Why We Avoid Politics at a Time when it has become ever more Essential to our Survival.

Gather in the public square and on the back porch.

Sometimes I think we let big numbers dull our thinking.  We have two political parties.  At elections they receive about half the votes.  So, without much reflection, we tend to think about Republicans as half the electorate.  Those that identify as Republicans, however, are actually around 25 to 30 percent.

news.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspx

And when we hear that two-thirds of them are “unmovable” supporters of Donald Trump, we again are impressed (some worried) by the size of the number.

67% of GOP want Trump to stay in politics, 44% want him to run for president | Pew Research Center)

Big numbers, one-half and two thirds! But with a little thought, two-thirds of one-fourth is actually about 17%.  Less than two out of ten. 

We do not live in a Trump America. Even if we find that we cannot talk politics over the Thanksgiving turkey with some of our relatives, there are other and ample spaces for politics in our society today.

Why is this important? We reach judgments about policies as we defend positions and consider alternatives. Opinions are formed and judged as we see the world from each other’s perspectives and experience. Political power is developed and shaped by agreements, even the agreement to disagree for the time being, and agree upon a process for making choices as we continue to find new areas of common interest.

This cannot happen if we stay aloof or away from what Hannah Arendt called the public square. Theordore Roosevelt said the “credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.” I would add, at this critical time in our political life, we will rise or fall by the quality of debate in the public arena.

How much of our reluctance to engage in political life is our belief that too many of us are extreme in our views, both on the right and left. We misread, that is, the numbers. We do not recognize how many of our friends and neighbors will join us in meaningful debate.

Politics is, as Hannah Arendt said, debate. She uses the word in a special way. I would probably call it conversation, the development and exploration of common ground, but also an important testing of our own ideas as we share opinions with each other.

The irony of our time is this. We are turning away from politics because we overestimate the number of people with whom such conversations are difficult and seemingly futile. The reality is that we need to discuss and debate political issues, precisely because absolutist, undemocratic views, though still relatively small, are growing.

So, to all my friends who have embraced absolute truths in politics, I wish a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I offer help shoveling the snow this winter.  To all the rest, the great majority in this land, join me in this new year in public spaces and on back porches to talk politics, and keep the democratic way of life safe and alive in our country.