TALK OF POLITICS seems to be everywhere these days. It fills our social media feeds and comes up frequently at gatherings with friends and family. It is also increasingly present in the workplace, where companies are taking stands on everything from environmental issues to racism and anti-LGBTQ bigotry. 

But what does it all add up to? Talk, as the old saying goes, is cheap, and Tufts University political scientist Eitan Hersh says that’s especially true these days when it comes to how we engage with politics. 

Hersh, the guest on this week’s Codcast, says the way in which many people connect with politics today not only isn’t very productive, it actually has a corrosive effect on civic life. He unspooled that argument in a 2020 book, Politics is for Power, that called the type of engagement many people have with issues “political hobbyism.” Hersh said there is lots of passion expressed about political issues of the day, but most of it is little more than symbolic venting and virtue signaling. 

Lots of Americans, he says, especially the college-educated ones who can’t seem to get enough of the latest political fights in Washington or national debates over Supreme Court rulings, are following current events closely and sharing their take on social media, but they aren’t part of the process of trying to make actual change to address problems. They aren’t rolling up their sleeves and getting involved in campaigns or other on-the-ground activities as much as they are acting out their outrage in ways that are just expressive or performative, he says.

“If you look at the people who are spending an hour or two a day cognitively engaged in politics, and, by the way, there’s more people than ever in that category,” Hersh says on the Codcast, “almost all of them are doing politics for their own intellectual and emotional ends. They have no strategy. They have no goals. They’re not doing politics to achieve anything specific. They’re really learning a lot of facts and emotionally engaging in politics.” 

Hersh is now turning his focus to the workplace, where he argues the same kind of “political hobbyism” is taking hold. Whether it’s issuing strong statements on big political issues of the day or conducting diversity training exercises with employees, companies are increasingly engaging in politics. 

Hersh argues that the sudden corporate dive into politics represents “one one of the most dramatic political changes in our lifetimes.” In what he says is the first major political realignment of the business community since the late 1890s, Hersh says the US business community, which had been largely aligned with the Republican Party for more than a century, is now veering Democratic. It’s a change in corporate leadership politics that lines up with the increasingly Democratic tilt of their companies’ college-educated white collar workforce.

Hersh wrote about the trend in a recent essay in The Atlantic titled “Political hobbyism has entered the workplace” and is working on a book on the topic. He thinks the new corporate energy for politics has all the same downsides he has written about political hobbyism at the individual level. 

“I am deeply skeptical of what the current wave of white-collar political hobbyism will accomplish, especially when so many corporate pronouncements are clearly hot air,” he wrote in The Atlantic. Hersh pointed, for example, to the list of companies that “briefly, and very loudly, swore off donations to politicians who voted against certifying the 2020 election, and then very quickly, and very quietly, went right back to contributing to them.” 

Hersh ties a lot of the problems with political hobbyism in the workplace to companies’ focus on national issues rather than more local ones where they could have a more of an impact. 

Hersh, who has surveyed hundreds of corporate leaders across the country for his new book, says Massachusetts business leaders are much more grounded in state and local issues than their peers elsewhere. Hersh says some of that may be because so many businesses have ties to the universities and medical centers that are firmly anchored here and can’t pull up stakes and move. 

When companies or business groups like the Chamber of Commerce here take positions on early childhood education or fixing the T, “they are having a big impact on the community, and they’re doing it in these ways that are political and civic, but not trying to chase every hot button, 24-hour news story,” says Hersh. “I think where you go wrong is when you follow hot-button issues and you just make stands and statements and lead conversations instead of being involved.” 

MICHAEL JONAS

NEW STORIES FROM COMMONWEALTH MAGAZINE

Michelle Wu’s volunteer strategy: Learn why the Boston Planning and Development Agency, which has 269 employees and a $78 million budget, is being led by a volunteer. Read more.

Offshore wind turmoil: The Department of Public Utilities approves contracts for electricity with Commonwealth Wind and Mayflower Wind, despite concerns raised by both wind developers that a worsening economic climate means the terms are no longer adequate to gain financing. What will happen next is unclear.

