Politics Divides, Markets Unite

In discussing the race and gender issues surrounder the election, Evan over at The Future Uncertain says in a recent post:

That is no reason not to vote for such a candidate – we can’t elect white males forever just because the first NWM or his supporters will cynically use his NWM status for political advantage – but the increase in tensions that will occur is another marker of the difference between politics and the market – one relies on manufacturing conflict, the other on achieving cooperation.

As I’ve noted before , many female Clinton supporters are looking to vote for a woman out of pure misogynistic impulses. I’ve been trying very hard to find out what Obama stands for, what sort of "change" he will bring, and such, and sadly, the only thing I can possibly see is that he stands for a change of skin color in the Oval Office. His rhetoric on issues of war and empire are standard fare and, in my view, barely distinguishable from Bush. He's got typically left-wing economic ideas. And, oh yeah, he's a black guy, which I'm sure he doesn't want you to focus on, even though one campaign video after another keeps invoking the race card in the most subtle, but obvious ways.

I really hate politics and the effect it has on people. I engage in various conversations about politics with friends and such, and its really depressing to see the conversation focus not on principles and ideas of government and liberty and things of real substance, but rather "should we have a woman for president?", or "would we elect a black guy?", or "wouldn’t a black woman (Condi) as a running mate be the ultimate trump card for the GOP?"

Politics forces us to focus on the most base aspects of society. Evan is totally right that politics gets us to focus on those areas that we are divided – race, gender, class, religion, etc. – and it should be no surprise that political "solutions" always breed more social conflict.

The market, on the other hand, allows people of differing backgrounds to come together for a common purpose. Say what you want about the profit motive, you have to agree it helps to alleviate and minimize conflict between groups that would otherwise want to shoot each other.