A Pox on Purity: Absolutes and perfection are extremes best suited to fantasy

Opinion: In political advocacy, as in statecraft, purity is a luxury an effective practitioner cannot afford. The tea party's aggressive push for ideological purity has yielded a GOP at war with itself and incapable of governing. Destructive stunts like the $24 billion federal shutdown championed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) have strengthened Democrats' chances of retaining control of the Senate, while primary challenges to Republican incumbents from the right in red states promise an influx of new bomb throwers in the upper chamber come 2015. This will accelerate the GOP's decline as a national party. The LGBT left often pursues its own ideological purity, as if right-mindedness were self-implementing, and as if punishing imperfect allies magically produced better and winning candidates. Advancing policy goals in a diverse society requires overcoming differences. The "easy gets" are already with us; we need imagination and perseverance, not rage nor a sense of inevitability. ... (more)

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