In a recent speech, Michelle Obama stated, “I am sick of all the chaos and the nastiness of our politics.  It’s exhausting and, frankly, it’s depressing. I understand wanting to shut it all out.”  She said this at a rally to get out the vote for the upcoming elections.  Of course, when she is trying to encourage people to get out and vote, she is really saying she wants people to go out and vote for Democrats.

But I want to particularly focus on her statement about “the nastiness of our politics”.  She is correct that politics is quite nasty. She has insinuated at other times that the nastiness and divisiveness is coming from Trump and his hardcore supporters.

I think everyone has to be realistic and realize that the nastiness of politics didn’t start on November 8, 2016 when Trump was elected president, or on the day after the election.  It didn’t start when Trump took office in January 2017.  It didn’t start when Trump started running for president.

You could say that Trump’s election was a symptom of the divisiveness of politics.  Some people were tired of the status quo, and Trump was their option to revolt against the status quo.  Others chose Bernie Sanders.

There are probably almost as many Americans who couldn’t stand Obama during his time as president as there are Americans currently who can’t stand Trump.  The difference is that things were a lot quieter during the Obama years.  Sure, if you turned into conservative talk radio, or Fox News, or certain websites, then you could hear opposition to Obama.  But most of the establishment media sources did not oppose Obama in any meaningful way.

With Trump, it is non-stop opposition on almost everything.  It isn’t just the news shows either.  Stand-up comedy has been wrecked by Trump.  Or better stated, stand-up comedians have wrecked themselves with their Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS).  I can’t even tune into any of the late night shows any more.  And Saturday Night Live just ceases to be funny when any politics are involved.

Saturday Night Live has always made fun of presidents and other politicians.  But the show tried to at least have the appearance of being somewhat even-handed, and it was at least funny some of the time. When the show tries to make fun of Trump, it just comes across as overbearing and trying too hard to make him look bad.  Their number one priority has shifted from making people laugh to trying to make Trump look evil or like a buffoon.

Why Politics is Divisive

Politics has always been nasty and divisive.  That is because politics involves the obtainment of power.  It involves being able to use force or the threat of force against other people in order to tell them how to live their lives.

I’m sure you have had arguments over politics, whether it is with a friend or coworker, or with someone on Facebook.  Sometimes these arguments can be quite nasty.  Relationships have been broken due to disagreements over politics.

Unfortunately, this is largely because there is so much at stake.  Nearly everyone is trying to tell everyone else how they should live their life.  They are trying to dictate what they are allowed to earn, what they are allowed to keep, what they are allowed to put in their body, with whom they are allowed to associate, and with whom they are allowed to trade.

Think about other areas in your life that don’t involve government or the use of force. You might like to drink Coke. Your friend might like to drink Pepsi.  Another friend may prefer water over either of them.  You can all peacefully disagree.  You probably aren’t going to argue about it on Facebook.  If you do, it will likely be a friendly disagreement of personal taste and will not lead to any strain in relationships.  It is because there is no force involved. You can choose whatever option you want.  Your choice is not being imposed on you by your friends or anybody else.

Politics is nasty because people are vying for power that they want to use against others. Some may say they want the power just so that it is not used against them.  But this is rare, and when someone does gain the power, it becomes almost irresistible not to use it.

This is what happens when there is great power to be gained.  This is what happens when people look to use the violence of government instead of the peace of the marketplace.

The only answer to greatly reducing this nastiness and divisiveness is to drastically reduce the state power.  This means drastically reducing budgets.  This means drastically reducing the size and scope of government at all levels.

Given that we do live in a world of big government, we should be thankful that there is nastiness.  This means that we still have the ability to speak out and tell the truth.  We don’t want to live in a place where the nastiness is hidden.  This is a totalitarian society.  Perhaps there was little nastiness, at least on the surface, in places like the Soviet Union, Cuba, NAZI Germany, or today’s Venezuela.  For anyone who openly rebelled, it likely meant severe punishment, which could include death.  In terms of the freedom to speak against government, the United States is probably the best place to live on the planet.  I would rather nastiness than quiet being enforced at gunpoint.

Michelle Obama can talk about the nastiness of politics all she wants, but she and her husband are part of the problem.  They pursued power over others, so what should she expect?  When you force people to do things, some people aren’t going to like it.  She wants to silence these people.  Her version of getting rid of the nastiness isn’t reducing the power of the state.  Her version is silencing the opposition.