Politics as a hobby
I realized recently that I spend a good bit of my free time consuming political news and debate. It doesn't sound really interesting on the surface, but I find the cultures surrounding American government interesting and somewhat entertaining. Now, I consider one of my hobbies to be just "politics."
Will I run for office? Fuck no. But I will spend a disproportionate amount of energy following the details of the race for that office.
Politics are weird. They're weird! Candidates for public office are turned into products and morphed to take on a certain identity, in order for the average American to arbitrarily decide if they want to "have a beer" with them. Quite similarly to high school, politics are fundamentally a popularity contest, and in my opinion, people who don't realize that are destined to become cynics.
But what this means is that the kind of people who are successful politicians are pretty odd people. They are demonstrably NOT the kind of person most people want to have a beer with. This obviously doesn't apply to every single politician — I do believe there are some genuinely good people out there who go in with good intentions — but the game doesn't favor genuine people.
What my amusement comes from is the bizarreness of the political process. Nothing can prove my point more than the 2013 film "Caucus," which follows the 2012 Iowa presidential caucuses. It's a good watch, and you'll get some laughs out of it.
The DNC and RNC were a joy to follow this year. Lil Jon came down the stairs in the audience singing "turn out to vote" when Georgia delegates cast their votes for Kamala. Hulk Hogan ripped off his shirt out of sheer passion for Trump's campaign. The MyPillow CEO, Mike Lindell, "snuck in" the DNC by shaving his mustache and lost a debate with a 12 year old. Kamala promised the U.S. would have the most "lethal" army in the world for... some reason. Ted Cruz thanked God for turning Trump's head, protecting him from the bullet that grazed his ear. Etcetera.
After JD Vance went to a donut shop in Georgia and acted like he had never stepped foot in a bakery in his life, Kamala Harris went to ANOTHER donut shop in Georgia and acted much more normal, but still a little weird. You don't get this kind of gold without politics.
This is all not to mention the civilian political fanatics. A memorable moment was when Trump spoke after his assassination attempt, fans wore "bandages" taped to the sides of their heads to replicate the bandage over Trump's ear.
Anyone who follows politics closely, however, is familiar with the common political demonstrator who has absolutely no clue what they're talking about. This isn't specific to one side or the other, but many conservatives tend to get caught in this trap a lot. The Good Liars are a duo that likes to document these folks.
Behind all of this, however, is the recognition that there are genuinely a lot of people with strongly held convictions that probably don't even know why they believe what they do. For folks like me who fervently consume political content, it can get frustrating at times.
A common topic of debate in the last few years has been whether or not politics should divide us, i.e. if it is okay to not be friends with someone because they disagree with you ideologically. Without much context, my instinct would be to say politics shouldn't divide us, and I used to believe that. But even in the course of my own short life, attitudes have shifted.
U.S. political arguments nowadays often take the shape of whether or not certain people have the right to human autonomy based on their race, ethnicity, identity and gender. It is incredibly personal, and I can understand why some people would be inherently opposed to giving someone they disagree with the time of day. That doesn't change the fact, however, that we all gotta be normal, tolerable people.
All of this is to say that there's a delicate balance with politics in my mind. I think we can all benefit from seeing the lighter side of it — the side of Kamala Harris having a brat summer or presidential candidates eating comically large carnival food at the Iowa State Fair — while still recognizing what is at stake.
A handful of folks in my life are very serious about politics and get very doom and gloom about the state of things pretty frequently. As I see it, my life would be pretty miserable if I let every depressing event in politics get me down, because a whole lot of it is bad. Maybe I find it a little easier to recognize how weird all of this is because I deal with it both in my job and as a hobby. There's a level of privilege I recognize I have because of my ability to detach my hope for humanity from the state of politics.
Perhaps an observation to take away from this is that maybe the as-it-stands American political circus isn't the most efficient way to handle pertinent global issues. The most I can do, from my point of view, is to keep myself informed, be kind to the folks in my life, and vote. Otherwise, I suppose I'll keep finding the joy in politics where I can.
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Shoot me a comment or start a conversation with me by emailing davstri4077@gmail.com.