Political Civilian

So we have a problem with our politics. Unlike the more popularly diagnosed issues like “gridlock”, “tribalism”, “populism” and “Trump”, the problem I like to focus on is how - exactly - we interact with our politics.The vast majority of us - around 99% of us - are not journalists, activists, lawyers, academics, or political obsessives. And we shouldn’t have to be to successfully navigate a system that is - in theory - owned by its citizens. We are just political civilians. But our current system isn’t set up to deal with that. We have to fit a mold. If we are to be journalists, we have to be objective and see “all sides”, often at the expense of truth. Academics demand precise attention to detail, history, and data to a degree that often ignores the imperfections of the world. If you’re an activist, party and / or policy fealty is demanded by most activist groups. And our system is so complex that lawyers and other specialists can build whole careers based on being experts one or