by dexeron » Fri Feb 05, 2016 1:18 pm
I understand voting one's conscience, but at some point: "If I don't get everything I want, I'm not playing" is counter-productive, and can actually lead to worse outcomes. Politics is about representing everyone's interests, even those with whom we disagree, and because of that it's ultimately about compromise and what is practical (even if we try to push things towards a more "ideal" goal.)
I do get that, hey, you shouldn't vote for someone who's just bad on major issues that are important to you, so that's cool. Like I've said before, you live in a blue state, so have fun protest sitting-out or 3rd partying, or whatever. But I know too many folks who are starting to demand ideological purity tests or in other ways act like the damn tea-party ("you aren't perfect on every single issue I like?! YOU'RE JUST A RINO!") Being like the tea-party is bad. No one wants to be the tea-party. And especially in swing-state, I have to ask these people: "You're really gonna sit out if Clinton is the nominee? You'd really RATHER have Trump (or jesus, Cruz?)"
I mean, given the choice between: "Hey, here's someone who's going to do major damage in tons of areas" and "here's someone who will do some good in some areas, and yeah, damage in some others, but less than might happen otherwise" they want to say: "Eh, fuck it, burn the whole place down!"
What kind of petulant tantrum mindset is that?