​It's never just politics

With the presidential election less than a week away, it may seem that politics has completely inundated our lives from social media to dinner discussions. Beneath the supposedly lively debates over the merits of our presidential candidates as well as the caustic vilification of them, however, lies a disturbing trend toward the depoliticization of politics from political outcome. The idea that people can separate themselves and their lives from political outcome has led to a superficial participation in the democratic process that ignores a greater political responsibility beyond just voting.

Especially since many Duke students vote in North Carolina after growing up in other areas of the country, it can be easy for us to treat politics as just a quadrennial intellectual exercise in the democratic system. For students who reside in the Duke bubble, North Carolinian politics in particular can seemingly not affect them. Meanwhile, just outside the walls of our campus, each of our votes has direct, immediate impact on immigrant workers, welfare recipients and the LGBTQ community who have much more at stake in this election.

The trend towards de-politicizing politics ostensibly is a product of our present political climate where politics taken on the characteristics of a spectator sport. With the rise of social media and number-centered politics projects like FiveThirtyEight and the New York Times election projections, the election has been treated by many as a horse race rather than a legitimate democratic process. This de-politicization has been particularly exacerbated in this election with the widespread media’s focus on Donald Trump’s lewd and derogatory parlance rather than his actual politics. Meanwhile, legitimate political discussion on welfare reform and gender equality has been mostly cast aside.

As voters, we also contribute to this de-politicization by often choosing only to participate in the American democratic system during election time before returning to a four-year dormant state of political apathy. Politics itself, however, does not cease to exist between elections. Each of our votes has direct and indirect consequences long term. De-politicizing oneself from politics can prove to be an easy way out of political responsibility for some, with the end goal being to vote rather than furthering a democratic outcome or goal through one’s vote. Simply voting and disengaging from politics after each presidential election ignores the greater responsibility of further political participation and discussion required by an active electorate.

Political opinions exist outside the vacuum and hypotheticals in which we discuss them. Individuals are charged with the responsibility with not only choosing representatives every two or four years, but also forming and expressing informed opinions on a wide range of political issues. When we choose to weigh our fiscal preferences over our social values, or vice versa, we make a statement. Each candidate we support, each issue we lobby for and each vote we cast are a reflection of what we stand for and who we are. The political process neither begins nor ends with a vote.

Putting “politics” back into politics requires that voters actively weigh in on pressing, relevant issues independent of party ideology, and casting one’s vote accordingly. Moreover, political process should not be treated as a quadrennial exercise, but should be acted upon by voters as a continuous yearlong discussion and democratic engagement to affect change. Merely casting one’s vote and de-politicizing oneself from the greater democratic processes is not enough. The vote should be the means, not the end in the American democratic system.