I played baseball when I was a kid and I feel like it has an innocent quality to it that other sports lack. It doesn’t have the violence of football or hockey and it is more pastoral than basketball. Players wear hats, button up shirts and belts. Excessive rudeness will result in your ejection from the game. Then there is the whole “America’s Pastime” thing, and yes I did watch all 20 hours of “Ken Burn’s Baseball”. I was never good at baseball but it is still a pocket of warmth in my mind.
Maybe that is why the shooting of Steve Scalise in Virginia on Wednesday made me feel extra nauseas. Outfield grass should not have a trail of blood on it. If one of his fellow Congressman at the practice had not been a physician and acted quickly to stem his blood loss, Steve Scalise might be dead. The annual Congressional baseball game is a silly ritual, but in fractured times like these, sometimes it is only the silly rituals that allow for bipartisanship. If Steve Scalise dies (he is still in critical condition as of this writing) the shadow of his murder will hang over this silly ritual for years to come.
In the wake of this shooting people will point fingers at whatever disease they think is eroding our republic, whether it is gun culture or “assassination porn”. But those are only symptoms, not the true disease. The real disease the failure of the American voter to open their minds and be willing to be wrong. Our politics has become a game where winning and losing takes precedence over cooperating to discover the truths that apply to all of us. The way that Americans talk to and about each other has become so saturated with bitterness and the need for catharsis over agreement that some people feel like they can’t get their point across at less than 2700 fps. In cities, street protest turn violent. In rural areas, heavily armed men practice for the end of the world and occasionally seize a government building.
We cannot blame politicians, or big business or the media (in all its flavors) before we blame ourselves. We cannot blame them because they are us. We elect the politicians, demand products and then buy them, and consume the media that stimulates us like a child with candy. None of the things we bitch about will change until we do.
This requires that people learn about issues not just as bullet points on the website they have as their homepage, but with the kind of depth that takes time and effort. Instead of spending all Saturday binging The Handmaid’s Tale, take a break halfway through to play with a federal budge calculator. If you are a Fox News junkie, try actually reading the Trans-Pacific Partnership and NAFTA before deriding them as the dumbest agreements in history. It’s probably too much to ask that people make friends across the political spectrum, but the next time you are in a group of like-minded individuals, don’t be afraid to be a contrarian! That is how arguments are supposed to make us stronger. Debate should be a collaborative effort to uncover the truth. A person should not feel humiliated when their original position is proven wrong. They should feel enlightened.
Many of the issues that face us are almost impossibly complicated and we should be cautious about making categorical statements in loud, confident voices. Temper your views with a healthy dose of agnosticism.
Bring these views into your local politics. Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican you should support candidates that speak to you like an adult and are humble. Most importantly, you need to tell them that it is okay to COMPROMISE. They will not do it unless they feel supported. Remember that they are an extension of you. Your representative will do whatever you tell them to as long as they think it will get them elected.
I confess that I myself have not done this. I have never caucused with a political party, happily calling myself an independent and therefore above the fray of such petty politics. It is a trend in American politics for people to no longer affiliate with political parties, but this is a mistake. It has left only the most passionate and partisan individuals to select candidates in caucuses and primaries. You can rest assured that I will being participating in the next caucus and casting my vote for the most moderate motherfucker on the ballot.
The alternative, after all, is this:
