By Sosamma Samuel-Burnett, J.D.
Founder/President, G.L.O.B.A.L. Justice
Russia, Flynn, Comey, Mueller…just a few of the names in the latest string of political concerns for the President and for our country. Even before the recent media onslaught over whether classified information was shared with Russia, there has been contempt and indignation over the elections, appointments, interactions, and policy decisions not only of Donald Trump but other political leaders. Certainly Trump and others have given the media and the public many reasons for that contempt and indignation. But I would also argue that part of the responses to many of these political figures is less about what they do and more about what they represent. Where political leaders fall on the political spectrum affects how certain segments receive their actions or inactions. And, as politics has become increasingly polarized and divisive, political perspectives have brought politicians, the media, and the public to logger heads.
Politics is highly complex, and the views that people hold may be informed by a range of factors beyond facts, study, or experience. Our lens on politics has much to do with our narrative which in turn has much to do with how we translate what is happening politically. If we view the world from the Left or the Right or somewhere in between, we see politics and political leaders from those vantage points. It is not really a neutral place driven by the facts at hand. It’s usually a place where certain attitudes shape our perspectives. If the Left interacts with someone from the Right — they have assumptions about that person– and the Right also has similar assumptions about someone from the Left. As a result, we form opinions even before we see the fullness of the leader or the political issue. Opinions may be strong and even may be supported, but they don’t always determine outcomes or change politics — they just give us a view from which we make sense of what is or isn’t happening.
For most of my life, I have studied, taught, engaged in and been fascinated by politics. I have worked on political issues with a range of people in the political spectrum. And, I have always found politics to be a worthy calling. Nonetheless, many, if not most, people around me have made a point of saying how much they dislike or even “hate” politics. While I understand that the many issues we hear and see on the news and in social media can leave us with a negative view of politics and political leaders, I always found it perplexing that most of what people “hate” about politics is also prevalent in business, media, sports/entertainment, and many other sectors of society that aren’t hated.
People may like or dislike some aspect of other sectors, but they aren’t resoundingly bothered by those sectors in the way they are about politics. For example, sports and entertainment are rife with issues, but the viewership for those has only increased over time despite those issues. Same goes for media — no matter what anyone says about traditional and social media, most still engage in them. And while business has been a central sector or growth and development in our world, it has also been a central sector of corruption and greed and yet people generally don’t complain about business