing on whether our nation survives or not, and what kind of a nation it might be that survives.
Right now, for instance, politics is having a major impact on the value of American citizenship, via immigration policy, or the lack thereof.
Politics is having a great deal to do with the quality of life in LA, San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland–among other places–in terms of their policies regarding public order, and how the homeless are dealt with.
The politics of immigration are having what appears to be a substantial effect on public health all across the nation, with the re-appearance of childhood and other diseases that were thought to have been largely eliminated here in the U.S.
In LA, in particular, politics is having an impact on public health, and the sudden appearance of Typhus in downtown LA.
Politics is having an enormous impact on whether or not many tens of thousands of infants are going to be born, or if they are going to be aborted.
Politics is having a great impact of the degree to which we are free to say what we want to say without fear of some form of official retribution.
Politics is having a great impact on the quality of education and freedom of inquiry at our universities.
Politics determines if, when war breaks out, we have enough military equipment, supplies, and manpower to prevail, how well our military leaders have been educated, and how competent and aggressive they are.
Politics, moreover–by determining the size, capabilities, esprit de corps, and mindset of our armed forces–has a very large effect on whether adversaries decide to wage war against us, or decide not to.
The book “Three Felonies A Day” points out that politics has also had the result of creating an ever expanding labyrinth of Federal laws–most of which we are unaware of–but which make it very easy for the authorities, if they choose to do so, to accuse someone of some crime or violation of the law or other.
Given these few examples and many many more, it is obvious that we ignore “politics” at our peril.
“I’ve noticed there are people who say they don’t care because both parties are the same. … But they are not the same, and the consequences of electing one over the other matter.” – Neo
All of this is true, and I attribute it to what we rightly call Low Information Voters — they may think the parties are still similar (as they were historically) because they quit (or never started) following the news, but more likely because the changes in the Democratic Party have been systematically suppressed by the Press for decades. I knew older Dems who simply did not know that their party was no longer standing for the same principles and policies as FDR or JFK.
For those who have noticed the widening split in ideology & policies, I have read some pundits who say that the Dems have done all the changing, but the LIVs attribute the differences in the parties to the GOP becoming more extreme, which is the opposite of reality.
* * *
David Aitken on May 31, 2019 at 3:46 pm said:
I care, probably a lot more than I used to. I generally vote Libertarian, and I used to not see any difference in the D’s and R’s. Now, and over the last 10-15 years, I see a LOT of difference between the two, probably because I started reading lots of blogs, including Instapundit, which has really accentuated the difference.
3 children and 7 grandchildren are my reason to care about all things political.
There are a lot of good comments above about the polarization of the left.
Having low expectations help me deal with politics and politicians, I am generally surprised when they do anything I like or agree with and so far Trump has surprised me and I am still not to the point of really liking him but I do appreciate his actions so far, the middle has moved to the right.
I have voted both Democrat and Republican over the years however after Billy Clinton I moved hard right and won’t ever look back. Lots of my family are single issue voters, anti-abortion, pro-gun and we really are not too red neck but we line up that way and I respect each person’s right to vote, secret ballot, any way they want and they don’t have to answer to me or anyone else.
I care very much because I think that the American Experiment has been a successful one. The distillation of the long tradition of western civilization handed down from Greece, Rome, Europe, England by the Founding Fathers resulted in something that has been incredibly beneficial to humanity. Yes, we are not perfect —- but name another system that you think is better and why.
I fear that the Democrats have ingested the poison of self hate that the Soviets worked so long to infect our culture with, and that the Gramschian March through the institutions and the Cloward-Piven strategy to break the nation are well on the way to destroying us. Beware those who believe that they can create Heaven on Earth, for they will stop at nothing to destroy all whom they consider to be an impediment to their Paradise.
Thus I am necessarily “interested” in politics. What is now taking place is an existential threat to our American Experiment.
Pack the Supreme Court; destroy the Electoral College; “Free Stuff”; endless investigations resulting from opposition propaganda; Star Chambers (oh, sorry, FISA courts); counter espionage tools turned against our own; “Free Speech” is no longer FREE (anything that you disagree with is now HATE speech). The list of insanity grows longer by the day.
y81:
It’s liberty I care about in particular, and I see that threatened.
I would care (and I imagine you would, too) quite deeply if government restricted my ability to get medical help.
I would care (and I imagine you would, too) quite deeply if government penalized me (or jailed me, or worse) for the things I said or believed.
