By John R. Nay
This is a general commentary column, but recently I was thinking about my topic selection. I could offer statistics on my topic choices since I’ve been writing for the Journal Era, but I don’t want to go back through all my columns. How many readers realize that it’s been nearly seven years since Jerry Furst retired and I started writing here? Some readers might suggest that it seems like twice that long, and that I should retire to some monastery under a vow of silence. Maybe there are even days when my family might agree? But please take my word for it – it’s not always easy to come up with a weekly topic. People occasionally ask me where I get ideas or offer suggestions (which I’m happy to have). Sometimes I rely on the news of the day – whether it’s of international, national, state, or local import. Often, when elections are looming, I feel compelled to urge people to consider the issues and vote. If you speculated that more of my columns have related to politics than anything else, I’d probably be forced to agree. Is that worthwhile? Some people find politics interesting, and others say that they “hate politics.” Perhaps that latter group is mostly put off by the squabbling of America’s two main political parties.
That said, how do you define “politics”? Is that what comes to mind when you consider national and local issues? Keep in mind that there are multiple definitions of “politics.” Thomas Mann, a German Nobel Prize winner, even reportedly wrote that “Everything is politics.” Mark Twain, a sharp critic of government and those who worked for it, is quoted as having joked that “No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session,” and suggested that “public office is private graft.” Twain, of course, composed most of his writing during what we call “The Gilded Age” that was famous for its corruption.
But back to “politics.” One dictionary definition is that “Politics is the way groups of people make decisions, share power, and divide resources to live together.” That includes decision-making, and how we manage life in our village, township, city, state, and country. We try to agree on rules and try to solve problems affecting our lives. How to pay for improving roads, would be one example. It comes down to who is given the authority to make decisions on our behalf. Let’s face it, money, land, time, and space are limited. So we choose people to make decisions for us, and we hope they’ll make decisions that help improve our lives (or at least don’t make them worse), right?
The thing is, politics doesn’t just happen in governments – Washington; Lansing; Saint Joseph (the county seat); villages like Berrien Springs, Eau Claire, or Baroda; Oronoko, Berrien, Pipestone, Royalton, Sodus or other townships; and any of a dozen or more school boards. We elect people there who are supposed to make choices together, using the resources available. The men who wrote our Constitution – being practical and well-acquainted with how individuals like to aggrandize power to themselves – tried to set up a system that would force people to work together, rather than letting any one person grab power and run with it. Making such choices together can be difficult, however, and unfortunately doesn’t always happen – at least not in a way that most people might prefer. Still, when I express deep concern about the ever-rising national debt, and the fact that neither party has balanced the budget since President Clinton’s era, for example, is that about politics? Or do you consider it as “economics”? I suggest it’s both.
Entirely separate from any level of government politics, most people who have worked in a private company could describe decisions that were made based on “company politics,” or “office politics” at some level. If you’re part of a religious organization, you certainly know of “church politics,” or “synagogue politics,” or “mosque politics,” (whether or not your organization’s leaders want to admit it). My church leaders probably would deny that “politics” is involved in church decisions. If so, they would be wrong. “Politics” must be considered even in families. Just try to organize a family reunion and you’ll find out. Some folks might note that that brings us back to Mann’s statement that “everything is politics.” I suggest that we might as well live with it and do the best we can – giving a voice to those who want to use their voice while protecting individual rights.
With all that as preamble, let’s all remember that we have an important election coming up in less than five(5) weeks. The discussions about how to vote and who will leave us better or worse off certainly is POLITICS in its (im)purest form. I wouldn’t blame you at all if you were irritated by the onslaught of political ads we all are receiving in the mail, hearing on the radio, or seeing on the TV. I guess the creation of those ads is keeping some people employed, although I might wish it was in something more useful. Meanwhile, I pledge not to donate funds to any candidate of any party who is running for office this November, though that won’t make much of a difference. I don’t think I’ve ever donated, except, apparently via my taxes that were used to pay for that TV ad now airing showing President Trump (looking angry) saying “this is the final battle” and promising to “throw off the sick political class that hates our country….rout the fake news media and…liberate America from these villains once and for all.” Even Republican officeholders are complaining about that use of government funds. They know, of course, that once Trump does something like that (claiming it’s a “public service announcement”), future Presidents might do the same thing. That ad bothered me. It’s wrong to pay for political ads with government funds. But I guess everything is politics.
