Why You — Yes, YOU — Need to Care about Politics

The following is adapted from We The People, by H. Edward Wynn.

Why should we, should you, care about civics or about political discourse?

Increasingly, many of us believe and, I would posit, are being pushed toward believing by those in power that there is no good reason to care about politics. Both parties, and especially those at the extremes in either party, want us to believe that politics is complicated and dirty. They don’t want us to recognize what’s really going on, what the facts are, or how to spot the lies and deception.

That is why we get spin, emotional appeals, and conspiracy theories instead of facts, and it’s also why those who attempt to return us to the facts and help spot the lies and deception are met with verbal (sometimes even physical) violence and intimidation.

This onslaught of spin and bias makes us numb and encourages us to feel powerless, and when we feel powerless, we stop caring. But if we don’t make the effort to care — and exert our power — nothing will ever change.

A Feeling of Powerlessness

Getting the facts is hard — and it’s getting even harder. Few have time to read the source documents or to otherwise discover the facts themselves, and we can no longer trust a polarized and point-of-view media to summarize those facts in an unbiased manner. As social media has driven us to information-by-tweet, this problem has become even worse.

We might also believe that it doesn’t matter: even if we were able to get the facts and spot the lies and deception, it wouldn’t change anything. That is really unfortunate because it demonstrates that we have been indoctrinated to believe that we are powerless over governments that are supposed to derive their power from us.

It’s a lot like school bullying. Most such bullying starts with just a few people who are loud and appear to be powerful. They intimidate the majority to go along with their behavior to avoid any issues. When someone does stand up, they are immediately intimidated or harassed as a warning to others so that the bullies maintain their control. In reality, the majority doesn’t really agree with what the bullies are doing, but they feel powerless to stop it.

The point is this: we the people can — and must — make a difference. The overwhelming majority of us agree that we do not like the current way politics are conducted in the United States. We don’t like the divisiveness, the verbal and physical violence, the lack of solutions. If we, the overwhelming majority, don’t like the current state, why do we continue to accept it?

We don’t have to.

We the People Have the Power

Because we are the overwhelming majority, we have the power to make a difference and no longer need to be intimidated by the extremes, by those in power, or by the divisiveness and violence. Working together, we can change all of this.

Yes, it will require each of us to educate ourselves about things that we should have been taught about civics but weren’t. It will require each of us to spot the causes of lack of civility in political discourse when they arise and to use simple solutions to turn that lack of civility and that divisiveness into unifying solutions. We can reject biased, point-of-view media by something as simple as just turning off those outlets and turning to more fact-based sources of information.

For sure, changing the current state will take time, just like any significant change. That change will be met by formidable resistance from those who seek to preserve the power they derive from the current state. But we the people have the power, the legal and constitutional power and, perhaps most importantly, the power of being the majority.

A Brighter Future

Just imagine for a moment what this change would look and feel like:

Political ads that focus on policies, not personal attacks on opponents.

Resolving the most important issues we face together by focusing on the facts and having civil debate and discussion of our mutual objectives and potential solutions.

Feeling that we can discuss those important issues and solutions with our colleagues, neighbors, even our families without shouting or changing the topic, or getting that generally sick feeling in our stomachs, or getting emotionally out of control.

Reconnecting our communities and feeling a renewed sense of purpose, security, and safety.

Sounds great, doesn’t it? We can achieve it. It is within your power, my power, and our power. That’s the power that we, the people, have.

For more on helping end divisiveness in politics, you can find We the People on Amazon.

For more than three decades, H. Edward Wynn has helped governments and companies discover and implement solutions to complex, often divisive issues. He’s worked in all branches and levels of government, and with both Republicans and Democrats. A Truman Presidential Scholar, Ed has a political science degree, summa cum laude, from the University of Illinois and a law degree, magna cum laude, from Georgetown. Most importantly, Ed’s not a political insider, and he’s willing to call out any side on its BS.