It would be a mistake to say that politics isn’t important, but I find myself saying more and more often, especially these days, that politics isn’t everything. It is a truth we would do well to reflect on.
As the United States finds itself consumed by a presidential election that seems as if it may never wind to a close, politics seems to have seeped into every corner of our common life.
Social media platforms have spent the last month chiding us incessantly to “get out and vote!” or “remember to return your mail-in ballot!” Now that the voting, at least, has concluded, they’ve shifted to soothingly reminding us each time we log on that the votes are still being counted in many places. Don’t worry, salvation is still possible!
The Founding Fathers saw themselves as crafting the sort of government that could protect our God-given rights without requiring each citizen to be intimately concerned with what went on in the nation’s capital
Meanwhile, my email inbox on Tuesday featured an onslaught of messages from marketing departments of various companies, which typically encourage me to head to their sites for 30% off. This time they were spending their precious woke capital on taking a moment to ensure that I was planning to head to the polls.
Such myopic focus on an election is neither healthy nor productive — and I say this as someone who since high school has been urging those around me to reject political apathy and take seriously the citizens’ right and responsibility to inform oneself, shape his conscience, and vote.
With the aid of social media, we can see plenty of evidence of a growing over-reliance on politics. People report being anxious about the outcome of Tuesday’s races, noting that they’ve been staying hydrated as if they’re about to run a marathon, stress-baking cookies to cope with their excess energy, and exercising twice a day to burn through some adrenaline (or to shed the calories from said cookies).
In a well-functioning country with a well-adjusted polity, such coping mechanisms wouldn’t be necessary.
I’m grateful that I get to write about politics for a living, and I care a great deal about political outcomes, probably far more than the average American does and often far more than I ought. What’s more, I have faith in the ability of the political system in the U.S. to promote justice and to safeguard liberty and natural rights. I would never suggest that voting doesn’t matter or that the results of an election will make no difference at all.
But such hyper-focus on who might serve as president for the next four years suggests some dysfunction in how we as a nation approach our politics.
“I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy,” wrote John Adams in a 1780 letter to his wife Abigail. “My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.”
Myopic focus on an election is neither healthy nor productive — and I say this as someone who since high school has been urging those around me to reject political apathy.
Perhaps relatively few of us are drawn to the study of statuary or porcelain, but Adams’s point remains a good one. The Founding Fathers saw themselves as crafting the sort of government that could protect our God-given rights without requiring each citizen to be intimately concerned with what went on in the nation’s capital — and especially without fearing that their rights and liberties would be under fire if one party or another found itself in the White House. Though they sorted themselves into parties, they all were partisans of liberty.
Not so today, when far too many prominent voices encourage us to view each decision or debate in Washington as either a victory or a catastrophe for humanity writ large.
Perhaps we might take a moment to keep this election in perspective. Our government can be important without being all-important. Our leaders can make a difference without being the difference between whether we are at peace or suffering from inner turmoil. Though the outcome of these elections will affect our lives, it need not ruin them.
May we always remember how blessed we are to live in a nation where we can say that.
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