Ten Reasons I Hate Politics and One Reason I Don’t - Part 1

Well, we are approaching the time that comes around every four years that gets the attention of the entire world. No, it’s not the Summer Olympics. That has already passed. I’m talking about the US Presidential Election. In case you don’t pay attention to such things, this is a time where more mud gets slung around than at a women’s mud wrestling match. It’s a time where millions of dollars are spent by both major political parties to get the word out about how wonderfully fantastic their candidate is and how horrifically terrible the opposing candidate is. Now, I am aware that there are some people who love mud wrestling, but I’m not one of them. So in this post I will present to you one reason I hate politics. I will present nine more reasons in future posts. Then in my final post I will tell you one reason I don’t hate politics. So, let’s get started.

1.  I Am God, You Are The Devil

I have heard it said that if you want to get good people to do bad things to other people, you have to dehumanize, even demonize, those other people. If you can convince the good people that those other people are Satan’s minions straight from the pit of hell, you can get them to harm, even kill, them. After all, who believes that Satan’s soldiers deserve to live?

The same is true in politics. It’s really not enough to say, “You know, my opponent has the same goals as me, and in some areas we agree on how to approach our problems. However, I believe my solutions overall will be best for our nation and all its people.” That position is considered too weak. Too wishy-washy. Too conciliatory towards your opponent. It admits that your opponent might be right about some things. And you can’t have any of that. You must present yourself as more intelligent, more savvy, more courageous, more generous, more trustworthy, more compassionate—heck, more anything that’s good—than your opponent. In other words, you must present yourself as being God and your opponent as being the Devil. Your goals must be lofty while your opponent’s are lowly. Your motivations must be pure while your opponent’s are putrid. Your methods must be inspiring while your opponent’s are insipid.

I don’t know about you, but I find this attitude distasteful. While I don’t think it necessary to speak more highly of anyone than they deserve, I also don’t think one should speak more ill of anyone than they deserve. The fact is that every human on Earth has some good and bad in them. Of course the ratio of the two varies greatly from one individual to the next. As Bing Crosby says in the movie White Christmas, "Surely you knew that everybody's got a little larceny operating in them." But a little larceny does not deserve the complete ire of another.

I hear some people say that they wish that the politicians would be more civil in their discourse like it was back in the good old days. Well, perhaps there have been more civil campaigns at times, but from what I have read, politics have been dirty from the beginning of our country. In fact, some say that the dirtiest presidential campaign goes to Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams back in 1828. But that doesn’t make it right or mean it has to be that way.