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What happens when you make politics your god

Politics Politics
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The Wall Street Journal recently published an article by Molly Ball entitled, “America Is Having a Panic Attack Over the Election,” in which she summarizes voter interviews and polling data analysis. Ball describes widespread, bipartisan anxiety about the presidential election, unprecedented in American political history. For example, according to a Wall Street Journal poll, “87% of voters … believe America will suffer permanent damage if their candidate loses.” About half the poll respondents said that they fear post-election violence, regardless of whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump wins the election.

Many people are stressed, not from fear that one or the other candidate will be elected, but rather because both candidates will wreak havoc on the nation. “I feel like I live in a country I don’t want to be in anymore,” lamented one person Ball interviewed. “There’s nobody good to vote for.” Another complained, “Honestly, I think we’re in trouble no matter what.” A third observed that in the past he had thought that “things would be OK regardless of the outcome,” but “that feeling is absent this time.” Exclaimed another, “It’s not just the presidency in question — the future of the country really is.”

Three different interviewees said they are resorting to intoxicants to cope with the stress. “There are not enough gummies I can take to soothe the angst,” exclaimed one person. Another said she was using “a lot of marijuana” to ease her anxiety. And it will take “a lot of Scotch” for one man to survive the “nerve-racking” final stretch of the election.

I do not gainsay any of these citizens’ apprehension about the election. It has been a stressful campaign, and I believe that neither candidate is morally, temperamentally or intellectually fit to be president of the United States. I have little hope that the body politic will be better after the election. That said, however, this unprecedented level of stress betrays a more fundamental pathology in American public life than this presidential race. The real problem is not the anxiety of this particular election, but rather a misplaced emphasis on the role of politics in our moral and spiritual lives.

Put not your trust in princes

In my recent book, “Citizens Yet Strangers,” I argue that we Americans — including Catholic Americans — tend to reduce the totality of our public lives to politics, and then further to reduce our politics to partisan loyalty. Party devotion informs and orders the totality of our lives. Put another way, we have made politics our god. This is, of course, the very definition of idolatry. Having made politics our god, the result is nothing short of cataclysmic when that god fails us. Thus, we experience existential dread, driving us to self-medication.

To be sure, we Catholics are obligated to participate in public life. As social beings, we have a proactive duty to be responsible citizens, with a concern for the well-being of other people and the nation more generally. But we should manifest this responsibility not through divisive politics, but rather through civic friendship. Civic obligation should not be equated with or reduced to partisan loyalty. Yet, the widespread panic about this election suggests that we have failed in our civic obligation by our obsessive devotion to politics, usually of a highly partisan sort.

“Put no trust in princes, in children of Adam powerless to save,” declares Psalm 146:3. “Who breathing his last returns to earth; that day all his planning comes to nothing” (Ps 146:4). In a couple of short sentences, the psalmist captures the spirit of our age. Yes, we should be conscientious about this and every election. And yes, we may have reason to be especially anxious about this presidential campaign. But one day the next president will breathe his or her last. And so will we. If our hope is in the feckless god of partisan political loyalty, all our handwringing will come to nothing. If this life is all there is, I suppose we have reason to put our trust in princes. But we Catholics should know better.