I gave you a `4' and recommended this diary because I think this is an important discussion to have  - and the perspective you just articulated should be at the core of the debate when we have it.

First  - a confession.  I was at Wal Mart last night.  Guiltily, but there I was.  I am often dragged in there.  Each time I protest and repeat the usual litany of reasons to boycott, and each time I end up allowing myself to be worn down.  On some level I must want to be worn down because the prices are low and the selection is wide - and the alternative is shopping at several different stores while dealing with familial stress because I made everybody's life so much harder.  So...I tag along.  Reluctantly I put a few things in the cart of my own, always being careful to come up with some moral justification for doing so.

Frankly I'm sick of the whole thing.  I wish they'd go away or do something horrible enough to tick off my loved ones.  But the fact is, I really don't to spend my life fighting this battle at home.  My wife and I share basic values, but she does not want to live the life of an activist.  She wants cheap fabric softener.    

I live my life with a lot of guilt.  I bank with an evil bank because I hate paying the ATM charges when I cannot find one.  I buy products knowing that they are cheap as a result of worker exploitation in third world countries.  I compromise my values daily, occasionally choosing an arbitrary stand to take or symbolic gesture to make.  I soothe my conscience by saying that human beings are not consistent animals.  That doing some things is better than doing nothing.  That meeting the responsibilities of fatherhood and family exempt me from the life of a hard-core activist.  I tell myself all of this, but I don't believe it.  Rather it becomes like much high triglycerides or the 30 pounds I need to lose - something on the `to do' list.  I tell myself I'll get disciplined eventually and figure out how to eat right, exercise, and parent better and make responsible shopping decisions.  Some day.

And remember - I'm a committed liberal.  

How are we going to get the rest of the country on the program if I can't even get myself together?

In the end, we need to create simple alternatives.  I honestly don't know who to bank with or exactly which companies I can feel good about supporting.  I know that this information is out there and I've thumbed through books on the subject - but they seldom offer pragmatic options.  So that's the challenge.  How do we make responsible liberalism convenient?