Politics vs Policy

[MineralMan]

5. Politics is about winning elections. Policy is about governing.

While related, the two things are very, very different. Unless a politician can get elected, he or she can do nothing. So politics are about winning votes, and relate only peripherally to policy.

Policy is what elected officials implement. It's often not what they campaigned about. If it were, our elections would be very different. But, as voters, Americans appear to be more interested in appearance, speaking ability, and promises. We don't seem to care much about ideas, character and determination to get things done.

So, expecting politicians to spend a lot of time on policy matters is expecting too much. They're trying to get votes, not influence the course of events. That means that they focus on politics and the easy subjects that speak to the most voters. You can see that by looking at ratings for television programming that focuses on policies. Then, compare that to programming that focuses on the people running for office. Nobody watches discussions on policy. Well, a few, perhaps, but too few to influence an election.

Confusing politics with policy is a logical error. They're only remotely connected.