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 Beliefs are the key word.

People rarely wish to change their beliefs (or even to look at them with a jaundiced eye). Beliefs are almost always emotional (rather than logical) and cannot be changed by reason.

Politics shouldn't be about beliefs, but for most people they are.

Therin lies the rub. 
 Facts. 
 💡& what makes people more emotional than an assassination attempt 
 your statement about politics is already a believe in itself. your political goal would be establishing a technocracy, which you believe is the right political system. 

the problem is people taking their own beliefs for facts. 
 No--think you may have missed the point--I'm willing to listen, and (if supported by evidence) change my outlook...

i.e. I'm not emotionally invested (I'm data driven) 

"Show me the data" and I'm happy to change 😃  
 totally get your point, i'm data driven too. and you know who else? the communist party of china. plenty of evidence supporting the success of their centrally planned economy. yet, i guess, you wouldn't agree with most their politics, would you? because after all, you too have values and beliefs (like personal freedom) which you prioritize over pure data.  
 I would distinguish between values and beliefs here though 😃 

Freedom I'd view as a "value" (rather than a belief...

 
 exactly what I'm talking about. you might believe freedom is a universal value, while in reality it means very different things for different people, depending on context.