I would care (and I imagine you would, too) quite deeply if government took so much money from me in taxes that I lived a life of suffering.
I would care (and I imagine you would, too) quite deeply if my freedom to practice a religion were to be restricted by the government.
Many more things of that nature would trouble me deeply, and I think they would trouble most people. Most people can’t imagine those things happening here, or happening in a way that would affect them. But those things would affect them, for the most part. And they are definitely possible. And I see one party as more likely to get to those points some day than the other.
If you care about preserving personal and economic freedom and self-direction, and self-responsibility, and self-governance, and genuine moral choice and personal development, then you care. You care because you care about maintaining and enjoying your freedom and developing your life independent of the bottomless and unending claims of the morally effed up.
And if on the other hand you care about “=” and wrangling everyone into a herd, and inclusion above all else, and all the rest of that contemptible termite-like life-way shit so beloved of campus snowflakes and their postmodernist, appetite entity, will-to-power nihilist progenitors, then you no doubt care too. You care that no one be allowed to escape from the fallout of your dysfunction.
And if you say you don’t care, it is either because you are somehow insulated from the claims of the crazy class, or you are happy with them as your master just as long as you get enough attention, and likes, and tasty treats, and sexual climaxes sufficient to distract you from the challenges of being a real human being, and not just a damnable bag of pointless urges.
I’m a long-time lurker here, but this post moved me to comment. Like Neo, I didn’t care about politics especially because the two parties, for a long time, seemed to be the wings of one party. A lot less of my life was any concern or business of politicians or bureaucrats than is true now. Now, one of the major political parties condemns me on the basis of my skin color, my religion, my sexual preferences, that I prefer to be left alone to manage my own life rather than have some ignorant, self-righteous, self-appointed master tell me what to drink, what to wear, what I am permitted to say out loud and what I am not permitted to say, what I may do and not do and so on endlessly. That party’s leadership smears me as being deplorable, toothless, smelly, unsophisticated, uneducated … and many other things which I will not say in polite company. I fear for my grandchildren and how their lives will be constricted and impoverished by these people who claim some – though they don’t say it this way because they don’t believe in any God – some God-given right from birth and social class to rule over me and mine. While I was serving in the military for about 23 years, the folks here at home lost track of what America is and should be and so let the crazies and communists gradually take control of our institutions and a lot of our culture. So, yes, I care a lot more about politics than I used to, but I’m afraid I saw that the barbarians were within the gates too late. That’s ok for me, I was born in 1947 and will leave this vale of tears relatively soon … hope not too soon, but facts are facts. I have a great-granddaughter who is 4. Will she be required to wear a burka when she is in high school? Not allowed to believe in the religion of her choice? Required to pay for the sins – real and imagined – of her white ancestors? The GOP isn’t perfect or even especially good, but they don’t all want to put me in a prison for the imaginary crimes of my ancestors, tax me for the benefit of the lazy and foolish, make me remember the pronouns for 54 imaginary “genders”, pretend that men can become women by believing it is so and women can become men the same way. The GOP politicians want to rule as much as the Democrats do, they are just less inclined in this generation to enslave us as well as rule. Well, each generation has its own burden to carry. I have enjoyed reading your posts and the comments and expect to do so for at least 20 more years, Neo. Thank you.
For those who say it does not matter.
Politics has reached right down into the core of our lives. The primary operating principle of the left is that that, is exactly how it should be; and that the role of government is to shape society without limit or end, and not merely to reflect the popular will within specified ends.
The progressive program for human society is essentially and admittedly, if you can get them to talk ultimate principles, totalitarian.
Is there no difference in your life no matter who is in office? Well try telling that to the healthy middle aged woman whose medical policy insurance premiums went up 7k a year for a 7 k deductible policy.
But, “Oh!” say the beneficiaries of the stolen largess, “Who else will pay for my meds necessitated by my self-induced type two diabetes, and my COPD?”
Or they brightly rejoin, “I don’t have to pay, my corporation (or my Government employment insurance plan) does, so it’s not a problem!”
And therein, we get a view right into the heart of the matter and their sense of morality. It’s ok, if you are nailed to the wall for their benefit; just as long as we understand that that is the true meaning of “=” and the greatest good for the greatest number, as far as they are concerned.
Wickard V. Filburn, Neo. I had forgotten that damnable decision until you brought it up many years after I had left school.
