Politics vs. politics

Once again, there's a dust-up in the political blogosphere in which the specter of the sexist / racist / homophobic / ist-ist "progressive" blogger raises an ugly head. I'm not going to talk about this incident, because it's one of many and it's been well-handled by people who were on the scene over the weekend, unlike myself.

What I am going to talk about is something that I see underlying this recurrent dynamic: the tension between Politics and politics, and the people who rally to those respective flags.

Politics, with a large "p", is the sort of political "game-playing" you see at national conventions, on party-advocacy blogs, and in the national press. Basically, it's a form of glorified sport, in which teams (parties) go head to head in a series of cyclical challenges, in which yelling "batter batter hey batter" at your opponents is part of the fun, in which the winner takes all and the loser pouts in a corner, but in the end everyone shakes hands and goes off to cash a hefty paycheck. The media report breathlessly on the outcome, regale their listeners with plenty of local color and celebrity bios, and spend hours talking about the scores, with an occasional nod to the problems of steroid abuse to lend a glaze of seriousness to the endeavor.

This sort of Politics produces little more than virtual pyrotechnics without heat, or light, because it is meant to. Those who practice Politics, or who make their livings supporting and following and reporting on it, know that it is, at base, a nice hobby. It doesn't mean anything to them, beyond the paycheck and the chest-bumps and butt-pats of their peers, because when you take money and status out of the equation, nothing that happens in the game of Politics has any bearing on their lives, or the lives of their friends and family. It's a diversion, a distraction, a folly, something meant to sparkle in the public eye while deals are made in the backrooms, out of the sight or oversight of the little people.

Then we have politics with a small "p". The essence of politics is grassroots activism, but in the sense that is broader and deeper than people carrying signs and giant puppets in occasional colorful displays. (Indeed, some of these protest-parades are more properly the property of Politics, given their emphasis on the shallow and the temporary. It is true that they may be used in pursuit of a deeper politics, and are just borrowing the language of Politics in order to speak to the monolingual media, but this is not a given.)

In the briefest explanation, politics is about the lives of the ordinary people, and about the daily world they inhabit. This sort of politics isn't about looking good; it's about doing good. It's not about making pronouncements; it's about getting dirty and helping out. If Politics is talking the talk, politics is walking the walk.

But there's more of a difference between politics and Politics than simply substance versus style.

Simply put, Politics rests on the notion of Us vs. Them, while politics recognizes that we are all in this together. A person who practices politics, rather than Politics, acknowledges the power of stereotypes, but is also aware that they are just that: short-hand simplifications of a complicated reality that enables us primates-of-limited-brains to negotiate the complexities of day to day existence. They are not Truth, or Reality: they are crutches and make-shifts, toy versions that we are capable of handling. Big-P Politics, on the other hand, revels in stereotyping, because Politics rests on the notion that there are sides, and one Side is Right and one Side is Wrong, and the complicated, diverse individuals who are shoehorned into those Sides are irrelevant to the course of the game (unless they are team leaders or amazing Political "athletes," in which case they become surrogates for the entire Side).

The thing is, though, that these caricatures do have real power, power to alter the existence of individuals and ecosystems and cultures. Words mean things, and so do actions, especially the actions predicated on certain understandings of groups and words. It is therefore important to learn to see beyond the stereotypes, because they are meant to be tools to assist in comprehension, not barriers to it. If one practices politics, one is committing to a daily practice of questioning one's limits and assumptions, of seeing the shared reality we all inhabit, of recognizing that the world is vastly more complicated and interesting than our own limited experience would suggest, and adapting accordingly.

So when someone says our words hurt them, we listen, we change, we grow, we adapt. When we hear that someone's life is different than ours, we don't deny this; we accept the truth of the person's experience, and find ways to incorporate their knowledge into our evolving understanding of the world. When we see that someone is suffering, we try to ease that suffering, and to do it in a way that respects the dignity and agency of the sufferer (rather than in a way that serves to pump up our egos and confirm our prejudices). We think about our actions, and our words, because we have been hurt or confused or damaged by the words and actions of others, and do not wish to perpetuate that cycle.

It means committing to a good education for everyone, even if you do not have children. Or seeing that everyone has enough to eat, and eat well, even if they cannot afford it. It means supporting people in the decisions they need to make to live their lives with dignity, even if their choices and decisions are not ones that you would make. It means thinking about the needs of others -- not instead of your needs, as martyrs do, but in addition to your needs -- even when you gain nothing directly by doing so.

Practicing politics is living as if everyone, and everything, deserved respect, love, and attention. As if your needs and desires were just as worthy as everyone else's, and vice versa.

Practicing politics is hard.

Practicing Politics, on the other hand, is relatively easy. All you need is an opponent, a target, and a posse. You fight with your opponent, you attack your target, and your posse backs you up in both endeavors. It doesn't matter what happens to any of them at the end of the day, because, in the end, it's all about You.

This is why I say that Politics is a game. Games, though they may be taken quite seriously, are play. If the ball doesn't go in the hoop, it's no big deal. If you lose a game 51-49, it's an emotional blow, but no real hardship. There are rules to keep things civil, even if you belittle and insult your rivals during the game, and it's easy to assume, if your life is comfortable, that this is how the world works. If Politicians and their cheerleaders and hecklers (those yelling while still holding season tickets) were doing this simply to amuse themselves, there would be no problem.

