America's Most Misunderstood Word

Politics may be the most misunderstood word in the American language.

This is deliberate, part of the fall-out from the Nixon Thesis of Conflict. (Its original pitchman, Spiro Agnew, is shown at right.)

When President Bush or any conservative uses the word, it's usually in the past dismissive tense. Congress is "playing politics" with Alberto Gonzalez, or the war in Iraq, or immigration. The idea is that politics is, per se, a bad thing, and that if we can just set politics aside we'll all do what's best for the country, namely what the person pushing the accusation of politicswants done.

When Democrats use the word, it's usually to connote discussion of some policy they find important. The Bush criticisms, in this sense, are true. Democrats use the word politics to describe any dissent from a policy they don't like. Republicans don't like the dissenting point, hence it's politics, hence bad. 

Because "official Washington" is so overwhelmingly Republican -- everyone there believes in the Nixon Thesis, they assume its truth (even if they lean against it), they feel its power (even if they oppose it) -- this definition of the word politics is internalized. I think this is really at the heart of the frustration bloggers like Atrios have with what they call "high Broderism."

In this definition key questions, like war, are supposed to be taken out of politics. Elites are supposed to find common ground, no matter what they tell the voters, so the country can move forward. The "real" political spectrum extends from the Democratic Leadership Council on the left to Richard Viguerie on the right.

This is not entirely irrational. There have been only two Democratic Presidents in the last 40 years. Both of them ran to the right of their party to gain nomination. Bill Clinton, who ruled to the right of his party (the "Third Way"), was somewhat successful. Jimmy Carter, who eventually embraced (and came to embody) liberal values in the Nixon-Reagan Era, was beaten soundly. Every other President, since 1968, has been a Republican, a self-styled conservative Republican. Thus the "Third Way" becomes the practical definition of liberal (it's what has won), while anything on the right becomes a practical definition of conservative (since that's what usually wins).

The whole concept of the Netroots, the whole idea behind the Dean campaign, is that "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party" is the majority view of the party, and that this wing can indeed take power, by confronting the Nixon Thesis (Edwards), or by ignoring it in favor of something new (Obama). To many Democrats, Hillary Clinton is the right-winger in their race. To conservatives, she's the face of the left.

But there is a far more important definition of the word politics. It is the unwritten definition, the working definition of both those in power and those who support them.

Everything is politics.

• Sports is politics. Which sports you prefer, how you view the participants, even who you root for, these are all political decisions by which others judge you.
• Entertainment is politics. The content of movies is politics. The money flows are politics. The views of those in the industry are politics. Our view of what constitutes entertainment is politics.
• Education is politics. What we teach, how we teach it, these are all political questions, defined politically in both the public and private sphere.
• Science is politics. Science is subject to political argument, and political tests.
• Lifestyle is politics. Not just your sex life, but everything about how you live your life is politics. What you drive is politics, where you live is politics.
• Religion is politics. This goes far beyond the idea that religious ideals may fuel your political view. Religion is supposed to define your political view, not just generally but in every particular.
• Business is politics. Not just in obvious ways, or in terms of government contracts, but in terms of policies that should be non-political.
• Journalism is politics. What's defined as news, and how that news is reported, is intensely political, and nothing but political.
• Justice is politics.  Who we prosecute, and whether they are convicted, is inherently political. Law is just politics by other means. Legal decisions are all subject to political tests.
• Politics is war. No, not war is politics. But politics itself is a form of warfare. And all's fair in war.

  This hidden, false definition of politics has kept most people, throughout this decade, from seeing through to the dirty heart of the Bush Administration. Somehow good will was assumed, to institutions which the Bush people (and their supporters) held in nothing but contempt.

The definition of politics is politics.

This has been the secret heart of our political life under the Nixon Thesis of conflict for nearly 40 years. Everything is a zero-sum game, friends to be benefited, enemies to be destroyed.  There is no place "outside" politics -- music, film, TV, business, a game, the classroom, a science experiment -- nothing. Everything can be politically argued, decided politically, defined politically.

So long as people who believe this are able to gain adherents, not just a majority (as they have these 40 years) but any significant minority, it is this definition of politics we should assume to be true, and this definition of politics that liberals better get their heads around if they ever want to overcome the Nixon Thesis.

In fact, the greatest triumph of the Netroots is just this. Not the people it's elected, or the money it's raised. People who get a steady diet of Netroot bloggers are also getting this message drilled into them, sometimes openly, other times subliminally. Everything is politics, so in everything you do get in their face, recognize your enemies, and be ready to rumble.

That's how they roll, and that's how we must if we're to take our country back.