I won’t forget it again. Politics is a matter of life and death, who lives and who dies. And the more power the state has over the individual, the more life and death politics becomes.
Those who say they don’t care, at some level do understand this. They just figure it will be the other guy who gets mowed down.
The grisly perversity of the Democratic Party is … motivating.
http://michellemalkin.com/2019/05/22/duh-hud-housing-should-put-americans-first/
https://hotair.com/archives/2019/05/31/smollett-files-prosecutors-double-crossed-police-admission-guilt/
At a personal level I care more about politics these days because I feel restrained from expressing my opinions and hearing those of others in the freewheeling intellectual spirit which I thought was an important part of our American and Western heritage.
When I switched conservative I thought I had room to do so. Other people might not like it and would be free to debate as they wished. But I didn’t expect people to go after me personally as they did. I lost several communities by being stubborn about this.
Now I’m quite careful to conceal my political thoughts and convictions from people, especially when I’m on campus or near it.
I’m dismayed the US has become so intolerant and from the side which used to say it was liberal.
Yes I care about politics more of late. There’s more at stake. Like I cared more (sweated bullets) about military matters as a Cold War tech-warrior of the ’70s … there was a lot more on the table then.
For many who don’t care, it’s like not caring about Math, Science and Engineering. They never got with the program in the first place, they’ve fallen behind long-term, and are now past-masters at sour grapes.
More specifically, taking a position with Neo means running the drills in a medieval knight’s training-compound. You perhaps don’t realize how much better you’ve gotten at this, training for long hours on many fronts, and at a high motivational level.
Neo can cross intellectual swords with a dozen decently skilled wielders of the Mighty Word, simultaneously. The less-athletic still have the native intelligence to just roll over & bare their throat. Or artfully beg-off & dance away, La-la-La-la-la.
We Live In Exiting Times. It’s a roughly cyclical thing. We lived through the previous one, peaking later-60s to later 1970s. Before that, the Roaring Twenties. The Gay Nineties. Civil War. Revolutionary War.
Exciting times alone – a natural phenomenon of critters – explains a LOT these days about which there is much otherwise undue head-scratching, and spurious blame-laying and praise-heaping. Party ON! WooHOOooo!!! Deeper analysis, uncalled for.
There was every bit as much divisiveness and polarization 50 years ago between hippie youth and older Establishment figures, as between Ds and Rs, today. The themes vary, but you seen one Party, you know what it is.
‘I’m dismayed the US has become so intolerant and from the side which used to say it was liberal’
huxley,
I know you have personal experience with this group and I’m sure many people were liberal but it has long ago become obvious that those in leadership positions were only interested in using that movement as a vehicle to achieve power and once they got it (on campus, media, bureaucracy) they slammed the door shut behind and poof there went all those supposed principles out the window.
They were just as totalitarian as the leaders they criticized in the end.
As I entered college in the late 1980s they were just achieving power and looking back it is easy to see it getting started with buzzwords like ‘diversity’ becoming prevalent. Now it’s just a factory producing drones that I fear will never end.
I care about current politics for all the reasons anybody would expect from a long-time reader of Neo’s blog.
More generally, whether I like it or not, I think I have to care about politics, because humans are social animals. Politics is in the blood.
But one of the reasons for my conservatism is the belief that politics is a low form of behavior, and that conservatives should work to depoliticize private life, and to reduce the size and scope of government. These goals are obviously connected.
In other words, I care about politics, but I want to care as little as I can.
Care? Yes. Emotionally entangled? I hope not.
It’s unfortunate the country is so polarized, but since we are here, we might as well enjoy the show. I care enough to vote and watch the circus, but try to avoid getting overly worked up. Trump is presently such sweet relief from the disgrace and outrages of the Obamite regime. Let’s all soak this in while it lasts.
I have become more interested in politics since Clinton and Bush and 9/11. partly this was a reaction to the news i hear in Germany, which often seemed at odds with my life experiences. The internet helped me keep abreast of the real situation in America. I can remember being at a dinner with friends in 2008. People asked me about Obama and I tried to explain my skepticism based on my real-life experiences as a welfare worker and social worker in north Philly. For some of our friends, I am now the go-to person for news of America. I have to keep up with my homework. I haven’t had much questioning about Trump yet, but I expect I will have to do a bit of dancing to balance his goods and his bads without losing my go-to position.
…it has long ago become obvious that those in leadership positions were only interested in using that movement as a vehicle to achieve power…
Griffin: I’m not sure who you are talking about. George McGovern? Paul Tsongas? Michael Dukakis? Even Bill Clinton looked like a pretty basic liberal in the 90s.
