Politics Comes Through Writing?

Does an author’s politics come through in his or her writing, even when it’s not an overtly political piece?  Is that a good thing?

Most folks I know go to books and other forms of entertainment for an escape.  That doesn’t mean that explicitly political books don’t exist, but most who read those are looking for explicitly political books.  Folks like myself, on the other hand are usually looking for a good story we can get emotionally invested in, and we don’t want to be preached at.

Stephen King is pretty well established as being a northeastern liberal.  However, I have not found that coming out in his books(maybe I missed it and am open to seeing evidence of such).  On the other hand, Ernest Cline is also a pretty open liberal, and that came out in snippets in Ready Player One.  William Fortschen is a fairly rightwing guy, but I couldn’t detect any note of our-world politics in the stories of The Lost Regiment.  HarryStein, in contrast, is also on the Right and does not shy away from politics in his novels.

What is the impact on our ability to reach an audience?  In these fairly polarized times, roughly 40% of an audience won’t even engage with the other side, so are you targeting a crowd with specific political beliefs, knowing you will limit your reach, or are you trying for a more broad swath?  As I wrote Schism, I worked exceptionally hard to make it a balanced storyline about how bad our polarization could get without taking sides, and even then it wasn’t enough for some(according to some, I was either a libtard too soft on the Left, or I was a rightwing nutcase who made room for intolerant bigots on the Right).  You won’t please everyone, especially those looking for offense, but telling a story versus preaching to a choir(and offending the rest of the public) is probably not the best way to grow into a stronger spotlight.