That’s me in the corner

[madbaker]

It's been interesting debating politics with scendan, as our views differ on a number of subjects (although by no means all). It made me think last night, and I'm undoubtedly not the first to come up with the following analogy:

 Politics as Religion

I don't mean born-again Christians voting for Bush or Jews for Kerry. It's more the sense of "I'm a registered x, and my party’s beliefs are the One True Way." People can't compromise or persuade each other to change their views, because the party line came from On High. Politics today is a matter of faith, not reason - it is not subject to debate.

Moreover, because the other side is Heretical, any method of vanquishing them is justified. A fairly obvious example of this is the Texas Republicans re-districting to brazenly grab more Congressional seats, and the Democrats' craven response of fleeing rather than engaging in actual debate. More obvious yet was Florida in the last election. It's not enough to win; it is vital to win by enough to meet what I'll call the "margin of litigation". Both sides will swoop down on any hint of real or imagined impropriety to harangue for their candidate, because the Defense of the Faith warrants anything up to and including jihad and suicide bombers - metaphorically speaking. So far at least. (I'm not picking on Islam here, so feel free to substitute "crusade" and "Kill them all, let God sort them out".)

Where do I stand among all this? Let's twist the wheel on this analogy's torture rack further. In a nation of Christians and Muslims, I'm a Zen Zoroastrian. I share some principles with all but all with none. As the True Believers slaughter each other in the name of their True Deity, I stand on the sidelines shaking my head sadly at the stupidity of it all.

I'm honest enough to admit that if a party suddenly converted to my views, though, I'd probably be cheering on the ensuing auto-da-fe with the rest of the crowd.

Comments

[albionwood.livejournal.com]

Now this time, I think you are spot-on! For example, many people do not question their religious leaders, even if close examination would show that they do not live up to their creed. They remain faithful. Likewise with political parties - witness the Republicans sticking with Bush despite his betrayal of nearly all their professed ideals. Democrats similarly stuck with Clinton despite his betrayals; although it is worth noting that many lefties did in fact abandon the Democratic Party in the 2000 election - that's how we got W. I don't see any prominent Conservatives mounting third-party campaigns or advocating against Bush (as Liberals did to Gore in 2000). So I'd say that Republicans have more "blind faith" in their party than do Democrats, in general, though the analogy certainly holds for all sides.