Political discourse sucks and it's all your fault.

The most revealing thing about political discourse on the internet is you get to see just how few people actually have meaningful convictions when it comes to politics. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of people who are deeply convinced what they believe is right and best for society. Unfortunately, there’s far too many people whose convictions begin and end with support for one of the two major parties. So long as their team wins, the methods don’t matter. Damn the norms and rules, what are they but niceties and pretenses that stand in the way of victory? Well they’re kind of everything.

It’s a sad state we live in when the majority of people expect hypocrisy in politics. Not only do people expect hypocrisy, they tolerate it, defend it, and justify it. I assume there was a time when people actually held elected officials to some sort of standard. Maybe you have to go back to prehistory to find a time when people enforced a level of consistent conduct by their leaders. Groog didn’t get to argue the merits of sharing the mammoth equally when Rokk led the hunt, and then take all the best parts for himself when he felled the beast. If he did, he probably found himself on the outside of the group, alone, starving and dead in short order. Which is maybe what we should still be doing today.

A politician argues one side when he’s in the minority and the other when he’s in the majority and his base continues to support him. Why? Because he gets results and holding him accountable could cost them power. When one party changes the rules, the other party runs with the changes and both sides blame each other for the dissolution of norms. For some inexplicable reason, fully functioning adults who would never accept “they started it!” from a child, hear a politician use that justification and nod their heads knowingly, if not actively memorizing the explanation for the next drunken debate with their brother-in-law. The absconsion of any personal responsibility by the elected officials in this country is treated as a fait accompli, and it’s why things are as messy as they are.   

But it’s not just the politicians who behave like their actions are somehow beyond their control. Divisiveness and partisanship is killing this country. Almost everyone agrees on that, but nobody will take any responsibility for their role in it. There’s 350 million people in America and about 80% of them act like it’s beyond their power to be better. They show up on election day and vote for the person with the right letter by their name and that’s that. When the party drifts, they follow, and they’ll twist themselves into knots defending the change, if they don’t just attack the opposition as being “unamerican” that is. How can we hold politicians accountable when there are so many people who support them no matter what?

So, it’s up to the other 20% of us to grab the steering wheel and take control. Luckily, there’s a pretty easy way to enforce our will on everyone else. Vote. Vote in line with your beliefs. If you think established norms and rules of governance are important (they are) and should be followed, don’t vote for the person who breaks them, even if doing so led to a “win” for your team. If you think that politicians shouldn’t change the rules depending on whether they’re in the majority or minority, stop voting for the ones who do that! If you think a politician should act with grace and composure, communicating with the public openly and honestly, and treating all people with respect and dignity; then don’t vote for someone who doesn’t live up to those standards. If you think this is all naive thinking and impossible to do in the real world, congratulations! You’ve just proven my point: very few people have any meaningful convictions when it comes to politics and it’s why things are as bad as they are. 

Now do something about changing the world to be better, or stop complaining about the problems you're actively contributing to.