Blaming Politicians

Everybody tends to curse politicians. Many of the reasons are valid, of course. But politics is the art of operating within the bounds of what’s possible. Or as Barack Obama said:

“I used to explain to my staff after we had a long policy debate about anything, and we had to make a decision about X or Y, “Well, if we do this I understand we’re not getting everything we’re hoping for, but is this better?” And they say yes, and I say, “Well, better is good. Nothing wrong with better.”

That’s a point most of us understand and agree with in our calmer moments.

 

Unfortunately, we’re rarely calm when we think of politicians or policies. Instead, we’re almost always in an antagonistic mindset. So for the same outcome, we think differently based on who’s in power. His political opponents won’t let my guy do the good he wants to. The other guy never intended to do any good anyway. My guy did the best anyone could have done. Your guy sold out.

 

The passage below by Ibram X. Kendi shows how far that divide is today, not just in the US but most other parts of the world:

“There’s no saving America’s soul. There’s no restoring the soul. There’s no fighting for the soul of America. There’s no uniting the souls of America. There is only fighting off the other soul of America.”

It’s a fight to the death:

“We can — once and for all — win the battle between the souls of America.”

The other side is perceived to be so far gone, so immune to reason, so wrong, that wiping them out is the only option. Every issue is black and white, a fight between the forces of Righteousness and the forces of Evil.

 

We claim politicians are so uninspiring that they can’t bring out about any positive societal changes, but apparently they’re instruments of change who create new waves of everything bad and negative in society. C’mon, we can’t have it both ways, and yet we want to have our cake and eat it too. And yet, that’s exactly what we love to do: having it both ways…