We live in a society today that is utterly consumed with politics.  Not just the action of politics, that is the passing of legislation, judicial appointments, and of course elections, but a culture of politics.  American culture is extraordinarily political, in that every facet of life is dominated by some politician’s stupid remarks or the left’s fulmination at President Trump’s latest remarks or a moderately conservative policy proposal. 

Traditional media, social media, and every day conversation is perpetually speckled with one thing, politics.  When scrolling through Facebook you’d far likelier see a political message than a cousin’s 50th birthday post.  Today, the left believes that government is the only solution to life’s problems.  Such a conviction is the product of a secular, Godless culture that places more emphasis on government intervention than personal initiative or private achievement.  Political idolatry is the product of leftist culture and conservatives shouldn’t buy into it.  

Politics isn’t religion.  Meaning, politics shouldn’t become an all-consuming endeavor in life.  Religion is something toward which one dedicates one’s entire being.  A Christian, for example, after entering the faith, dedicates his or her life to the service of Christ and follows Christ-like ideals.  Too many people in our secular culture replace Christianity, or religion more broadly, with politics.  When God is removed from the equation, something must fill that void, and for many people that is politics.  It is their “something greater” than themselves.  This isn’t an argument to stop fighting for what is right or to stop improving one’s community but it is an argument to recognize the vastness of American life and possibilities outside of the political arena.

This is an argument from someone who loves politics and finds it to be a worthwhile career choice.  This is also the argument from someone who recognizes that there are bigger things in this world than what happens in Washington, DC.  Never stop studying the founding philosophies of this country. Never give into leftist ideologies. Never stop improving your community.  Always be patriotic and always believe in your country.  

While this may all seem like advocacy for more politics it is not.  These activities can all be carried out without an obsession for the political process.  Consider the reactions from conservatives during the 2020 election.  The possibility of a Joe Biden presidency was always present but Conservatives and Republicans never lost their minds over this prospect.  Sure, true conservatives and Republicans will be disappointed if a Biden-Harris Administration comes to fruition, but they won’t be devastated, or physically cry, or rant on social media channels.  And they certainly won’t burn down any cities.

But a leftist can’t relate to this sentiment.  For a leftist, political losses are moral losses and electoral setbacks are personal infringements.  If you told leftists to consider a smaller role for politics in their lives, they’d accuse you of speaking from a place of “privilege.”  Never mind that they too are probably speaking from a place of “privilege.”  Leftists would say that their existence is dependent upon politics and the only way to secure a better future for themselves is through the political system.  Such an outlook, that government is your savior, is bleak and heartbreaking in the least.  This is a view that government is the answer to life’s problems.  The endorsement of this mindset is seen when nearly 55 percent of Americans believe that government should solve more problems in this country.

 A conservative shouldn’t think like this.  Yet, conservatives inadvertently buy into this argument when their existence is more resemblant of an obsessive, leftist political caricature than simply someone dedicated to making their country a better place.  When President Reagan said  “government is the problem” he was right.

We can work for a better country and be informed on the issues without being consumed by what inconsequential thing the government is doing or what a blue-check-marked talking head has to say.  Such a deep devotion is religion.  Politics shouldn’t replace God, but for those who see politics as religion, politics is their god.

This isn’t an argument for apathy, rather it is an argument for informed recognition that the left has created a worldview of government-based thinking.  Recognize that the left has lied to us all and we have bought those lies as truth.  Never stop fighting the political fight but also realize that other fights exist outside of politics. Let us be better than the left and let us live our lives without constantly fretting about the bureaucratic structures of Washington DC. 

When Donald Trump won the 2016 election the left instantly became “the resistance.” Always fight as patriots, but let us not waste our time creating a persona of resistance.  As conservatives, we know we disagree with Biden, and we’ll make that clear in 2022 and 2024 and every other local election in between. Instead, let’s just live our lives. We know who we are and we know what we believe.  Drink some coffee, read your bible, grow a garden, or write a 500-page exposition on the decline of western civilization.  Do anything but buy into the leftist narrative that government and politics is the only thing that holds value in this life.

I encourage you all to become an apostate of the leftist religion of politics and government.

Image credit: Picpedia Creative Commons 3 - CC BY-SA 3.0

Andrew Cunningham is a published author and a Senior at the University of Illinois, Springfield.  Follow his writings at RoundTable Red.