Defined By What I Ain't

I'm really somewhat ashamed about how I came to my somewhat amorphous political persuasion. I'd prefer it if I were touched by an angel or something and decided I had a mission. But no.

It had much more to do with what I perceived as the bad in politics than the good. Because politics for me, and I imagine for most Americans, means something practically divorced from policy, governing, and law. It means getting your guy elected and the other guy shoved into the dustbin of history. So the emotions behind my political opinions and convictions tend to be in the direction of outrage. I spent a summer looking for work and watching almost nothing but cable news. There's almost nothing I can imagine so miserable.

Despite my distaste for my motivations, I doubt they're particularly unusual. Most of those who pay attention to politics like that do it out of some unsavory impulse, like contempt, or desire for power, or anger, or hatred.

I figure part of the reason I became interested in politics was because September 11th did for me what it did, I imagine, for other people who, like me, are artists and creators of cultural product. In the face of History, not the history of the twentieth century, so seemingly tied to culture in a myriad of ways, my drawings and paintings and prints seemed pointless.

The visual arts (and by this I mean the fine arts contingent) don't do very much for people's lives. Some of the people most intimately connected to art see the artworks themselves as just another component in the capitalist system. This is profoundly upsetting. When you come to art because of its beauty and otherworldliness and that world seems dominated by, on one end, people who look at it as nothing but a luxury product, and on the other hand, marxists who see beauty as bourgeouis deception and find no space for otherworldliness or wonder(both caricatures, but then some people choose to be caricatures), it makes you want to change the world in some tangible way that doesn't involve signing up for immoral wars (and yes, there were times in the wake of 9/11 I wanted to serve my country in a formal, armed services or intelligence services capacity, but then I remembered who was president) or some other drastic foolishness.

Getting into politics seemed to make sense. Not in the elected office sense. I'm too odd, too opinionated, too undiscipled, and insufficiently photogenic to be elected dogcatcher. Plus I'm an agnostic and that's bad at least two ways. But there was something about how elected officials can really ruin our society that compelled me. I didn't want them to do it.

I read a profile of Grover Norquist a few days ago and it reminded me why politics grabs my attention. He's a loony tunes nutbar sammich. And he's probably one of the 50 most powerful people alive because of his place in the modern American conservative movement. This is a guy who wants to shrink the US government by half out of sheer ideological quirk, and he thinks he might be able to.

That's why I'm interested in politics. Because some colorless nerd in an office in DC, along with his highpowered Republican buddies, want to play Risk with my country. I'm sorry, but all I really want is to put the brakes on these guys. I'd love for the US to have equal rights for all citizens, and a real safety net, and universal healthcare, and limits on the power of amoral, powermad corporations and their amoral, powermad executives. But all I really care about is for the US to stop its slide towards fiscally insolvent, fundamentally irresponsible, FoxNews idiotic, gaybashing, righteously ignorant disphittery and collapse. because that's not only bad for me and mine, it's bad for everybody.

At this rate, two generations from now Young Republicans will talk about Karl Rove and Sean Hannity in the hushed tones once reserved for Jefferson and Lincoln. This cannot be allowed.