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You do not need to allow this glaring inconsistency in their approach to human rights to paralyze you, as you try to assess them. Nor do you need to deny that this contradiction exists. You just need to understand that they are cowards. The willingness to overlook certain morally indefensible things is something that most people accept, in their own hearts, when they go into electoral politics. If there is a hell, I expect that many well-liked and popular Democratic politicians will end up there. But here in the material world, we are trying to achieve tangible things. The cowards, unlike the enemies, can be moved into the right place. That is why we vote for them, when faced with the choice of the two.
In general, it is better to think of even the politicians on your own side not as role models to be admired but rather as basically disreputable figures who are necessary to deal with but who should always be looked down upon and forced to prove, through action, that they are not pieces of shit.
So cease your valorization of political candidates, and cease also your tortured moral struggle over âsupportingâ a candidate who has done something awful. The first feeling leaves with an illusion about the world, and the second leaves you unable to act effectively to bring about the world we need. Accept that all we will get from the next election is someone who can be made to do the right thing under pressure, rather than someone committed to doing the wrong thing no matter what. There are many heroes in this world, and very few of them are politicians. Our job is to get so strong and organized that the cowards will have no choice but to come along with us. The real action in politics is not in Washington. It is right where you are.
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This should be required reading for any of the âeverything sucks so why voteâ, âHarris isnât where I would like on X so Iâll not vote/vote third partyâ folks. Recognize that Trump and Trumpism is the enemy. Harris sucks on many positions too, but she can at least evolve/be persuaded on many critical issues. Where she canât/wonât itâs also important to understand if Trump were in that position heâd do 1000x worse. If his utter and unforced bungling of COVID didnât make this clear that he canât be trusted with any crisis (especially since he could have literally done nothing other than sign the checks the experts were cashing), I donât know what will.
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Of course everyone who can should vote for Harris, but with all the hope and joy I still wanted not to have to hate her. 
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Iâm aware, plus fascists are the sort of opponent where anyone who tries to stop them becomes the good guy. Thatâs why I said everyone who can vote for her should. Just our world has too many awful people in it and Iâm sick of them, thatâs all. Youâd think being a decent person wouldnât be in that short supply.
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I suspect that itâs more along the lines of good people canât or wonât succeed in politics. The amount of debasement and pandering thst is necessary keeps anyone with a firm moral compass out. I do hope to be proven wrong on this. Hasnât happened yet. Closest, i think, was Carter, but that happened after he was out of office. At that point, itâs much easier to be decent. And yet, most fail even then.
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Maybe depends on what you mean by having a âfirm moral compassâ?
If it means never doing something that compromises oneâs values, then yes, succeeding in politics will likely be impossible.
But a compass can be used teleologically, to point to a goal, instead of to serve as a measuring device for every action along the way. Good people can achieve great things while also compromising here and there along the way. That they compromised in order to achieve a greater goal doesnât mean to me that theyâre instead bad people.
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A little cringe, but I like it!
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I mean itâs almost impossible to do something without triggering something else in the causal chain.
Sometimes a good something causes another bad something and thatâs just how that is. Lots of good ideals end up with a million dead in the fields. I donât like or trust people who claim they can solve such things too strongly. I think they are liars who insult my intelligence to be blunt.
There will always be disease, famine, poverty, war, violence, abuse, slavery⌠we will always have to adapt strategies to protect as many people as we are willing to. We will always fail somewhere. The point is the effort being made not the end goal being reached as all our efforts could be in vain anyway when an asteroid hits etc.
There will always be resource shortages and rackets, sabotage, waste, greed, avarice, and every other human folly too. And nations will only ever be able to keep a promise to protect the people within them so long as they can afford to⌠and nations cost a lot, but I like living in one as much as most people if not more.
No one will ever want to pay for the sins of their ancestors either not one way or another, but thereâs a lot of debtâŚ
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Just a reminder for anyone who might not be.
Nah; they arenât hardly âthe good guysâ just for doing the bare minimum of decency.
They are merely useful tools to achieve the desired goal.
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Eh, sometimes theyâre just âslightly-less-bad guys.â Or even âjust-as-bad-but-strategically-prudent-allies guys.â
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âthe enemy of my enemyâŚ
is (?) [insert your word here]âŚâ
just be anti-facist and vote accordingly. allies will make themselves known, IMO.
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Go Bexar county!
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I know you know this, but for the benefit of those who may not, thatâs San Antonio, so thatâs a lot of people, and a lot of Hispanic people, specifically. So yeah, go Bexar County! And go whoever that judge was!
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Harris 49%
Trump 46%
Likely voters.
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