The problem, for the rest of us, is that they have confused Politics with politics. On the one hand, they fail to understand why we would upset or angry if they lose what to them is a game, if they shake hands politely with their opponents afterward, if they play the game sometimes with something less than their full attention or passion, if they occasionally take a fall in order that someone else might win a bet. On the other hand, we fail to understand that what are high stakes for us are just plastic poker chips to them, easily replaced at the 99-cent store when poker night next rolls around. We expect them to do our politics for us, and that's not how politics works.

Again, practicing politics is hard.

It requires commitment, not only to oneself, but to others, to a future we will never see. It requires taking life seriously, while knowing how to laugh at oneself when things get too crazy or when we trip and stumble -- as all of us will, from time to time. It requires teaching oneself the difference between Politics and politics. It requires persistence, if not optimism; perserverance, and perhaps passion. It requires a certain amount of humility, too.

A progressive is a person who practices politics, not Politics. It's important to keep that in mind, no matter what the talk is. It's the walking, one foot after another, over the long slow miles, sometimes barefoot, sometimes in another's shoes, that really matters.

Cross-posted at Shakespeare's Sister.

Comments

[Elayne Riggs]

Well said, Rana! Another terrific post, to which I'll be linking shortly. Do you think this capital-P / small-P difference might also divide (to an extent) along gender lines? I know far more women in the blogosphere who are practicing small-p politics, whereas far more male bloggers seem to be into the capital-P Politics competitive one-upsmanship, particularly the liberal bloggers overly obsessed with the right-wing blogosphere.

[Laura]

Awesome post and I think it really gets at why Politics depresses me. I'm down here practicing politics as best I can and meanwhile, even at the localest of levels, people around me are practicing Politics and it pisses me off. We ran Bob Casey because he could win the game, not because he would do anything in the realm of politics. Of course, he could totally screw things up in that realm which will really piss me off.

[Blue Gal]

I respond to this issue here. Thanks for a great post, I'll be linking it at the bottom.

[Pica]

Great post Rana. I'll be linking to this in my post this evening.

[Rana]

Elayne - yeah, I suspect that there is probably a gender component to this - and similarly, ones related to things like race and ethnicity, physical shape, etc. -- in other words, some of us don't get a choice as to whether politics or Politics matters to us -- we WILL have to live with the outcome, and money and privilege can do only so much with that. It's hard to treat things like a game when they involve one's very personal internal organs, for example.

Laura - yeah. I suspect this is one reason why I hate office gamesmanship so much. Just do your damn jobs already! But that's not how the people who "play the game" see it.

Thanks for the thanks, and links!

[KathyR]

Yeah, drastically low humility levels seem to be the cause of most of these dustups. People who should know better get it into their heads that they are Important and Above All That and, most of all, Not Wrong No Matter What.

I wonder what that's like.

[Jill Smith]

Beautiful, Rana. Elegant. Also, (o)

[butuki]

Again Rana you wielded your magic in looking into the heart of things and evoporating everything but the salt. I love how you are able to put such seemingly difficult ideas into pure common sense. Part of practicing "politics" with a small "p" is also being able to have the courage to say what you think is the right and necessary thing to say even if it is damaging or painful or others cannot agree with you or you are wrong. Then, if you have the courage to admit you are wrong politics will have served its purpose... that of learning and of everyone having their say, no matter who they are, how foolish or ignorant they sound, or how ineffectual their words may have been. Your words are always courageous.

Huh?

[butuki]

I reread what I wrote and it does come across as if I was saying that your words were damaging, painful, or wrong. Sorry about the bad wording. That is not what I intended at all! What I meant to say is that I agree with what you wrote completely, but that other people who might write things I personally found damaging, painful, or wrong also have a right to express their opinions and that we should all give them their chance to say what they want to say.

Your words always serve to remind me to always be open-minded and truly learn to listen to others before making up my mind about them.

[Rana]

Hi butuki! Good to hear from you!

That "huh" wasn't from me, so no apology needed -- I get what you're saying.

Part of what I was thinking about when I was writing this was the way that yoga practice works: it is all about making the everyday commitment, to keep trying even when you can't do things perfectly or well, to trust yourself to keep going even after long breaks and slumps and so on. So that's what I'm thinking about when I speak of politics as practice (vs. Politics as a game): it's about putting one foot after another, day after day, in support of something you believe in, and forgiving yourself when you lapse, but always trying to keep going, and to help others along the way.

It's not about scoring points, unlike Politics, just like yoga practice is not about how many headstands you can do in a row, or how far you can put your foot behind your head. It's about trying, with persistence, to be in the moment and aware of what one can and can't do, and not giving up when it's not perfect.

Can I say I love your metaphor of "evaporating everything but the salt"?

[Rana]

P.S. to the "huh" person - while I allow anonymous comments, I don't really like them. It makes it hard to have conversations, when people don't use at least some sort of online name. it's also rather rude to jump in namelessly, just in order to say "huh?" I don't ask for profound thoughts here, but at least a bit of everyday politeness is appreciated.

Thanks.

[joe]

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