Politics will break your heart

[pecunium]

What she said.

Me, I've always been too much the reporter, so the most I've ever been is disappointed (libertango and I were chastised, gently, by my, then, girlfriend's father for not being crushed when Dukakis lost).

But he and I also went to the Cranston headquarters, and saw people devastated by his defeat.

Politics should break your heart, because you ought to care, at a deep; and visceral level. It's about who we are, and what we will be, and how the world will be when we leave.

It's about today, and tomorrow. It's for our children, and their children. It's about empathy for everyone else (and if I could rub some lamp, and get just one wish, it would be for everyone on the planet to be more empathetic).

If you're doing it right, politics will break your heart.

Comments

[rm.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

You have HTML weirdnesses going on though.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

No problem. You wrote it, all I'm doing is spreading the word.

Thanks for catching the open tag. I'm amused that introducing an lj-tag closed it.

TK

[yuripup.livejournal.com]

Good stuff. Amazing writing. Thank you both.

[wolodymyr.livejournal.com]

I ruefully realize, then, that despite every effort I'm doing it right.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

No. Politics should not break your heart. Because heartbreak is imobilizing and being a political animal is an everyday job. Yes, it's important to care, yes, it matters, but heartbreak is just another tool of the forces of disenfranchisement.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Then perhaps I am too much a political animal.

I don't think those who work in politics can afford to have the emotional investment that leads to heartbreaks. I also don't think the investment which leads to renuncication is good either.

But I think a lot of the flippant cynicism, the stuff that leads to people supporting the Naders of the world comes from a lack of active participation.

The "Art of the Possible" means taking lumps, giving up what is right, for what can be done. But there are times when compromise isn't acceptable (and Lord knows I want Pelosi and Reid to realise this, and convince the rest of the Democratic Party to stand their ground).

Reporting could be heartbreaking. Being in the Army is heartbreaking. Being alive is heartbreaking. It shouldn't be, but it is. If the system is working, the heartbreaks aren't going to lead to catatonia.

Right now, the system isn't working right. That's the tragedy. Bush winning in '04 was heartbreaking. It made me a lot more angry, and a lot less willing to be polite in public.

[fantasyecho.livejournal.com]

If you're immobilized by something as simple as a broken heart, then how do you find the strength to BE a political animal?

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I have no idea how to answer this because I don't think we speak the same language. The opposite of simple is complex. Death is simple, or can be. Ruptured aorta, bleed out, bang, you're dead. Simple. Yet, kinda hard to overcome.

So, to borrow your phrasing: "If you're immobilized by something as simple as death, then how do you find the strength to BE a political animal?" Does not compute.

I assume what you mean by "simple" is really "trivial" or "minor" or "easily overcome," but if these are terms you mean to apply to having a broken heart, then I don't think we understand the term "broken heart," in ways that are mutually comprehensible. So again, I have no idea how to answer you. You are speaking an alien language.