#001 - Politics is Boring. Trust Me on This

Welcome to the podcast Change a Law. This is John Thibault, the founder and CEO of iLobby and the author of the book how to Change a Law, where we discuss politics, policy and, well, political persuasion because we want to empower voters to start thinking about changing laws. So join us. Politics is boring. Trust me on this. I hate politics. I don't understand Congress and I have no idea about who to vote for in the election. Well, that's what I used to say until the political gene turned on in my late 30s. For me, politics was boring and nobody cared. Congress was just a bunch of guys in Washington and they were going to do whatever they wanted to do anyway. Besides, it didn't affect me. So my position was I just vote for the candidate who seemed like a rock star and had the best curb appeal. The media and the party would make sure I picked the right one. But in 1990, I started a new job working in government affairs at MCA Universal. And things changed. On a daily basis we were dealing with public policy issues and I soon realized there were three words I had left out of my former simple political issues, resources and outcomes. So if you plug these three words in, the formula suddenly changes. Politics isn't boring, it's about issues. Congress isn't a bunch of faceless people. It's a machine for allocating resources and setting the rules. And elections aren't about celebrity stardom. Elections have outcomes. Once I understood that the election altered resource allocation and this affected the actual issues of my it became clear that Washington policy decisions transformed the political arena from a boring collection of stuffy politicians into a rich landscape of diverse human opinions struggling with complex problems and, well, many constituents. Why did MCA think politics was important? According to the LA Times, it was Lou Wasserman's bitter experience with that deal with the consent decree of 1959 that made him realize the importance of political clout, causing him to become a voracious fundraiser and student of the political scene. End quote. I must have picked up on this in the time we were in his office talking about our pack. When I was at mca, I realized the company had issues, but I did not. The company had resources. While I had few, MCA Universal desired legislative outcomes that would continue to protect and enhance their resources. Think copyright protection, anti piracy for music and film union issues, et cetera. For the company, elections were about supporting the politicians aligned with their issues. So we remain very close to world leaders, Congress and in fact, every administration since the Kennedy administration. You might say that large corporations have political interests they want to protect. And that's exactly right. But so do small businesses and individuals. So why are we so much less involved for individuals? You know, I think one key factor is a lack of resources. In a way, this goes back to the same political gene I mentioned earlier. Until you have something at stake, you don't really care. When you get married or you have children, or you start a small business or lose a division of your company, then you start paying attention. Big companies are paying attention all the time. That's why they have a dominant influence in Congress and they hire lobbyists to represent them. They have the discretionary resources, time, money, staff to allocate, focus their concerns and protect their interests. We shouldn't blame them for that. Otherwise we might not have the rich diversity of products and services we use every day at a price we are accustomed to. Yet as individuals, we believe we do not have sufficient resources. Therefore we don't engage in politics. We also mistakenly think the system is so corrupt or ineffective there is nothing we can do. So we resign ourselves to play a simple we vote in the general election because it requires the least effort on our part. Strange. We do the least and we expect the most, yet we condemn those who succeed. Still, we won't take part in the political arena. But if we could find a way to simplify politics, understand the issues that affect us, and muster collective resources, we might want to claim a bigger part in the game. We would have some control, autonomy and capacity, because that's what we need. That's what grassroots politics is all about. But somehow even that sounds boring. Why? Because it doesn't deal with my issue. So what is my issue? Well, first we need to ask how does this legislation affect me? And the answer is not it doesn't. The interesting thing is that while you may not care about politics, other people do. Your silence and non participation mean that other people will decide how things go in your life. So if you let to be told what to do and how to live your life, then sit back and enjoy the bumpy, frustrating ride. Ignore the issues, keep voting for the same incumbent politicians. Never measure their performance. Don't involve yourself in any issues you care about and do not connect the dots. Apathy begets apathy, indolence begets indolence and ignorance begets ignorance. I know those seem like big words, but I wrote them so I decided to include them. Stop paying attention for another few election cycles and in 10 years you won't recognize who you are or what country you are living in. Then ask yourself again, is politics still boring? This has been the podcast Change a Law by John Thiebaud. To learn more, just sign on to our website at www.ilobby.co or you can also visit www.changealaw.com. thanks for listening.