The Limits of Politics

Steve Gilliard (via Kos) thinks that we on the left have been far too disengaged from popular culture. We don't write about a lot of major news stories because we find them beneath us, and because of this we are a) out of touch, and b) lack credibility when we talk about serious matters.

Conceptually, there are two different arguments here. The first is that liberals don't pay attention to "fluff" news, and the second is that we don't talk about it. I have no problem with Gilliard's first point: if we don't know what's going on, we won't know what's going on. It's hard to speak a language you don't understand.

But just because you are aware of popular culture doesn't mean that it's necessary to comment on it. What bothers me about the conservative practice of talking about every subject is that it politicizes everything. As my wife said this morning, it doesn't matter what the subject is: education, sex, religion, crime, trials - it's all become fodder for the political meat grinder. And this is simply not okay. The founding insight of liberalism is that politics has proper limits. That which effects all concerns all, but if something concerns only me it's none of your business.

So if we absolutely must comment on these issues, we should make their very triviality the point. Liberals don't comment on these things because they are simply not our concern. It's the right which wants society to have a say in every single choice you make. That way the next time Tucker Carlson or David Brooks want to politicize something apolitical, we can say "there those rightwingers go again taking away people's privacy by politicizing everything." Because that's a subject worth discussing.