George Rebane
[This is the transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 8 November 2013.]
All of us swim in social circles where we meet people who look down at anything that has an obvious political tinge to it. They consider being informed about or getting involved in politics as somehow sullying their higher sensibilities – they are above such base concerns. These individuals will also let you know that while politics is a necessary undertaking, its place as an occupation is actually somewhere between pimping for prostitutes and rendering horse carcasses. Others hold absolutely no value in politics, seeing it as the preventable disease of governance that could be cured with Rodney King’s simple ‘Why can’t we all just get along?’
These attitudes are heard more often today in our hyper-polarized public forums. Both sides, entrenched and not willing to give an inch, see themselves as occupying a generous swatch of the political center, and see the other as embracing an extreme ideology and intent on spreading it across the land. These respective positions work asymmetrically as witnessed by the established meme that it was the Republicans who were to blame for shutting down government.
But when we step back and look at the role of politics through history and in our lives today, a different picture emerges. A few years back people wanted to identify the most influential person of the 20th century – the individual whose work and thought most influenced human lives and the course of nations. Many commentators and pundits fastened on the men of science and naturally nominated Albert Einstein and his relativity theory for that honor. But upon reflection and debate, the sentiment swung to a politician who satisfied all the criteria – his name was Winston Churchill. Churchill was chosen not only for his resistance to the Axis powers during WW2, but also for his pre- and post-war warnings about international communism that proved to be on the mark.
The point that emerges here is that the politics of a nation, a region, even of international organizations underpins everything else. Without the correct politics, masses of people suffer and die needlessly. Without correct politics there is no beneficial quality of life, no art, no literature, no productive industries, no healthcare, and no education. On the other hand, a people getting their politics right enables an environment in which all their skills and resources can be brought to bear in the improvement of their lives. But the wrong politics results in wholesale misery.
Politics in human society is not an optional attribute. Once people attempt to organize and accomplish something as a group, politics is there, indelibly front and center. Syndicated columnist, former liberal, and advisor to presidents Charles Krauthammer in his recent autobiography Things that Matter corroborates the fundamental role that politics has in civil society. He says –
Politics, the crooked timber of our communal lives, dominates everything because, in the end, everything – high and low and, most especially, high – lives or dies by politics. You can have the most advanced and efflorescent of cultures. Get your politics wrong, however, and everything stands to be swept away. This is not ancient history. This is Germany 1933… Politics is the moat, the walls, beyond which lie the barbarians. Fail to keep them at bay, and everything burns.
Casting an informed vote in a democracy is the most sacrosanct act of its citizens. However, an uninformed vote is the destructive bane of democracies, and doubly so. First, it removes the voter’s best counsel from the voting pool; second, it may nullify an informed vote and the effort that went into its development.
From all this we can conclude that being engaged in or at least constantly aware of the political happenings in our country is the duty of every free citizen who desires to remain so. Delving into things political and formulating your own structured belief system or ideology is part and parcel of your job as a member of a people that can rule itself.
If you don’t know the issues, the public policies in question, and think that a few sound bites just before an election will inform you sufficiently, then consider doing yourself and your neighbors a big favor, and please stay out of the voting booth.
My name is Rebane, and I also expand on this and related themes on NCTV and georgerebane.com where the transcript of this commentary is posted with relevant links, and where such issues are debated extensively. However my views are not necessarily shared by KVMR. Thank you for listening.
rebanesruminations.com 
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