On being "into" politics

I had an epiphany the other day, brought on by yet another reaction to a comment I made about election news - "Oh," people say (somewhat dismissively), "you're into politics." It's not a compliment. But then it hit me - I'm not really that into politics. Politics is about winning elections, and that hardly interests me at all. What interests me is government - who's running it and what values they bring to the job and what priorities they have for using the authority they have been granted by a trusting public. I think it's quite a different animal. And frankly, it mystifies me why more people aren't more concerned about it . . .