Sure there were the radicals like Bill Ayers, Eldridge Cleaver or Abbie Hoffman, but they were people I never considered liberal nor their movements.
Except for when I was in college and peripherally involved with a radical Robin Morgan group, I was dealing with moderate liberals/progressives — mostly church members, artists, or hippies. They were pretty ordinary, decent folks. I liked them.
This is an amazing thread and I need to come back and read it again when I have time to absorb the observations and wisdom of so many. For me, I have been trying hard since 2016 not to care so much. Lots of years ago I remember riding on a bus back to college from working on a presidential campaign for a hopeless liberal (all right, all right, it was McGovern) and thinking with such a profound feeling of dismay that I was going to have to go into politics, because somebody had to, but I didn’t want to at all. I didn’t, thank goodness. And now, way at the far other end, I have children and grandchildren so I have to care — and I care anyway, on principle — but dammit, I still don’t want to. I have only so many days left and there are things I want to do with those days that don’t involve politics at all, things about art and love and nature and writing and gardens and friendship, and I am selfishly closing the gates and caring less and less — but the ironic result of that is that I care MORE, because the veins of caring that remain are so much more concentrated. I agree with Neo that the fundamental issue is liberty, and I want that liberty for my children and their peers and my grandchildren and their peers, and I wake up in the night worrying that they’ll never even know what they’ve lost. So I do the best I can, in my small way, to say something here and there to my children and my many liberal friends and relatives that I hope will be thought-provoking and challenging, but gentle enough not to shut down the paths of communication between us. Nevertheless I don’t read the daily papers any more and I try to ignore as much of the Trump news and hysteria as I can, and when my head gets too buzzy and angry and upset, I look outside at the leaves and the water and I take a deep breath and try to find a bird to watch or a grandchild to cuddle. And meanwhile, I keep on coming back here. (I often read Althouse too, but huxley has her pinned down absolutely.) Thank you, Neo, for doing so much caring and thinking for all of us.
Huxley,
Yeah maybe leadership is the wrong way of putting it. Maybe those that made a career out of activism whether through academia or politics. The 180 on freedom of speech is the most obvious example. That we have reached a point where someone actually states that speech is violence and can be taken seriously is very alarming.
Many thumbs up to Cornflour at 7:50 and Mrs Whatsit at 9:08. That’s what I was trying to get at in the first comment on this post.
Re what Huxley said about how earlier he’d dealt with “moderate liberals/progressives — mostly church members, artists, or hippies. They were pretty ordinary, decent folks. I liked them.” I think that’s still the case, that most people who vote as Democrats are “pretty ordinary, decent folks”, but that for one reason or another they’re not grasping what the far-left is up to.
Given that elections are rigged and that democracy controls the population using propaganda and mind control, what exactly does caring about winning in politics even mean?
It’s like the livestock caring about who wins them in an auction. They are still gonna get Slaughtered!
It doesn’t matter how similar or different Republicans are to Democrats. That’s completely pointless in this war.
It’s like people comparing German aircraft to American aircraft. And so? If they aren’t fighting or if they are fighting, what matters in the war is the final result, not the short term victories and losses.
Now I’m quite careful to conceal my political thoughts and convictions from people, especially when I’m on campus or near it.
While I’m not exactly the same aggro magnet tank I am online as offline, I still live by the principle “bring it”.
“Concealing thoughts and convictions” is a matter of fear or insecurity. When it is time to kill everyone in the room, that is not the time of concealment any more.
Yeah maybe leadership is the wrong way of putting it.
No, that is correct. The leadership was using the Left as a rogue weapon. Except… your politicians were NEVER the Leaders…
I’m in education. Not just education but hired as a social worker – best advice was to keep neutral on politics. I personally don’t talk about it; I have my views but they are rarely shared and the best you’re going to get out of me is “interesting … ” or “well that’s unfortunate.”
I’m fully aware that in both fields that if you hold not so popular beliefs you’ll be alienated, blacklisted if not fired. I worked too hard for my degree and specialization to let some vindictive, too sensitive soul ruin my career, so I keep quiet. My supervisor at one of my internship site shared her politics openly, two other clinicians nodded their head and kissed her butt, and in my eyes she was the worst. I plan not to be like her (comfortable in her arrogance) and I plan not to be like the other clinicians (sheep and followers).
