some thoughts on politics
(Not directed at any specific candidate or decision, just a general observation.)
So, one of the neat things about the group of friends that I have offline is that we are all very engaged in learning about and understanding the political process and we enjoy having discussions and rants and debates about various Things in politics, and this includes people having a lot of strong opinions about various actions and candidates and what-have-you. Which is awesome; I enjoy all of this and am happy to engage.
But one of the things I notice (by no means limited to my friend group) is that there seems to be a distaste for politicians who change their positions on any given subject. Most recently, I've seen a lot of this aimed at various legislators/elected officials changing their stance on various aspects of LGBTQ rights (among other things), and I find it....really troubling, honestly. Because mostly what I see is accusations that the politician in question changed his/her vote based on it being convenient or "seeing the way the wind was blowing."
The thing is, isn't changing legislators' minds what you want, on issues of social justice? Isn't the point of calling and writing to your legislator to persuade them to your point of view? Not everyone is going to change immediately, and different people need different impetus. It seems, mmmm, troubling (to put it mildly) that I see people blaming politicians for doing what they were elected to do and changing their stance in response to the changing needs of their constituency. Politicians are, at least in theory in a democratic or republican system such as the one in the US, supposed to, well, represent the people they represent. There have been enormous changes in public opinion on various issues just in my lifetime and, relatively speaking, I'm a baby.
I'm not the same person that I was 10 years ago; I hold vastly different political opinions in a lot of ways. The more I learn and think and experience, the more I go back and ask myself why I think certain things, or whether a particular political opinion is actually mine and whether that is a thing that seems good and ethical for me to have. In general, the older I get the farther left I move (by American standards, anyway; by European standards I'm probably pretty centrist). Some of my opinions have stayed constant, because the understandings from which I drew them have been consistent or become more solid. In other cases, I've been presented with information I didn't have before, and I considered it in light of my opinions and my experience, and I altered my opinions because the information required it.
Also, from a purely pragmatic perspective, a lot of these people are angry that the politician in question came around to their personal viewpoint late, but is now aligned with their desires. Does it even freaking matter how/when the politician got there, if they're now espousing the viewpoint you want? Why castigate them for, uh, voting for/speaking in support of the very thing you yourself have been advocating? (not directed at anyone reading this post, I'm pretty sure.)
And yes, this goes both ways--the most recent impetus to this train of thought was people yelling about progressives only being progressive when they have cover for it, but I've also seen a fair few people yelling about conservatives who tack more small-government fiscal-responsibility after having, in the past, voted for bigger government and higher taxes and what-have-you, and of course there is the ever-popular insult RINO (why do we call the Democratic equivalent Blue Dog Democrats instead of DINO? I'm curious.)
....Anyway, I find it mendacious, to put it politely, particularly when slagging a person for...doing what you wanted them to do. I guess I just don't understand, though it's possible I'm misunderstanding the point and the entire performance is deliberately constructed to find ways to sling insults at a politician because you can't actually fight with them about their actual policy choices.
I've posted this at http://lassarina.dreamwidth.org/1138167.html and you may comment there or here. On Dreamwidth, this entry has
comments.
So, one of the neat things about the group of friends that I have offline is that we are all very engaged in learning about and understanding the political process and we enjoy having discussions and rants and debates about various Things in politics, and this includes people having a lot of strong opinions about various actions and candidates and what-have-you. Which is awesome; I enjoy all of this and am happy to engage.
But one of the things I notice (by no means limited to my friend group) is that there seems to be a distaste for politicians who change their positions on any given subject. Most recently, I've seen a lot of this aimed at various legislators/elected officials changing their stance on various aspects of LGBTQ rights (among other things), and I find it....really troubling, honestly. Because mostly what I see is accusations that the politician in question changed his/her vote based on it being convenient or "seeing the way the wind was blowing."
The thing is, isn't changing legislators' minds what you want, on issues of social justice? Isn't the point of calling and writing to your legislator to persuade them to your point of view? Not everyone is going to change immediately, and different people need different impetus. It seems, mmmm, troubling (to put it mildly) that I see people blaming politicians for doing what they were elected to do and changing their stance in response to the changing needs of their constituency. Politicians are, at least in theory in a democratic or republican system such as the one in the US, supposed to, well, represent the people they represent. There have been enormous changes in public opinion on various issues just in my lifetime and, relatively speaking, I'm a baby.
I'm not the same person that I was 10 years ago; I hold vastly different political opinions in a lot of ways. The more I learn and think and experience, the more I go back and ask myself why I think certain things, or whether a particular political opinion is actually mine and whether that is a thing that seems good and ethical for me to have. In general, the older I get the farther left I move (by American standards, anyway; by European standards I'm probably pretty centrist). Some of my opinions have stayed constant, because the understandings from which I drew them have been consistent or become more solid. In other cases, I've been presented with information I didn't have before, and I considered it in light of my opinions and my experience, and I altered my opinions because the information required it.
Also, from a purely pragmatic perspective, a lot of these people are angry that the politician in question came around to their personal viewpoint late, but is now aligned with their desires. Does it even freaking matter how/when the politician got there, if they're now espousing the viewpoint you want? Why castigate them for, uh, voting for/speaking in support of the very thing you yourself have been advocating? (not directed at anyone reading this post, I'm pretty sure.)
And yes, this goes both ways--the most recent impetus to this train of thought was people yelling about progressives only being progressive when they have cover for it, but I've also seen a fair few people yelling about conservatives who tack more small-government fiscal-responsibility after having, in the past, voted for bigger government and higher taxes and what-have-you, and of course there is the ever-popular insult RINO (why do we call the Democratic equivalent Blue Dog Democrats instead of DINO? I'm curious.)
....Anyway, I find it mendacious, to put it politely, particularly when slagging a person for...doing what you wanted them to do. I guess I just don't understand, though it's possible I'm misunderstanding the point and the entire performance is deliberately constructed to find ways to sling insults at a politician because you can't actually fight with them about their actual policy choices.
I've posted this at http://lassarina.dreamwidth.org/1138167.html and you may comment there or here. On Dreamwidth, this entry has
comments.