I think I hate politics . . . yep, I do. This is now beyond the naive realm of "OMG! People
lie and manipulate? People can't form a thought beyond the most superficial
party rhetoric? The supposed "change" artist and great unifier, the one who will rise above the pettiness of politics, runs demonizing, shallow and ageist
campaign commericals? People keep
lying?(I'll try, for the record, to be as balanced as possible in criticism; there's no way to get it all in).
Instead, it is what politics does to me, and how politics makes me begin to view people. I get cynical and depressed and begin to view people as either guilt-free manipulators or willingly led fanatical sheep (both a far cry from the fullness of the human being we're meant to be mindful of as Christians). I despair at the hypocrisies of power and remember the old cliche about the fact that I wouldn't want anyone who would want to be president to be president. I hear a lot of griping about this, actually (internally and externally). But what's worst is when I think a lot of people actually like it.
Or, perhaps don't like it, but are attached to it. We studied today the book of Exodus (16:1 and following - the Israelites wandering in the wilderness). The Israelites complain, after their great liberation, about how they long for Egypt, now that the insecurity of the wilderness has settled in. They were attached to slavery because it gave things to them. It gave them security: they knew where there daily bread was coming from, even if it came at the cost of their dignity and freedom. And it gave them identity: they were victims together, self-identified by their oppression. Living as a maturing and free chosen people of a God they were getting to know made deeper demands on them; they were asked for trust, loyalty, intimacy. They were asked to endure, to be unpreoccupied, to be uncertain, to be patient.
Two-party politics seems to create a similar attachment (addiction). It gives us security in the familiar and routine, even if it disrespects all of us. As long as we know we're the good guys and they're the bad guys, as long as it's "gay-hating" conservatives vs. the "baby-killing" liberals, we all can feel safely on God and country's side.
And it gives us identity: loyalties (however incongruous or contradictory) help define us and those (un)like us. We get to know ourselves over and against the other. The more we are irresponsibly certain about the other, the more irresponsibly certain we can be about ourselves.
And we can't overlook the power of the familiar. "Here we are again," says the family at each others throats, trying to plan a funeral for a dead parent, "This is just like us - it feels good to be home." "That's how we've always done it," says the school, refusing to have a
racially integrated prom in
2007 .
All in all, people are preferring (to adapt another proverb) the devil they know to the God they don't. If people want to be unthinkingly reactive to football and baseball, great. But in politics, too much is at stake. And it burns me, but we're back in Egypt for a season.