DNW…”Politics has reached right down into the core of our lives.”
See The Bitter Wastes of Politicized America:
https://humanevents.com/2012/12/28/the-bitter-wastes-of-politicized-america/?utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F
I remember well when politics became important to me. It was 1967 and I was a Navy recruiter at Northern California colleges. The protests my team’s presence on campuses brought shocked me to my core. Who were these Americans and why would they rather be “Red than Dead.” I knew that politics in the country had changed and I needed to get involved.
As an airline pilot in the 1970s I saw Los Angeles in flames, Baltimore in flames, laid over in hotels with guards carrying sub-machine guns with German Shepherds on leash, laid over in SFO where the Zebra murders were occurring, and watched other acts of violence on TV. I knew that politics had to be the solution to all that violence. And it was. Law and order and ending the draft did it.
I read Bill Buckley’s National Review. Voted for Republicans who were for a strong defense and law and order. My wife and I helped Jack Swigert, a college friend, get elected to the House. Unfortunately, he died shortly after taking office, but it was worthwhile to help elect a good Republican. All through the eighties and nineties I wrote snail mail and called the local offices of my representatives, gave money to the Republicans that I liked, and tried to promote my favored candidates with my airline friends.
When the internet came along, it made writing to my reps easier and I did more of it. My wife’s family lives in Arkansas, so we knew what was coming when Bill Clinton was elected. I supported George W., and after 9/11, I thought maybe we were going back to the unity I had seen during WWII. It didn’t last. Supported both Afghanistan and Iraq, but realize now that Muslim democracy is a bridge too far.
Became a TEA Party marcher after Obama went for the TARP and Obamacare. Then Obama went after the TEA Party with the IRS and effectively shut it down. It’s apparent now that Obama politicized the DOJ/FBI/IRS/other federal agencies to promote a Democrat agenda.
I still write my reps, give money to candidates I like, contribute to Judicial Watch (They have been important in the fight to uncover the silent coup.), and try to stay informed and involved.
Politics has been and is important to me and I try to do more than give lip service to my beliefs.
Art Deco on May 31, 2019 at 3:31 pm said:
“(The lapse of time between [Peggy Lee’s] first and her last hit record was 28 years; do not believe that span of time has ever been equaled).”
Roy Orbison, “Only The Lonely”, mid-1960 (first top tenner)
Roy Orbison, “You Got It”, early 1989 just after he died (last top tenner)
I have often thought that people without children or grandchildren after age 40 should be removed from voter registration roles. No blood stake in the future, no vote on the future.
Ann on May 31, 2019 at 9:24 pm said:
Re what Huxley said about how earlier he’d dealt with “moderate liberals/progressives — mostly church members, artists, or hippies. They were pretty ordinary, decent folks. I liked them.” I think that’s still the case, that most people who vote as Democrats are “pretty ordinary, decent folks”, but that for one reason or another they’re not grasping what the far-left is up to.
* * *
The “one reason or another” is almost certainly the suppression of events and distortion of facts by the MSM, or as we like to call it, the Democratic Party Press.
I think the pursuit of truth is what motivates many people to care about politics. And truth does correspond to reality. Yet we live in postmodern times in which truth is a matter of perspective. Political differences thus tend to be religious/metaphysical in nature. At the moment we are engaged in a great religious war over the very meaning of reality. There is a lot at stake and no one can afford to be on the sidelines.
Fair enough, Orbison. I see he charted in 1956 and some posthumous releases also charted.
Not so much the pursuit of truth I think, Davemay, not so for politics as such anyhow. Philosophy, yes, ok: that’s what the philosopher is after, what he spends a life doing. When a conflict arises between the aims of the city and his pursuit of truth (or wisdom, to be more particular) politics will reject him and his useless object (see Socrates trial, execution, etc.), whereas the philosopher keeps to his personal private (idios, whence idiotic) business.
Politics is about order in the immediate time and place, presumably aiming at the preservation of current good or change for the better if the present day order isn’t good or results in misery. Justice is one primary thing among the goods human beings want — demand even. It’s not the philosopher’s first concern. Truths necessary for justice aren’t amenable to grave doubts and unending searches. Jurors have to eventually go home to mow the lawn, paint the house and do the dishes.
As a Jew, I find the Democrats are making me care. Very much.
