Why Do We Care About Politics? (w/ Poll)

I've never been as entralled of Paul Hackett as many people in this community are. To many, its Hackett's honor and willigness to speak clearly, truthfully, and from the heart that separate him from your run-of-the-mill politician. Certainly, his partisanship doesn't hurt either.

At the same time, very little has been made of his policies (with the exception of his opposition to the war in Iraq). This is clearly a dynamic that's been repeated among candidates with strong netroots followings and has been oft remarked upon - this isn't an ideological crowd.

For me, this raises the question, why do we care about politics?

I get worked up about politics because, while I hate campaigns, they're the only way that people whose policies I believe will do the most good for America and the world will get to put those policies into practice.

So, a couple of questions that I hope can lead to a civil discussion:

For those of you for whom its not about policy and you can like Democrats from across the spectrum as long as they're honest, honorable and forceful - why do you care deeply about politics?

If faced with someone whose policies you liked (yet not their character) and someone whose character you liked (yet thought that the other Democrat had better policies), who would you support in a given race?

Personally, I think we expect politics to be too much about personal redemption and not about the impacts that the day-to-day challenge of budgeting and governance have on people lives.

Given everyone who needs government as a way of improving their lives in concrete ways - better jobs, health care, retirement security - I think that an insistance on personal purity over winning falls short  morally because we have an obligation to people who are in need.

If we can help, and winning is the only way to put in place the policies that will help, then we have to put winning over other important, yet abstract, values like honor. Clearly, both would be best, but sometimes that's not possible, in my opinion, and you need to accept being dirtier than you'd want.

I know many folks will disagree. I'd like to hear your thoughts.