KOS at Night: Idealism
I watched Primary Colors tonight. I am having Clinton withdrawal and John Travolta does him so well. As I watched though I began to see so many parallels to the current history that I was moved (again) by this picture.
"The question
you've got to ask is, what are the options?" He said softly, almost warmly, still patient with me, his blue eyes locked into mine. "Only certain kinds of people are cut out for this work - and, yeah, we are
not princes, by and large. Henry, you know this better than anyone. You've watched Larkin, you've watched O'Brian, you've watched me do it. Two thirds of what we do is reprehensible. This isn't the way a normal human being acts. We smile, we listen - you could grow calluses on your ears from all the listening we do. We do our pathetic little favors. We fudge when we can't. We tell them what they want to hear - and when we tell them something they
don't want to hear, it's usually because we've calculated that's what they really want. We live an eternity of false smiles - and why? Because it's the price you pay to lead. You don't think Abraham Lincoln was a whore before he was president? He had to tell his little stories and smile his shit-eating, backcountry grin. He did it all just so he'd get the opportunity, one day, to stand in front the nation and appeal to 'the better angels of our nature.' That's when the bullshit stops. And that's what this is all about. The opportunity to do that, to make the most of it, to do it the right way - because you know as well as I do there are plenty of people in this game who never think about the folks, much less their 'better angels.' They just want to win. They want to be able to say, 'I won the biggest thing you can win.' And they're willing to sell their souls, crawl through sewers, lie to the people, divide them, play on their worst fears - "
- From Primary Colors by Anonymous
I've seen here on dKOS a lot of idealism. Mostly centered around the war in Iraq. I've railed against this becoming a wedge in our party. Watching Travolta recite the above monologue I'm even more convinced that we can not let this happen.
Idealism, in the face of failure to regain the White House HAS to be sacrificed. It sucks, I know, but the alternatives are not worth considering. At then end of the day, at the end of the election, it really does come down to winning. Not winning for winning's sake. No one of the candidates that is vying for the opportunity to challenge George W. Bush in the fall believes that. Even if they did we should be able to see that having a Democrat in the White House that will stand up for at least SOME Democratic ideals, that will appoint less conservatives judges, that will repeal conservative executive orders, that will put the executive branch back on track to serve the people and not the corporations is better, so very much better, than the status quo.
The very root word of idealism, ideal, represents perfection. We don't expect perfection from anyone. None of us can be perfect. Baring the second coming there is no way any of us could have the perfect candidate, and even then someone would most likely find fault with the Almighty. It is as Benjamin Franklin said: "[We must] do the best that we can with what we have where we are at."
When the dust settles from the primaries and we have nominated one man to be our best, we must all support him no matter our personal issues. To do any less would be to give up the chance to have him stand before the nation and appeal to our 'better angles'.