Parker said, “I have often thought that people without children or grandchildren after age 40 should be removed from voter registration roles. ”
What about the the infertile couples or those who never received a marriage offer? Couples who never had children out of choice would be slightly different in my mind since they probably were on a regimented scheudle of ABCs to keep the pregnancies away.
I have often thought that people without children or grandchildren after age 40 should be removed from voter registration roles
Do they get removed from the tax rolls too? What if they’ve had military service?
parker:
Do those who have children have to support them, and at what level? Some bring children into the world and then abandon them. Would this apply to adopted children too? So the government would track your fecundity and your children’s fecundity to determine your franchise rights? You might want to think a bit more about this idea.
Talking about the effect of “politics” on public health in LA, last night Dr. Drew was on the Laura Ingram show.
He was clearly worried, agitated, and all but shouting a warning about what he foresees as the looming health catastrophe in LA, due to appalling lack of sanitation—sanitation conditions that he warns are approaching the Medieval—in LA’s spreading homeless encampments, and the clearly foreseeable public health catastrophe this lack of basic sanitation, and the buildup of garbage, human waste, and trash could bring about.
Last year it was a Deputy City Attorney, working in the LA City Hall, who apparently contracted flea-born Typus—which can be fatal—from the rats that had spread into City Hall (see the videos), most likely from the homeless encampments all around the area.
Now, in the past week, comes the news that a second victim, an LA cop, has also been diagnosed with Typus, and Dr. Drew fears that there will be a third.
Doctor Drew is worried about the possible appearance of another common and highly communicable disease of the Middle Ages that was widespread due to the poor sanitation that was very common in that era—Tuberculosis.
He is also worried about the possible appearance of another communicable disease that is spread by rats and the fleas they carry—Bubonic Plague.
To make things even worse, given these very bad sanitation conditions, Dr. Pinsky is also worried that there could also be the spread of highly contagious Measles in these encampments.
Does anyone think that, if these often deadly communicable diseases do, indeed, appear and spread, they will only be confined to these homeless tents and encampments, and not spread to infect the citizens of the city at large?
All in all, Dr. Pinsky sees a disaster coming.
“All in all, Dr. Pinsky sees a disaster coming.”
Which the media and California politicians will insist was totally unexpected.
“you would have a hard time demonstrating that government policy choices within what you might call the OECD consensus have much effect on economic growth.”
Wrong.
See Venezuela — most, maybe all, of Chavez-Maduro “policies” are within the OECD consensus. High-tax, big gov’t.
Quick to promote “market failure”, yet refuse to accept “gov’t failure” — which is far more difficult to correct.
I grew up in a great Baby Boomer time, despite my folks being among the early divorce wave (before no fault – my 2y older sister and I were interviewed by court psychiatrists in a very nasty custody battle divorce). But my gov’t school was ok middle class. We could see Blazing Saddles, and even commercials featuring the Frito Bandito. (…I love Fritos corn chips, I’ll take them from you!)
Policies really do matter, but while it’s not clear what the best policies are, it is pretty clear what policies have been tried and have failed. Repeatedly. Yet useful idiot socialists keep getting hired as college professors, while pro-life folk are “secretly” discriminated against.
I do care, truly and deeply. Yet I fear part of it is running away from my own problems, and messy desk/ untidy room — clean up your room! cultivate your garden. Peterson; Voltaire – timeless wisdom that is boring when done, not inspiring. Was a strong Libertarian (twice a Lib CA candidate, for state Rep; then for Congress), tho while accepting some of the pro-choice abortion arguments, knowing the human fetus had different DNA, thus was another body. Voted for Ed Clark, & David Bergland, not Reagan; voted Ron Paul not Bush 41.
Went to Slovakia to help with Market Transformation! and found love. And also found that love and family are more important than privatization. Was at a wife’s friend’s wedding (today!), with lots of folk we have some slight or strong connection to.
It’s true that politicians from both parties will “lie” to you — but it’s also true that they vote differently and offer different bills. Policy matters.
“more people care these days, and that is one of the reasons political discussions have become so heated and people have gotten so angry at each other for their politics, angry in the personal sense,”
Politics is also for the middle class / rich folk. Of which there are more. When folk are desperate for a job, and keen to keep their good job, and good reputation, and take good care of themselves by being good members of the community, they don’t have as much time political arguing. Poor folk that vote often know and care little about the issues, except which one they believe will give better job/ economy; or more (free!) gov’t benefits.