– CommonWealth Wind had asked that its contract be dismissed because rising inflation and interest rates as well as supply chain disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine had made the contract it originally signed unworkable. The DPU said Avangrid, the developer, would have to move forward. Avangrid, which had hoped to enter the next procurement, said it was exploring whether to go to court.

– Mayflower Wind, a joint venture of Shell Energy Ventures and Ocean Wind, did not formally ask that its contract be dismissed but simultaneously said it agreed with the stance taken by CommonWealth Wind. No word yet on what it plans to do. Read more.

Exploring new wind power options: Massachusetts shows interest in having Massachusetts electricity ratepayers put up 40 percent of the $1.7 billion needed for an onshore wind farm in Maine. Read more.

Baker’s take on state GOP: Gov. Charlie Baker recounts his political transformation after his loss to Deval Patrick in 2010, and suggests it’s time for the state Republican Party to go through a similar metamorphosis. Read more.

More Orange Line woes: Orange Line service is reduced as nine of the new vehicles are removed from service after an electrical arcing problem is discovered with the axles. Read more.

OPINION

Sky not falling: Joseph Curtatone, the president of the Northeast Clean Energy Council and the former mayor of Somerville, says the problems with Commonwealth Wind don’t mean the sky is falling with offshore wind. Read more.

Zoning capacity: Amy Dain, a public policy research consultant, begins a five-part analysis of the new MBTA Communities housing development law with a review of the new concept of zoning capacity. Read more.

Root cause of boarding issue: Amy Sousa of the Guild for Human Services says the problem of psychiatric boarding in hospital ERs is caused by the lack of residential services in the community. Read more.

Support birth centers: Cristina Alonso, a certified professional midwife, said it’s time to treat pregnant women seriously and provide them with scientifically proven birth centers. Read more.

STORIES FROM ELSEWHERE AROUND THE WEB

BEACON HILL

Salaries for the state’s top officials are set to soar, with the pay for many positions, including that of incoming governor Maura Healey, slated to get a 20 percent bump in the new year. (Boston Globe) 

Incoming attorney general Andrea Campbell forged a close relationship with outgoing AG and governor-elect Maura Healey, but will now have to chart her own course in office. (Boston Globe) 

Outgoing Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito reflects on her history of public service and her optimism for the future of the central Massachusetts region where she lives. (Telegram & Gazette)

Grammy-award winning artist Brandi Carlile will headline Maura Healey’s inaugural party. (MassLive)

In an exit interview, Gov. Charlie Baker calls the deadly COVID-19 outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home the worst moment of the pandemic for him. (MassLive)

MUNICIPAL MATTERS  

The Old North Church in Boston grapples with its own ties to slavery. (GBH)

Magnified sunlight from a snow globe starts a fire in an Easthampton apartment. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Ludlow considers abolishing its Board of Public Works. (MassLive)

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

Levels of COVID detected in wastewater are on the rise. (Salem News)

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

The day before the House convenes for a new session, Republican leader Kevin McCarthy was still scrambling to lock down the votes needed to become Speaker. (Washington Post) 

The American Prospect’s Gabrielle Gurley looks at the mess Charlie Baker will inherit at the NCAA. “He just might find himself pining for the familiar confines of the Massachusetts State House,” she writes. 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, looking back at 2022, touts the money she brought home to the state in areas like science funding and transportation. (MassLive)

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills collapsed on the field during a Monday night game with the Cincinnati Bengals, which ended up being suspended. He was in critical condition this morning in a Cincinnati hospital. (New York Times)

As Connecticut legalizes recreational marijuana shops, Massachusetts marijuana businesses brace for the loss of Connecticut customers. (MassLive)

EDUCATION

The Globe has a primer on the Boston Public Schools’ “Green New Deal.” 

ARTS/CULTURE

The New Bedford Light looks at the $31 million makeover planned for the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center in New Bedford. 

TRANSPORTATION

January promises to be filled with more headaches for MBTA riders, as the T plans service interruptions on the Orange, Green, and Red lines. (Boston Globe)