Too much politics
The danger of politics creeping into all areas of our lives
There are certainly a number of things wrong with the political culture of the United States. But perhaps the most important issue is the way that politics has forced its way into just about every aspect of life...here’s my case.
#1-You can find politics and political opinions everywhere. Earlier this week I was thinking about a summer road trip when I happened upon the review of a hotel below. What is striking is that the talk of the “covid hoax” and “catholic communist takeover” is presented right along with a polite host and quiet night sleep. As though the assumed political orientation of the hotel is just as important as the other things that a hotel is supposed to be. I would have just shrugged this off except I’ve been seeing this again and again over the last few months. I’ve taught political science for 11 years and, as you can imagine, students like to share their political opinions. But this semester is different than any of my previous semesters. Not only are students sharing their opinion in class or on discussion boards, they are inserting political rhetoric (the type of stuff you see on the wackiest online discussion boards) in answers on exams or simple definitions of terms. It’s almost as if they can’t help themselves. Then of course, there is all of the stuff related to public health issues, such as masks and vaccines, as well as public health officials blessing the black lives matter protests while other such large events were discouraged. There are several dating sites just for Trump supporters. Almost all aspects of life have been inundated with political opinion. People share it freely and casually and evaluate things unrelated to politics (such as hotels) through a political prism.
#2-The encroachment of politics into all parts of our lives is extremely unhealthy. There is a long standing distinction made in political science between civil society and political society. Civil society includes those organizations and parts of life that are outside of the political realm and political society is that part of society organized to advance political interests and values. They both obviously have a place in a healthy democracy. But civil society is often argued to be a key, or possibly the key, ingredient in democracy. Arguably the best expression of this idea is the classic workDemocracy in America by Alexis de Toqueville. He argues a main difference between the U.S. he sees in the early 1800s and what he sees in France and Britain is the vital role that voluntary, civic associations play in the U.S. The associations are places where citizens engage as equals with people from all walks of life. They are places such as churches, civic clubs, sports leagues, charity organizations and so on. Places where people from all walks of life and political persuasions interacted and cooperated in non-political endeavors. These places are important because they build trust in people different from us and foster civility. Civility that would perhaps lead us to keep our opinions to ourselves when people have not asked for them. But if these institutions become political then they become composed of people with similar political orientations. You no longer interact with different types of people but only people who think like you. It has been well documented that participation in these types of physical organizations has been declining and are likely replaced through online variants. We know well that it is easy to pick our communities online so that they think the same as we do. All of this leads self-selecting organizations based on political preferences, interacting mainly with people who agree with us politically and feeling free to share our opinions; because we know they agree with us and the organizations themselves are political.
#3-Politics has even spread to influencing decisions about where we live. Bill Bishop coined the term “the big sort” in 2004 and wrote the book in 2008. The idea is that people are increasingly moving to states, counties and cities where people are more politically like them. This is often illustrated in maps, like the one below, that show the number of landslide counties; counties where one presidential candidate wins by at least 20% of the vote. The big sort reinforces the politicization of civil society described above and can make it difficult to even find politically diverse organizations. But it is also an effect of the politicization of society, where we think that our life will be better if we are around others who think like us politically. Major life decisions, such as where we live, work and who we date become political decisions. This is unhealthy and leads to an unhealthy and uncivil democracy.
Based on the evidence it seems pretty clear that politics has found its way into many aspects of our lives and has led to unhealthy consequences. Politics is important and has always been important. It should not be so important that we can’t keep it out of all aspects of our lives. When public health decisions are evaluated on the basis of ideology that’s a problem. When our evaluation of a hotel is based on whether they have fallen for the “covid hoax” that’s a problem. The solution is to seek out people who are not like us and to participate in organizations with a diverse group of people. Doing this we can find identities other than conservative or liberal. We can be gardeners, fans of a specific sports team, parents in the PTA or members of whatever the local civic organization may be. The more identities we have that cut across political ideological lines, the better for us and for democracy. The more politics becomes the dominant force in our life, the worse for us and for democracy.
Campaign Ads
Speaking of politics invading all aspects of life, this ad from Mike Hucakbee’s campaign in 2008 is a good example. For some this may lead to a greater dislike of Chuck Norris, for others greater appreciation. Why we care what Chuck Norris thinks about politics is perhaps the more salient question.