A Lack of Patience

There are days when I want to tear out my hair and scales reading about some of the debates going on in American politics. I truly don't care how many angels can dance on the head of the pin and I have no interest in learning the answer, either.

Likewise, I don't want to pretend that a partisan attack is not a partisan attack, and I don't want to write a piece which highlights only the good sides of some policy prescription or only its bad sides, just because that would be good for the side I'm mostly with. Don't. Want. To.

I'm also not interested in writing gossip about politicians and so much of what goes on under the label of "political punditry" is all about gossip and stuff like the hairstyles or clothing choices or avancularity of politicians. All that makes me gag.

In fact, the majority of political writing would be called gossip if it was largely us women who did it. It's all about celebrities, the politicians, and their doings and sayings. That is gossip.

The natural conclusion to draw is that I don't seem to like political writing, and that is probably somewhat true if the definitions are drawn tightly enough. But I see politics as a much wider thing, alive and teeming with both beautiful and ghastly things and ultimately of importance to the ordinary lives of ordinary people, and I think that there is some space for writing like that to be included in political writing.

Ok. I come across as an insufferable prig in this post. So be it.