Politically Ignorant

[Serpent Child]

So I have no idea how politics work and what all the different political parties/views are. Can you give me any sources, books, references, ect on politics to learn more about it? And whats your political party and why? I grew up with Democrats, all I know is that my sister (extremely liberal) told me Republican is deep rooted in racism and she can't comprehend how someone can choose Republican.

 

[Sunstone]

In my opinion, about 80% of politics concerns how society divides and distributes wealth. And the perennial issues in politics are "Who gets the wealth? How much do they get? And how do they get it?"

Historically, those things have been issues since the first priests and kings rose to power in ancient Sumer. That is, they are issues intrinsic to complex, hierarchical societies such as the Sumerians invented, and we still have today.

A good, short article on the current politics of wealth distribution is this one: Neoliberalism – the ideology at the root of all our problems. There are a few errors in the article, but I find it to be overall solid.

Since President Carter, all American presidents, both Republican and Democrat, have been in the neoliberal camp. That is, largely on the side of the very wealthy, as opposed to being on the side of the average person. They've given the very wealthy enormous benefits and the average person, at best, crumbs. As a consequence, America has suffered from rising income inequality in which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. This should be of great concern to anyone who values liberty because no republic in history has long withstood a great disparity between its richest and poorest citizens.

To see for yourself what's been going on in wealth distribution over the past forty or so years, take a look at this article: Wage Stagnation in Nine Charts.

While wealth distribution is not the sum total of politics, I believe it makes up by a large measure the bulk of all politics.

I believe the greatest obstacle to understanding politics are the lies and misinformation you have to wade through to get at the truth. For instance, there is a political "theory" called "Trickle Down Economics". This alleged theory states that if you cut taxes on the wealthy, they will use the money they save from taxes to create jobs. The "theory" has very little evidence in support of it, and quite a bit of evidence against it, but it is a popular bit of misinformation because it fools people into supporting tax cuts for the wealthy. Politics is full of lies like that one. You've got to read widely to sort through them all.

Of course, all of this is my opinion, and you should look for yourself: You might or might not find my opinions confirmed.

 

[Quetzal]

So I have no idea how politics work and what all the different political parties/views are.

Most of us don't either!

 

[Iti oj]

So I have no idea how politics work and what all the different political parties/views are. Can you give me any sources, books, references, ect on politics to learn more about it? And whats your political party and why? I grew up with Democrats, all I know is that my sister (extremely liberal) told me Republican is deep rooted in racism and she can't comprehend how someone can choose Republican.

Well there is different levels local, state and federal.

 

[Quintessence]

When I aim to study a new subject, I read everything I can get my hands on whilst keeping in mind the nature of the source material I am looking at. Eventually you get a feel for things on your own. Different sources have their place - for a more impartial overview you're going to want to stick to academic literature, but more opinion-based appraisals have their place too. For something like politics in particular, understanding it goes hand in hand with understanding history. History provides the context, sets the stage and the scene for the play, so to speak. I'd argue that natural sciences do too, but that's my bias as someone who is more interested in those things.