Some like to say that politics are too painful to get involved with. And that may be true as regards those who aren’t actually working in it. So we don’t discuss it around friends and family. But it COULD be done. And in the actual work of politics it is done all the time and in awesome professional fashion by many. It works. It makes things work. So there’s no need to be ashamed about it or even to avoid it in actuality. Really, only the jawing about it is where the annoyance comes in.
Indeed, talking about politics isn’t doing politics. Talk is easily trouble. Doing politics is procedural and doesn’t have to be problematic. In reality, politics is work, it’s about elbow grease. Most importantly, about GOODWILL.
Go to a city council meeting or other govt meeting and you may well be impressed.
Civics is real. Maybe we get frustrated because we forget the basics or haven’t seen or recognized them in awhile. But it starts with goodwill and rests on goodwill. Next is process. There are definite steps. And none can be skipped. It’s called Robert’s Rules. Use em and be amazed.
Doesn’t any occupation require goodwill and process?
Maybe whiners, kvetchers and the peanut gallery are willing to violate goodwill and suffer the consequences, but practitioners of any trade or profession need goodwill.
In some eras citizens rise to it as well. They imitate their leaders — of whatever stripe, some elected, some economic or cultural or recreational.
Ron Puhek recently reminded me in an essay he wrote that there are 3 steps required in a democratic society, in descending order of dignity, all requiring goodwill: #1 — teamwork of opponents who together craft policy better than either side could alone; #2 — opponents who compromise to come up with something workable that all can accept; #3 — opponents who vote and let majority decide and of course the majority must behave w goodwill to not poison the well.
If we have goodwill and follow Robert’s Rules and hew to the Three Steps, we can’t go wrong.
