Local politics

[Jsinjin]

Do any of you have PD's in your life who are wrapped up in an unhealthy way in local politics?  At the city or school or county level?   The firt month we were married my uOCPDw began attending city council meetings then was appointed to boards like planning and zoning and since then has never been without an elected role.   She follows literally every Facebook, blog, local paper, and every single cicvic group and event that exists in our town.   Her role is on the school board and we live in a town with a large school district.   She attends every single forum, there are 15 elementary schools, five middle schools and  two high schools and she attends every single PTA event at every school.  She records all three tv local news networks and watches them at both the evening and night sets to make sure nothing is said about the district and she will stay up sometimes 24 hours straight answering email direct from constituents.   Her strong opinions have made many many political enemies in things that the rest of the world doesn't care about and that stuff bleeds over into our personal lives.   She has never gone without a political opponent in any race even one time the two seats on the school board had her position up for re election and another had a person who had chosen not to run and the seat was open.   My spouse had three people running against her in a violent hatred filled campaign while the other seat has a single person run for it unopposed basically just getting elected as a new person.   

I strongly believe this is a PD save the world from itself behavior but wanted to see if anyone else has this in their lives.

[Lookin 2 B Free]

I haven't.  It sounds rather awful.

[TheEscapeArtist]

That's interesting. Because when I first met my uNPDx I was active in local politics but getting quite disillusioned because so many of the people I had to interact with seemed more interested in arguing with each other rather than working together to improve the locality.

So maybe politics attracts a certain personally type.

My ex loved it though and constantly asked when she would get to accompany me to garden parties. She seemed very keen on accompanying me to garden parties. But this was local politics. There were no garden parties. She seemed disappointed.

[Jsinjin]

It's interesting, I've noticed the participation in the world of political stuff attracts a level of weird overly sensitive and easily offended and quick to attack person.   Maybe it's like moths to a light bulb; PD's are drawn to the controversy and ability to take offense and attack people type of work that is in politics. 

[guitarman]

It seems that your wife is interested in the power and control aspect of politics.

You maybe interested in this long article on the Psychology Today website

"Narcissism: Why It's So Rampant in Politics
Narcissist politicians don't serve the people; they serve themselves."

What appealed to me was "Narcissist politicians don't serve the people; they serve themselves". Yes. That about sums it all up!

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/evolution-the-self/201112/narcissism-why-its-so-rampant-in-politics

[TheEscapeArtist]

Interesting read.

At the risk of generalising there seem to be 2 types of people who get involved with politics. Those who want to help other people and those who want power and control.

We all know what can happen when those 2 character types meet....