Who Belongs in Politics?

With Trump’s re-inauguration, I’m sure you’ll notice he’s offering his idea of who belongs in politics.

His answer is pretty simple. If you’re dirty, you belong in politics.

But there’s another answer. It’s one of the first things I learned from my Dad.

The microscope

In the summer of 1967, when I was 12, my Dad and I were in the lab at the hospital in Chillicothe, Ohio. He was a pediatrician and I was curious about what went on there; so he sat me down in front of a microscope, pulled out a slide of a bacterium we have all experienced in our lives, e. coli, and showed me how to insert it underneath the lens. I took a look. It was totally out of focus.

Then my Dad directed my attention to the side of the microscope. He showed me how to use the two knobs: one was the gross adjustment to get the bacteria almost in focus; the second, the fine adjustment, brought the image into sharp focus.

As we did this, my Dad and I kept talking politics, which we did almost every day. Politics was my preoccupation, just as my brother Marty talked with Dad daily about the Cincinnati Reds.

And Dad said to me: politics is like the microscope, except that politics doesn’t have a fine adjustment.

What did he mean? Some of the time, voters have incomplete or little knowledge about politics. For them, the political world is at least partially out of focus. So they might not vote. They might vote carelessly. They might misjudge who to trust. When they haven’t been paying attention—and if we haven’t helped them pay attention—they are easy to fool.

Sometimes acute political urgency gets voters’ attention

Take a moment to remember when politics has served the greater good, not just scoundrels.

From our parents and grandparents, we know what it was like to live in the 1930’s and 1940’s during the Depression. When the selfishness of a few brought financial ruin so widespread that no-one could miss it—when so many families’ literal survival was at stake—the country rose up in large numbers. They chose Franklin Delano Roosevelt and a Democratic Congress to stand up for them. The result was a remarkable safety net that protected millions of Americans who were never financially protected before. The safety net was never perfect, but it was an astonishing break from the past. Significant parts of it—Social Security, later Medicare and Medicaid, more recently Obamacare—work remarkably well today.

Sometimes our very best organizing efforts wake voters up

Further: in our own lives, and from our parents, we remember what America was like before the 1950’s and 1960’s, before the Civil Rights Movement. Though the Civil War had ended slavery 100 years earlier, in much of the country the change was more theory than practice. How could America have accepted signs saying “white only” for bathrooms, drinking fountains, swimming pools, buses, to help veterans go to college or a trade school, or get a mortgage to buy a house? “White-only” signs only came down when the Civil Rights Movement made the plight of Black Americans inescapable.

No question, too much prejudice remains, as do too many of its consequences, not the least of which are public schools that often serve Black children much less well than they should. But more of America began to know better than to believe in racial inferiority. We are better than we were.

Further: think about what you see with your own eyes every day, but perhaps take for granted. I live in L.A. and despite the current fires, the air is mostly healthy to breathe. In most American communities, the water is safe to drink. Neither would be the case without the federal government deciding to get serious and stay serious about the environment. Have we fallen short? Oh yes, just think about the extraordinary difficulty we have had recognizing and acting on climate change. It’s frustrating when government falls short; but it’s also a miracle how much government does right.

If politics is an out-of-focus microscope, how do we attach the missing knob?

58 years after my Dad offered me this idea, I am still looking for the perfect fine adjustment. But close to it is helping more people see the connection between “politics” and their daily lives. A situation doesn’t have to get as dire as The Depression or slavery for us to correct course if more of us are trying to make sense of events still partially out of focus.

Therefore, the key question for all of us is: what helps more people focus and connect the dots?

I think about how my Dad answered this question as he practiced medicine and went about his day-to-day life. He took the time to have a conversation with almost everyone he met. Not just about the superficial, but about how the world was stitched together, how most of us and most of the world is connected. It’s why he believed everyone counted, and why everyone was worth his time.

How do I answer this today for myself in the darkest political moment of my lifetime? It’s not so different. Like my dad, the right choice for me is to talk with more people more often about what’s going on: to listen; engage in dialogue; notice our connections to each other; learn from each other; and see if, together, we’ve deepened our understanding of our common situation.

Does this approach have a name?

You could call this activity visiting with another person.

But there is a term in politics for the specific activity of talking face-to-face with and connecting with others.

It is called “canvassing.”

You can warm up your canvassing skills today and every day by taking the time to talk with someone you might overlook. Listening to them. Not running away from politics if it comes up. Even initiating a discussion of politics once you have taken time first to listen to the other person respectfully. To connect before doing anything else.

Why am I discussing canvassing when perhaps you have frequently avoided doing it? Because just noticing that you can already do some version of it every day with people in your immediate environment may remind you that, when it comes to the question Who belongs in politics?, there are alternatives to Trump’s view.

Your answer could be “no-one” if you find you can’t talk with anyone, or get anyone to make any sense.

But think back over your life a little more fully. If you have ever had a satisfying conversation with anyone, then you may realize that “no-one” is the wrong answer. Trump is the wrong answer. Despair is the wrong answer. Constant irritation with other people’s ignorance is the wrong answer. Not reading the news is the wrong answer. Isolation is the wrong answer.

My Dad was kind enough to offer me at least one right answer, and I offer it to you as an inaugural day gift.

His answer: every day—truly, every day—look for the chance to listen and connect with people who care as much as you.

Because, to put it as plainly as my Dad: what if the right person to be in politics is you?