The spillover from politics can hurt lives
Published 12:00 am Monday, February 26, 2001
The day before the November elections, a radio station phoned for an interview asking what I thought would be the results of the voting.
Monday, February 26, 2001
The day before the November elections, a radio station phoned for an interview asking what I thought would be the results of the voting. I said I was less concerned about these results than I was worried about the consequence of the campaigning, and I wrote most of what is here. This election, however, was hard to get past and I come to the matter only now. The political campaigns are over and our choices are in office; now, let’s get over campaignlike politics in personal relationships.
Political campaigns are fun for some people and exceedingly irritating to others. Surely, they do have their entertainment value if one doesn’t take them too seriously. I have given both myself and readers as much of a break from commentaries on politics as I could. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I. Before the edge of our feelings fade from memory, I reflect on what the political campaign may be doing to us personally even after it has ended. I worry about the baggage and even garbage of the campaign spilling over into personal relationships. If we fail to divorce ourselves from typical political machinations, they will poison personal relationships by their adversarial attitude, sectarian spirit and partisan perspective.
Mind you, I am not denigrating politics. In itself, politics is morally neutral and we must distinguish between good and bad uses and right and evil politicians. It is the art of the possible rather than a battle for the impossible. It is conflict management and resolution of differences. Politicking for public office with governmental power the prize often takes on especially vial qualities.
Politics tends to engender an adversarial attitude. It thinks in terms of win/lose, winner-take-all. The goal is to defeat the opponent and to win the election. It puts people in the attack mode. They assault others and put them on the defensive. They are aggressors, and they treat everyone else as if they were.
I have heard leaders instruct their followers, most typically but not only in labor-management negotiations: Never give them what they ask for, and never accept what they offer. The presumption is monstrous and asserts that no matter how dispensable is what "they" ask for, don’t give it because it must be something we really do want but we don’t know it. No matter how much we have thought we want what is being offered, reject it because there must be something wrong with it or they wouldn’t offer it. They are the enemy, and there is nothing to do with the enemy but defeat him.
Politics tends to create a sectarian spirit. It thinks and acts according to sect, party, clique, faction, special interest. These can be formed according to race, ethnicity, culture, socio-economic level. It can be farmers vs. towns folks, management vs. labor, gown vs. town. I have seen it – believe me – in churches, which would seem by definition to be families and apolitical. It is old church families vs. newcomers and church members vs. church officers. It can be pro-pastor vs. anti-pastor. It can be pro-former pastor vs. pro-new pastor or even pro-next pastor as long as it isn’t the present pastor. The hot button at the moment is traditional vs. contemporary.
The sectarian spirit exists whenever we think in terms of "us" and "them."
Politics tend to create a partisan perspective. We either totally agree or totally disagree with others. When they have a good idea, we automatically perceive it as bad because, after all, they are never right. When our people have bad ideas, we presume them to be good because our side is always right. I hear: "What is it we want, again?" I have even heard: "What do we believe? I don’t remember."
During political campaigns partisans feel they just cannot afford to admit the opponent is ever right or that our candidate is ever wrong. Everything is black-or-white or black-and-white. When the other side wins, we do our best to make him ineffective in office and, thereby, un-re-electable. This may as well be the classic example of "cutting your nose off despite your face."
Don’t take political opposition as personal antagonism. When the campaign is over, work together for the common good. There is time enough to return to the campaign mode.
While it is not at all necessary or of the nature of politics, it does tend to create an adversarial attitude, sectarian spirit, and partisan perspective. This does a great deal of harm in governmental affairs, but the same thing in personal relationships can destroy them. As we move on from the political campaign, we need to work hard that we do not allow any of that nonsense to spill over into our personal lives or into relationships with those with whom we must live.
Wallace Alcorn’s column appears Mondays