does your dept politics ever make you want to quite even if you like your job?

Yes.  I left one special team because politics and personal agendas outweighed getting the job done correctly.

Not quit, but I do hate the politics.  I am kind of away from it on back shift but then when the others trash me I'm not around to defend myself.

I'm guessing from your topic that you currently have something going on with politics in your department and it bugs you. What is the possibility of change in the politics, i.e. new Sheriff election? I hate politics with a passion, so what I do is try and go to do my job the way it is supposed to be done. When I had a bad sheriff that always came down on me, I would make it a point to go out and get the stuff he was too chickenshit to enforce himself, and I made sure I made damn good busts that made him look bad the way he ignored or hid from things. It came back to bite me anyways, but this way I at least felt like I was still accomplishing something with my job.
In case that's not a real good option for you, I suggest three things:
1: Stay out of the politic issues and just do your job. Do it so you cover your ass and still get your job done, but don't let the bastards uck you into the politics. If there are union related issues, talk to your rep and see what soem advice is there. If it gets real bad, you may have a lawsuit for poor work environment.
2: Find a hobby outside of copping. Gives you a chance to leave work at work and rejuvenate yourself. You can relax, whatever, and not have the bad stuff dominate your off time too. All of us need that so we don't burnout. Politics is a huge way to burnout, and from the tone of your post you may already have issues of that.
3: Keep contacts. These help you find a new place to go if the politics get too bad. It also helps you to vent by having people to talk to about the stuff going on and get advice. You've already started that to a point, but I reccommend PoliceOne.com, CalibrePress.com and Officer.com. They have websites with secure forums on them where cops can talk to cops. The biggest thing that helped me with the stuff in my agency was reading the posts from so many guys that had it so so so so so much worse than I did. I realized even though my agency had weaknesses and stuff that ticked me off, it wasn't even close to being as bad as what some of these other guys had to go through.
If you're a cop going through shit, feel free to IM for an email addy, and if I can help or listen to some venting let me know. If you're a person just wondering how we handle things, well, these are ways we do it.

thanks, chwi548, IM sent

stick it our brother, if it is something like a team as one member mentioned, then that is a good solution, but the whole department or career!  I changed from the Corps after 12 years and miss it everyday,but don't miss a day of it now that I am on a department.  Even with polotics, they are everywhere!

c

[b]chwi548[/b] gives good advice.  Spoken like a veteran.  I would add:  Don't get caught up in any hype produced by the disgruntled members of your union / association.  I've seen many good officers' advancement opportunities get set back a few years because they over inflated a problem, or blindly jumped on the bandwagon.
I work for a municipal police dept. so our politics aren't as bad as a sheriff's dept. where their officials are elected.
One of the worst decisions to make is to do the trendy, "Vote of no confidence" on your chief or sheriff without doing your homework.
Good luck!

Always have another job lined up BEFORE you quit. That way you can say you left for (insert reason here)
Dont bad mouth your old dept.
(revenge is best served cold anyway)
If it was one person who was a major problem, feel free to make a comment once in a while.
I once had a captain whose main job qualification was the ability to suck quarters from a coke bottle. This man had sucked his way to the top. So if anyone asks about him or the dept that is what I usually say. I dont ding the dept or the other officers. BUT I get a swipe in on him when ever I can.