Politics Is for Power

In many ways, this reads like a book about anxiety. When we are worried, we often fixate on problems about which there is little we can do. We ruminate on the worst things we can imagine, and most of us are good at imagining bad things. Our minds mistake thinking for action, believing that this sort of unproductive obsession is useful. It is not.

The same is true of politics for a certain sort of person. We're mostly white, well-educated, & comfortable, with few if any major problems in our lives. We harbor visions for better worlds (UBI! Healthcare! Housing!), but those visions are theoretical and we lack substantial theories of change for how to get there. At the same time, we are naturally afraid of democratic backsliding, the rise of fascism, hot war involving nuclear powers, and other terrifying threats. We listen to NPR, we read the paper of record, we understand the issues. And we conflate all of this for political action. It is not.

Political power is the group of people who will act with you on politics, accounting for how willing they are to take that action. The things you want people to do are the things which achieve your political aims — those visions for a better world. In a relatively-democratic system, voting with you is a common ask, and hopefully one which is not too onerous. Another more involved political tasks is working with you to build political power. In less-democractic systems, there's a whole lot more that might be needed.

For you, political action should be whatever builds political power. The sole measure of how effective your political actions are is how effectively they build your political power by aligning people with your cause and deepening their investment and willingness to act alongside you. Everything else is at best wasted effort. But many sorts of political hobbyism are worse because they feel like doing something without actually building power.

How do you build power? Many liberal thinky-types believe that you get people on your side by telling them about the issues in the marketplace of ideas and persuading them that your ideas are better. This is not an effective stragtegy. The "marketplace of ideas" doesn't exist, the airwaves are saturated, and few people are persuaded by abstract policy ideas (and those that are have already made up their minds — new evidence rarely persuades). Instead, there is exactly one core strategy for building power: community & mutual aid.

Connecting with and supporting those around you is how you persuade them that you are worthy of their time, attention, and support in return. Support can start as simply as just genuinely listening and connecting with someone's political opinions rather than pushing your own. But the true measure of support is material, much like the party organizations of old. Do you help people with their groceries, take care of their kids when needed, & support them when they get sick? Material mutual aid is what sticks. And real genuine mutual aid is a retail endeavor; there are no shortcuts.

The way to build power is not listening to NPR, it's community service. Community service is a political act, and it's the core of political power. Literally, directly, individually: reaching out to the people around you. Whether they're your neighborhood, your workplace, your school, or your congregation, and whether you speak face to face, call on the phone, write emails, or send letters. Connect with people. Listen to what they have to say. Learn what they need. And do what you can to meet their needs. This is the substrate of political power, now and forever. And it's much more rewarding than sitting on the couch doomscrolling.