The other kind of politics
I've been lucky, and this I freely admit, to work for Paul Wellstone and Howard Dean. I've seen politics that elevated discourse, raised hopes, empowered people and inspired future leaders. Apparently that's not good enough. I wonder about the folks I meet who insists that politics is a game, and it's about winning. I try to argue that politics wasn't a game, that it was about 'the improvement of people's lives' that it could be more than just a simple matter of determining outcomes, but that it could change the way that people saw themselves and their government. I guess I have to believe that. It is deadening for me to think that the majority of people who do what I do, and do it well think that it's a game. That's its an excuse to get paid for the rush of adrenaline. That winnning is the only thing, and the process by which that goal is achieved is not only justified, but irrelevant. That the only limitation should be legal. And that 'i play in the gray areas, oh yeah, I play in the gray areas, but I try and stay this side of the law.' Clearly a call to higher service. It's hard to think that some of my brothers in arms are just mercenaries.