Get Off Your F**king Hobby Horse...and VOTE

So I heard an interesting piece on NPR the other day about “political hobbyism.” It was an interview with political scientist Eitan Hersh, who argues that all too many people become involved with politics as if it were a game. They are eager to post to social media. They never miss an episode of The Daily Show. They exchange snarky images on Instagram. They bash one another for being insufficiently committed. They consider themselves politically active.

But there’s the rub. They don’t do anything else. They don’t volunteer to work for candidates for local office. They don’t talk to people with opposing views, and try to convert them. They don’t build coalitions. They don’t try to get people to the polls. They may not even vote.

And that’s really scary. Because it doesn’t matter how pure your opinions may be, or how often you post to Facebook, or how much you laugh at the witticisms of late show TV hosts...if you’re not voting, and you’re not getting other people to vote, you’re just not doing anything. You might as well be working for the other side. In fact, passively, you are.

So, please...

Keep watching John Oliver and Trevor Noah. Keep posting to social media. Keep exchanging witty memes on Instagram. Keep on debating one another. But...for Heaven’s sake, for the nation’s sake, and for your own sake...

Get out there and work. Do something for a local campaign, even if it is only donating a few bucks or a little time. See if your irrational Trump-supporting Uncle might be brought over, even just a little, to the light side of the force. And most of all...

Vote.

This is not a drill. This is not a hobby. And it is not a game.

This is, alas, all too real. 

Stop Horsing Around

About me: I’m a writer and former journalist who has published material on everything from computers to the Jazz Age. (Among my small claims to fame is that I interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.)

Please check out my new book, Padre: To The Island, a meditation on mortality, grief, and joy, based on the lives and deaths of two of the most amazing and unconventional people I ever met, my mother and father.

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