Rigidity vs. Compromise
At the center of most serious human conflicts is rigidity, an inability or an unwillingness to compromise.
Today's political climate may be defined by this inability or unwillingness. We feel under threat (both on the left and on the right) our very ideals are under attack. The 'other side' is trying to undermine that which we hold most sacred.
That sense of threat may cause us to dig deeper trenches where we bury ourselves deeply while only speaking to those who agree with us-- and while rigidly defending and refusing to yield even an inch on any topic we deem sacred.
After all, issues X, Y, and Z are so inviolable and personally important to us that we cannot even conceive of reaching out to the other side, conceive of doing a 'give and take' and arriving at some resolution towards the middle-- where you get a little bit of what you want and I get a little bit of what I want.
We excuse our rigidity by appealing to a higher authority or power. We know how a certain document should be interpreted, and to violate that interpretation of that document is unthinkable.
But, think of it this way. At the heart of politics is compromise. It is the very nature of our political systems that we need to give and take in order to continue co-existing peacefully in a country that exists not just for me and my ideas, but also for you and your ideas.
That could include (but need not be limited to) me paying taxes for some things I honestly do not want or need for myself and my family and my community because, perhaps YOU, voted for it and think it is a good thing for your family and your commmunity. It might also mean that you end up swallowing (figuratively, not literally) a bill on healthcare which includes a whole lot more (or a whole lot less) than what you ideally would think should be included in health care.
Politics and ideals are necessarily at odds. Our ideals describe the world we would like to live in, a world that in every sense corresponds to who we are and what we believe. Politics is the messy reality of the world we do live in, a world that somewhat (if we have a voice and use it) include some of the things we think ought to belong in our world, but it is also going to include a whole lot of things that we don't personally want in our world, but which our neighbors may have wanted in the world.
We live in one country, one state, one city or rural community, one neighborhood. But we don't live there alone. We live there with others who may differ from us religiously, politically, ethnically, culturally, and our highest calling (in terms of our communities) is to voice our concerns, advocate for our causes, and then live with the results until next election cycle.
Politics is the art of compromise. That art has been lost, of late. Compromising politically is not akin to giving up your ideals. It is simply recognizing that when you get something, your opponent gets something too. In short, nowhere in life do you get everything you want, but with compromise you may try to achieve as much as you can .
The only substitute for politics (when the system really breaks down) is war. And in war everyone loses -- a lot!!!