The culture wars are for the middle and especially upper middle classes. And part of the culture war is to win the internal title of “moral superiority”. It used to be on Christian values. Now, for most college grads, it’s based on PC-Klan values.
It’s going to get more intense before it gets less intense, if ever.
The US needs to stop funding colleges with student loans, and tax-exempt status; and also stop with tax incentives for the movies being made.
There’s also a group of people who like to argue to “win arguments” — these are usually quite smart people. Ann Althouse is, at least at times, one of those types. As are many bloggers. I think I was like that, as so many Libertarians are.
Remove non-taxpayers from voting rolls. You’ll certainly see a change in people in office. People who are idealistic, and without a dog in the fight are more inclined to change the paths of their entire community by voting into office someone who offers them pie-in-the-sky and ultimately catastrophic policies that hurts their entire community. I loathe the whole cry for the entire populous to vote on Election Day.
Remove non-taxpayers from voting rolls. You’ll certainly see a change in people in office.
You want to kick the elderly off the voting rolls?
“Policies really do matter, but while it’s not clear what the best policies are, it is pretty clear what policies have been tried and have failed.” – Tom Grey
The science is clear. 😉
One way you could view civilization—mankind’s sometimes halting and gradual climb out of barbarity, violence, lawlessness, disease, cold, and want—is as our gradually winning our campaign against illness—particularly those illnesses whose environmental causes—lack of cleanliness, the accumulation of vermin-harboring debris, overcrowding, generally bad living conditions, poor nutrition, pest-born illnesses—can be controlled.
Unfortunately, those victories we have had have only been partial, and, quite often, they have been very hard won; the slow, incremental work of generations, the building of a sometimes leaky dam holding back the potential flood.
Why, then, in God’s name, would the officials in some of our most supposedly “enlightened,” “advanced,” “civilized”—and formerly most beautiful cities—deliberately allow public health conditions in them to deteriorate so drastically, to slide back down the hard won slope into the Medieval conditions of the lack of cleanliness, the accumulation of vermin-harboring debris, the overcrowding, generally bad living conditions, poor nutrition, and pest-born illnesses that we have spent hundreds of years overcoming?
The answer lies in “politics,” and in the clash between imagined reality and actual reality.
These city’s Leftist politicians are deluded by their ideology— they live in a fantasy world—one in which their political solutions, their policies sound good, and seem oh, so virtuous to them.
Moreover, they apparently have no real understanding of actual “human nature,” which any policies that have any hope of being effective must be based on.
In “on the ground” reality the application of their ideological, their fantasy-based policies has been producing disastrous results that their fantasy world blinds them from anticipating, and, moreover, prevents them from seeing, and coming to grips with when they arrive.
Reality has so far failed to get them to see the real situation, and to change their policies accordingly.
Who will pay in the end?
It is very unlikely that it will be these policy makers.
It will be their cities, which will be increasingly shunned by visiting tourists, be crossed off the list by people seeking a place to call home, and by companies looking for a place to relocate.
It will be the very homeless people they claim to “care” so much about, and the citizens of these cities at large, who they have put in danger through their supposedly “enlightened” and “compassionate” policies.
The larger potential victim pool in these cities will be composed of innocent, law abiding citizens and taxpayers, who will have a greater and greater chance of getting sick, suffering, becoming gravely ill and, perhaps, some of them, of dying, because of the breakdown in public health these politician’s policies have let happen.
So much of an individual’s politics, at least currently, hinges upon how much the government system effects them and which elected officials would most likely maintain
their status quo. Being that the largest employers are federal, state and local governments, a highly vested resistance ( not to mention welfare recipients) are self energized; regardless of politics that ultimately threaten The Constitution, Liberty and Traditional Judeo Christian Morality.
I have witnessed family and friends who conversationally mirror my conservative views, but vote with a party in stark contrast to what they profess. And it all comes down to selling their souls for filthy lucre. The hypocrisy is outrageous, but they seem peacefully oblivious.
Additionally, I do not subscribe to equating the two major parties, but our country is nearly equally divided; in terms of popular voting. Were it not for The Founders insight into establishing a representative republic and electoral college, I fear where we would be.
The real problem lies in generations of the poorly informed succumbing to indoctrination from institutions (education and media) that conservatives blindly ignored for decades. Now the problem; swing states and districts where the candidates start to become indistinguishable; and thin margins potentially erased by voting irregularities.
Like those insightful posters before me, I do care about politics. And apathy regarding its pervasive future consequences is perilous to the greatest country in history.