It doesn't help that most groups are split-offs from others. Re-enactment politics isn't, or at least shouldn't, be a completely negative term. Where people come together with a common interest or goal, there will be politics. There is debat, deals, trade-offs and conflict. The mistake people make is that we should all be friends. We don't have to and we never will, but we can set aside differences, personal or 'professional' to reach a goal.
That being said, re-enactment politics in the Netherlands is especially cancerous because there is simply no way to distance yourself from the main 'branch' of re-enactment due to gun laws. The NAN is a great organisation until you find yourself at odds with its 'leadership' which have been the same people for two decades. I have no interest to get involved with those people again, but that basically means no re-enacting for me in the Netherlands. Nor for any of our other Dutch members.
