Politics Isn't a Spectator Sport
David Bernell Politics isn't a spectator sport, and you're in the game whether you like it or not, and regardless of whether you want to be in it. People tune out politics all the time. That's understandable. People get turned off by politics. That's not surprising. When things work -- the Social Security check arrives, the garbage gets picked up -- people tend not to focus on politics. That sounds about right. People say politics doesn't concern them. That, however, is flat out wrong. Politics sets the contours and rules for how our lives operate, and it affects things big and small. Whether we have elections or dictatorships, market economies or command economies, Jim Crow laws or the Civil Rights Act. It impacts the local schools, what they teach, how much money they have. Politics impacts the availability of electricity and how much it costs, the existence and the condition of city streets and highways, the functioning of stock m...