On political therapy
I'm not going to make you feel better, but getting involved might
In the lead-up to and aftermath of the 2016 presidential election, several friends approached me, at least semi-seriously, about the idea of offering political therapy for people freaked out by that election. In candor, I was kind of irked by these suggestions — I’m not trained as a therapist, nor did I think that the 2016 election was something I was supposed to make people feel better about. But with yet another election cycle feeling so close and intense and potentially apocalyptic (and with a bit more exposure to therapy under my belt), I want to offer a few thoughts on this.
There’s a key exchange in the film “Rogue One,” where radical rebel leader Saw Gerrera is disappointed by the apathy of his former ward, Jyn Erso:
Gerrera: “You can stand to see the Imperial flag reign across the galaxy?”
Erso: “It’s not a problem if you don’t look up.”
This succinctly captures a great deal about the challenges of political activism. If you think your ability to affect political outcomes is essentially zero, or that your life will just be vaguely tolerable crap no matter who wins, it is possible to simply tune out.
And this is not a crazy thing to do. Political scientists apply the term “rational ignorance” to people who could learn more about politics but simply choose not to because it doesn’t interest them and they think (not unwisely) that their ability to change it is minimal. But yes, there’s a good deal of privilege that goes along with that. If you think you’ll basically be okay no matter who wins, there’s a good chance you’re a straight white guy with a U.S. passport and a bit of money, and you’re probably not a journalist, educator, or abortion provider. For others, the consequences of the election may be more profound and personal, even if the ability to affect the outcome is similarly small.
People who desire some sort of election therapy seem to generally believe that following politics was once easier and even more fun. And again, this isn’t completely wrong. There are a few things going on here.
For one, polarization, while not the perfect framework for understanding politics right now, is nonetheless a real thing. Democrats and Republicans advocate for far more different policies and have more different world views and social identities than at almost any time in the past, and that means elections have considerably greater consequences than they used to.
Second, Donald Trump and his brand of conservative populism add to the election consequences because of his demonstrated hostility to democratic norms and processes. Trump is already claiming fraud and is already promoting threats to election workers and Harris supporters. In the event of his loss (and probably his victory, too), he will be promoting widespread conspiracy theories about illegal voters, and he’s shown us that he would rather organize political violence to try to take office on a technicality than concede a loss, and that he believes he can do this with impunity. And the political and judicial system have overwhelmingly failed to disabuse him of these beliefs. So, yes, it’s not a mistake to see democracy as being on the ballot.
Third, each of us is carrying a glass and metal device in our pocket that lets us know every insane thing that happens in the world all day long. That is an important distinction from the past. I can assure you that, say, the 1988 presidential election was important, it was competitive, it featured candidates with distinctly different world views, and there were plenty of important and chaotic things going on in the world. Just in the summer of 1988, there was:
an earthquake in India that killed over 1,000 people
the space shuttle’s reactivation following a hiatus after the Challenger explosion
the US government apologizing for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and offering reparations
the US Navy shooting down an Iranian passenger plane, killing 290 civilians
These are big stories! And that’s besides the George H.W. Bush campaign using overtly racist campaign rhetoric to go after Michael Dukakis!
People following the news knew about all these things, but they didn’t have constant updates on them pinging in their pockets all day long, they weren’t watching streaming videos of all these things on a loop, they weren’t reading tweets by Lee Atwater or watching Lloyd Bentsen do TikTok dances with INXS, etc. You basically learned about things when you read about them in your morning newspaper or on the evening TV news, or maybe from a casual water cooler conversation at work. That doesn’t mean that world was better. And there’s an argument to be made that if you can get more current news today at little cost, you have a responsibility to do it and be as informed as you can be. But the overall effect of this is to fray our nerves.
So that’s the nature of our political environment right now. Being frazzled and overwhelmed is a perfectly rational response to being informed in this environment. But feeling overwhelmed is a form of feeling helpless. And honestly, you’re not.
One thing I do not recommend, echoing what Ezra Klein says here, is digging even more and more into existing polls. You are not going to learn anything more there. Yes, you could cherry-pick some polls or learn some great new talking points about why a poll you don’t like is bad or something, but all you need to know is that this election is extremely close and stable, the polls are likely off by a point or two either in the Democratic or Republican direction, and you won’t know which way or by how much until Election Day. You can dig into the polls further, but madness lies this way.
As I stated earlier, it’s not my job to make people feel better about U.S. politics. But there are ways of turning helplessness into action. Becoming active, even if just for a few hours a week, can be very helpful for our psyches while actually affecting the political world. Just a few things you can do:
Door-to-door canvasing for a candidate you like
Phone-banking or letter-writing for a campaign
General volunteer office work for a campaign
Working as an election judge or poll worker for your county or state elections board, helping people to vote
Attending meetings and talks hosted by your local party, a nearby university, the League of Women Voters, or some other politically interested organization, and asking lots of questions
Doing this sort of work is not only good at overcoming helplessness — it actually does some material good for democracy and the causes you care about. Please consider it! And be kind to yourself.