I quit: So long to soap opera politics

People have heard me say for years that my dream job is to one day be a White House press secretary or a politician's speechwriter. Nix that! I am growing increasingly fed up with politics. Or maybe it's just the politics of politics -- the soap opera-ness of it all -- that has turned my head.

Whatever it is, am I alone? I mean, are you not also fed up with the bickering and political posturing? It's understandable, of course, that people would stand up for policies about which they feel strongly, and politicians -- believe it or not -- are people. Individuals sit on different sides of the political aisle for a reason. So when it comes to policies that matter, it makes sense that they're going to make a stink and oppose one another.

But opposing on principles and opposing because that's just politics are two different things; people seem to take stands for ridiculous reasons. They don't like the guy in office, so they oppose. They like the gal who wrote the bill, so they vote for it. Then you have those who just pride themselves on being mavericks and appear to enjoy the publicity of always being a thorn in the side -- the "my party moves forward, so I'll move backward" kind of people. I'll leave you to figure out which legislators fit that description.

I guess it can be said that the mess that is politics -- nationally and locally -- requires people who are fed up, people willing to jump into the fray to serve rather than be served, people who want to be that positive change for which positive people yearn. But who wants to deal with all the nonsense?

I know I don't. How does one maintain a passion for something that is one big mess after another? So while I have often talked about being in the thick of politics, especially as a speechwriter or press secretary, I now say, "No, thank you!" I have no desire anymore to go out to that podium and clean up someone else's mess, and I don't want to articulate their mess in a speech, either.

Email servers, tell-all books, sexual misconduct, dossiers, on and on and on. This is what garners Emmy awards, isn't it?

I was an avid soap opera enthusiast many moons ago. I've often joked that God delivered me from "the stories," as we affectionately referred to them back in the day, then gave me politics so I wouldn't mourn the loss. Well, I thought I was joking, but maybe not. This stuff out-soap operas soap operas! But at least on daytime and primetime drama, there were the heartwarming love stories. Luke Spencer had his Laura, Hope had her Bo Brady; and Krystle Carrington had her Blake. Those are just three iconic love stories. I'm not sure there are even that many love stories in D.C. It's more like a perpetual Katherine Chancellor vs. Jill Abbott catfight -- and if you don't know what I'm talking about, you missed "The Young in the Restless" in its heyday. Google it. Check it out on YouTube. Watch it repeatedly. Classic stuff. Or... just watch the news. Same drama -- just set in our nation's capital, rather than Genoa City.

"General Hospital," "Days of Our Lives," "Dynasty," "The Young and the Restless" and more were great diversions from reality, and I appreciated them in my younger days. But the soap opera that is politics is not a diversion from reality; it is the never-ending reality thrust upon all of us that threatens to sap the life right out of us, but I'm not that same young woman satiated by stupidity.

True enough, my heart and mind will not allow me to be among those content with not knowing what is going on in the world. I once lived in that airspace. I won't go back there. I take positions on issues and am willing to fight, in my way, for what is right. So I suppose I will always be engaged in some way -- but it will probably only take place right here from my column soapbox, and I will continue to engage right here; this will have to suffice for me politically.

So I bid farewell to my once-held dream of standing behind a podium for daily press briefings or holding the pen that writes a politician's speeches. Rest in peace. Like all soap operas, though, the story will go on. It doesn't need me. So stay tuned for the continuing drama that we have come to know as politics.

Adrienne Ross is owner of Adrienne Ross Communications and a former Southeast Missourian editorial board member. Contact her at aross@semissourian.com.