Why politics matters

     I have no stomach for politics. I accept that its aim is compromise and that its result is most often what can be done rather than what needs to be done. But what are we to think about the hurly-burly, the glad-handing, the bread and circuses, and the big bucks that drive the whole show? As one who would have made a poor fan at a contest between the lions and Christians in Rome, I don’t even enjoy politics as a spectator sport.

This confession will surprise some members of my family and many of my friends. Among them it is said that I’m passionate about politics. I cringe when one of them congratulates me and makes me a hero for doing nothing more than thinking reluctantly about the responsibilities of citizenship. Some express a little guilt about their not being “hooked up,” while others make it clear that they couldn’t care less about politics. Politics is a choice, like a pastime or a hobby, and it’s not for them.

OK, I am interested in politics. ‘Interested’—like someone in New Orleans in the path of Hurricane Katrina; like a high school drop-out who finds that the Army recruiting station is the only business on the block that cares about his future; like a college student whose dreams of finishing school or owning a home are held in the hands of Chinese creditors; like a parent learning that polluted air has brought on asthma in her child; like a young family having to choose between a car and health care for their children; like those who believed, evidently wrongly, that they were safe from government search and seizure; like anyone and everyone worried about surviving global climate change. Surviving—that’s what politics is about: working to survive and live well. It is about our lives, and it is just about as important as taking the next breath.

     Some examples, please. Well, I have a little list that keeps growing day by day. About 30 examples, arranged in approximate order of importance and accompanied with short comments. Keep in touch.