Political battle fatigue

Due to the second impending blizzard of this week, the deadlines here at the paper got bumped up several hours, thus forcing me to condense my normal eight hours of work into three. Since it was the Friday paper it wasn’t really so bad. Had it been a Thursday issue, I would have been none to pleased. But I digress, as likely none of you, as they say, give a rat’s ass.

At any rate, here I sit on my lunch break, having “put my pages to bed” as they say “in the business,” pondering the curious notion that I am currently under a winter storm warning despite the fact that I’m currently looking at clear blue skies, and — if not for the 15 degree windchill on the walk to work this morning — I would have no reason to believe it was winter.

All of this unexpected downtime, however, does give me a sorely needed (at least for my own sake) opportunity to get some of my own thoughts on to paper, or the electronic equivalent.

Before my move to D.C. I received a book as a graduation present that chronicled various outrageous events on college campuses (campi?) at the hands of liberals. There was a personal inscription on the inside cover of the book wishing me well in the future, but also urging me to keep fighting the “good fight.”

Of course, being the idealistic, vivacious recent college grad that I was, I took those words to heart and was highly motivated to move to the District and do my part to change the world.

For a little context, it might be worth mentioning that some months earlier — at one of the conservative journalist conferences I attended — I was told by someone (if memory serves correctly, it might have been Michelle Malkin) that I should be wary about working in D.C., as it was likely to “suck the life out of me.”

At the time I honestly couldn’t see that happening. Having just spent a year commanding troops on the front lines of the political battle (I love my delusions of grandeur…) and loving every second of it, it seemed perfectly logical for me to enter the hub of political dealings and, in effect, continue the fight from the inside out. Having so thoroughly enjoyed my time battling leftists on my campus, at the time I believed that battling leftists in the nation’s capitol could only be more fun.

Not so much. That isn’t to say that the life has been “sucked out of me,” as it were, but merely that I have been so over-exposed to the filth that is this government and game of politics that nothing shocks me anymore. I’m finding it harder and harder to become outraged over things that used to draw my ire.

I used to fervently watch debate shows like The O’Reilly Factor and Hannity and Colmes, ferventness has given way to exhaustion. It’s admirable in some twisted way that the people on those shows can manage to be outraged about something night after night, but I just can’t bring myself to do that anymore. It’s simply too exhausting.

Hence the term “battle fatigue.” The political war of attrition in this country — and more specifically this city — is so slothful, the changes so marginal and the tactics so sleazy that it’s a major moral dilemma of mine to figure out whether or not I wish to continue taking part in it like this.

This week, Democrat National Committee chairman Howard Dean said some rather ridiculous, obnoxious and incoherent things about the war in Iraq being a lost cause. A year ago, I would’ve been so shocked and outraged that I would have penned a 1,000 word article on the subject for the next issue of the GuardDawg.

On this occasion, however, there was no shock, no outrage. My reaction was something along the lines of ‘Well, Howard Dean’s a dumbass. That sounds about like something he’d say. Hmm…I wonder if there are any good football games on this weekend…”

Maybe it's not so much fatigue as it is a form of maturity. I'm of the opinion that suffering fools happily is not a virtue, but I'm also starting to find out that suffering fools angrily is a waste of time and resources. It is simply better to let the fool be just that and not give him the satisfaction of your irritation.

You can only hear the “Bush lied, kids died” mantra so many times before it no longer fazes you. Only so many times can you point out the strategic, political and moral stupidity of an immediate withdrawal from Iraq before you simply don’t feel like doing it again. You can only argue with people for so long before it all becomes little more than an annoying background buzz.

I’m all for fighting to “good fight,” but I believe that entails staying above the fray. Not sinking to my opponents level with rabid hatred and catchy placards or repeating the same lie over and over until it becomes true. I simply can’t expend that much energy on an outcome that, in the end, is so trivial.

I’m a firm believer in the idea that more flies are caught with honey than with vinegar, but I also believe that when an emotional argument is answered with an intellectual response, nine times out of ten, regardless of the merits of the argument, emotion is going to win. In such cases, however, I believe it is much more preferable to be intellectually sound than emotionally unstable. I say let the nutjobs go crazy. When they burn themselves out, the rational intellectuals will be standing there ready to get down to the actual business at hand.