Politics Isn't A Game
On This Piece
Treating politics like a competition — with winners, losers, and fans in the stands — distorts what's actually at stake. Unlike chess, winning in politics doesn't end anything. Policies get implemented, and everyone lives with the results regardless of which side they were on. This piece argues that the spectator mindset isn't just intellectually lazy — it's a failure to recognize that there are no spectators.
People talk about politics like it's a horse race. Like someone wins and someone loses but that's not actually how it works. In chess winning ends the game in politics, winning just means one solution gets chosen over another, if any solution gets chosen at all. And then everyone has to live with the result. There are no spectators. There are no separate teams. If the policy works, we all benefit. If it fails, we all pay. That's what self-government actually means. So when politics gets treated like pure competition, people forget the most important part. Your opponent isn't your enemy because we all live with the consequences together.