In dealing with politics I believe that 95% of the time it comes down to perspective. It really isn't there but some people believe it happens because they lack the realism and character to truly understand the situation. I'm not naieve enough to say that there aren't coaches out there who will give the booster club president's a favored spot on the team / lineup. It happens and will continue to happen. But I truly think politics is generally coming from one skewed POV.
Building a team is a VERY difficult task and then to build a program is even tougher. Some people may not realize that there is a difference in a team and program but there is. A program is the standards and expectations you have for your players year in and year out. A program is an attitude and work ethic. A team is a collection of individuals that a coach has to mold into a cohesive unit where you improve their skills. A team is more about athletic achievement that can change year to year. As Coach May has said you have to establish high standards and expectations on and off the field. It doesn't take the best player to be a part of the program and in fact the programs is usually built on the attitudes of the lower end kids but the team really takes off when the best players buy into the program. But sometimes you have to cast off the best players on the team for the sake of the long term health of the program.
Politics is a POV because parents or players don't want to become part of the team regardless of their abilities to perform for the team. Little Johnny might be a good player but Little Bobby is just as good but has great grades, works his butt off, respected by peers / teachers. Little Johnny could be a better student, could work harder in practice, gets into a small amount of trouble at school. Johnny's parents don't see / accept the intangibles are what separates Bobby from Johnny. In fact most people don't have a clue what the intangibles are that coaches see everyday. Mom and dad are now ticked off so they tell everyone they can find how terrible the coach is. The sad part is others will sometimes listen to what's going on.
You can't build a program in one or two seasons. It takes time to build a program because a program is built on consistency by the head coach. The asst coaches will change and the players obviously change but if the message is the same year after year after year then one group passes it down to the next group. New people coming in know beforehand what is expected and that gets the players realizing that politics doesn't exist. It also helps head off the vast majority of parent problems because they know the deal beforehand as well. But there are times when stupidity will prevail and you have to deal with a problem.
As for RJM said - he's 100% right. Coaches do make mistakes in evaluating talent. I know I have. I didn't have ulterior motives for playing one kid over another - I just thought the other kid was better and it turns out I was wrong. It happens.
Coaches do have favorite players and they tend to be the examples I used above with Little Bobby. Those types of kids will get a few more chances than a Little Johnny type kid. I'm not going to give myself headaches over a kid who has been given several chances (on the field and off) who continues to let himself and the team down. Quick story - this season in football we had a kid who was a problem and since I was defensive coordinator I had to deal with him as a defensive back. He messed up a couple of times and my advice to the head coach was to get rid of him because at some point he was going to quit because I was going to let up my standards and neither was the head coach. But the head coach kept giving him a few more chances because he wanted to help this kid make a turn for the better. I admired that in the HC but I didn't feel we could do it and he was starting to distract the team. Well the kid messed up and the HC made him come apologize to me for what he did. I told him I would accept his apology but he better realize that you can't apologize everything away. When you mess up there are repercussions and if you do it enough you lose credibility. I told him he was at that point with me in that I really didn't want to hear apologies when my main impression of him was he was going to be a problem. We caught him lying about two weeks later in why he didn't come to practice (in fact we made several phone calls to catch him in the lie - we worked for it). Once again I wanted to cut him loose but the HC said he had to do a lot of running in order to come back. He did part of the running and walked away and never returned. That showed the type of character he had and that is the type of kid you got to eliminate from your program. The worst part is in this case some parents will say this is an example of politics because we ran this kid off. It happens.
I guess what I'm saying (in a very long winded, rambling and sometimes off topic way) is that politics is a bad word people who lack a work ethic use to justify failure. They will use this to justify their failure for probably the rest of their lives. It does exist but overall it's just a POV some people take when they can't handle failure.
Sorry rambling is over now - but bless you if you made it this far.