When the Political is Personal

Or, What the Godfather Can Teach Us About Politics

Politics is about people. I don't mean this in the mundane sense that politics should focus on the interests of the citizenry. I am referring instead to the best and worst thing about political activism: it involves human beings. Working with others can be very rewarding, but it can also be extremely frustrating. You have to learn to deal with the myriad personalities of public life, and unfortunately politics and personality doesn't always align. I've met (a few) very nice people who are conservatives, and there are some liberal Democrats who drive me crazy.

This is not a question about corruption or political sleaziness. Those sorts of folks are (thankfully) fairly uncommon. I'm referring to the problem of when you are on the opposite side of candidates from your friends, or when you like a candidate personally but don't think she can win. Politics ain't beanbag, as the saying goes, and personal relationships can be undermined by political necessity. We can all claim that we aren't going to get nasty, but the heat of debate tends to escalate over time. What began as civil discourse turns into a food fight.

My ideal is that we approach politics the way Michael Corleone approached the Mob: it's not personal, it's strictly business. Politics should not exclude every other affiliation. Political fellow-travellers should be able to part ways on one candidate or one issue and remain allies. Poliitcal opponents should resist the urge to demonize one another. And we have to accept the fact that sometimes we are allied with people who irritate opposed to people we like. We must learn to accept that because it involves people, politics is rarely a simple matter of good and evil.

Having said all that, I still think that George Bush is a Sith.

Posted by Arbitrista @ 6:26 AM

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