It Matters
Before my daughter was born, I taught at a school fairly close to my house. In fact, it was my alma mater’s rival school. The principal there used a cool slogan he wanted everyone to memorize. It was easy enough. “It matters” was that slogan. It matters was a way to tell us that everything we do matters. There is nothing too insignificant to get attention. Every detail must be important.
The problem there is that he was absolutely wrong. It really is no surprise. I did not last on that campus and neither did he as it turns out. However, it took years for me to discover that. If everything matters then nothing really matters. Such a statement is kind of a paradox, but if you game it all out then it starts to make perfect sense. You can’t focus on everything because if you focus on everything then nothing gets done.
I had a golf swing instructor basically tell me the same thing as a kid. I couldn’t possibly think about everything while swinging. I had to focus on one or two things and do the best I could. It’s the same for basketball players shooting free throws, hitters at the plate, and kickers about to make the winning kick in a football game. If you bog yourself down with too many thoughts you’ll fail every time.
The worst thing we tell children is that something matters when it really doesn’t. In the case of our campus it is dress code. It really doesn’t matter. We have kids showing skin in all kinds of places we never would have dreamed of doing. We have boys with full beards and students with visible tattoos. These things are all against the dress code, but we have collectively decided that it just doesn’t matter. We never said as much, but our actions (or lack of action) indicate that it doesn’t matter. The worst thing we could do is tell kids that it does and let them learn quickly that it doesn’t. Just let it go.
We bring all this up to show how much of an uphill climb progressives have. We care about a lot of things. We care about gun control. We care about the environment. We care about fair elections. We care about education. We care about the wealth gap and making sure everyone has a fair shot. We care about black lives. We care about LGTBQ+ rights. We care about women’s rights. We care about health care and our access to it. We care about all of these things and more.
What we run into are people that have either figured out that it all can’t matter or they just don’t care about all of those things. They care about one or two things. They want to keep their guns. They want to make abortion illegal. They want to make sure girls are the only ones playing girls sports. Each of those things have a dedicated group of their own that are always there to scream their point of view. The rest of us scream for a week or two and then shift to one of those other issues. We switch when something happens that outrages us and pulls our attention from the other things. So, our opponents just have to wait us out.
We must be more organized. We must manage our forces a little more wisely. In short, we have to forget the idea that it all matters. Yes, it all matters. However, we can’t have everyone focused on an issue for a week or two. We have to have fewer people dedicated to an issue all the time. We need others dedicated to those other issues. If we apply constant pressure across the board then we have a chance to get movement on these things. That’s what the other side is doing. They either figured that out a long time ago or they literally only care about their guns, abortion, or the other stuff.
I disagree–sort of. Of course, all those causes matter to liberals. Things that affect people, whether individually or collectively, matter to liberals. But we can’t keep up with all of them, so we need to pick a couple–or as many as we can comfortably manage–and concentrate HARD on them. It’s what Republicans do, and it works.
Because people differ, so do their interests. If we’re lucky, we will have all the bases covered by people who focus their energies on what needs to be done in their sphere. It’s certainly better than trying to do it all, and burning out.
1But that’s EXACTLY what I was saying.
2So the question becomes, what issues do we focus on and how to get those whose main complaint is not prioritized to follow suit? And who decides?
It is the progressive conundrum.
3This may sound too simple but why not copy in principle what works; ie, all repubs concentrating on several, 3 or4, topics and not spreading themselves out too thinly with too many areas as suggested Dems do and then hammer away with a simpler, honest language easily understood by the less educated, sophisticated?
4Yes, have a program for the higher level Dems. And yes, this sounds elitist but how else would should this be described. Isn’t what the repubs are doing a sort of elitist in reverse? Cuing dum-de-dum-dum
“They want to make sure girls are the only ones playing girls sports.”
5Girls ARE the only ones playing girls’ sports.
Jeez, Nick.
MSB,
I know that. I guess I should have put air quotes around it.
Old but Slow,
It’s not that we stop caring about issues collectively. It’s that each of us chooses two or three at most to care deeply about. The gun lobby isn’t that big. There aren’t THAT many gun nuts. What there are are dedicated thousands that constantly barrage their politicians. We can do that. It just means some of us have to dedicate ourselves to that. Others can pick another issue to focus on. Therefore, all of our issues get focused on by different people.
In many instances we are a victim of our own intelligence. Intelligent people can recognize a number of issues at the same time. The trouble is that fervor just doesn’t stick because it’s spread too thin. It’s almost like watching young kids play soccer. People call it beehive soccer because they all clump around the ball. That’s what our collective political strategy seems to be. We all clump around the ball. Something happens and the ball moves. We all move with it. No one stays behind to make sure that thing (whatever it is) was done.
6I agree, Nick. I also think democrats need to better describe priorities without stepping in it. I knew the minute democrats started talking defund the police, that was the wrong way to couch police reform. Can’t do those things because they come back to bite us in the ass.
7Republicans have an advantage in dealing with their voters because the truth doesn’t matter and hate sells. Democrats can’t function that way.
No is also a much easier message to convey. Health care reform was really insurance reform for instance. Defunding the police is a perfect example. Ironically, the Uvalde tragedy provided us with more opportunities on that front than George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, or any other victim of police brutality. Failing to protect sells a lot more than civil rights abuses.
8The democrats need a Frank Luntz. I’m beginning think a Karl Rove clone paid for the Defund the Police slogan. It will be used to beat progressives over the head for the next 30 years. Just like they funded the Green party campaign for ballot access. My neighbor was a precinct chair for the Republican party. Every morning she got the daily talking points from the national republicans. The exact same thing everybody in congress got. That’s how they stay on message.
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