In Defense of Pragmatism
Take these crayons. You wouldn’t juxtapose all these colors together in one picture. The picture would be ruined. You would only select the colors that you like and work together. The same concept holds true for politics. This post is a rebuttal of this article.
Politics and policy exist on a vast and complicated spectrum. We as people have a lot of different ideas. But at the end of the day, our lawmakers need to compromise on these ideas, otherwise we will never get anything done. Hence, we need to be pragmatic.
It has been said that pragmatism takes weak stances on many issues while extremism takes strong stances. But let us evaluate the effectiveness of such doctrines, as all that matters in the end is getting the stances and ideas enacted and implemented into law. As the saying goes, “You can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?”
In America, if one party espoused extremist views in an election, that party would be soundly defeated and never heard from again. The causes of that party would die with it. Wouldn’t it then make sense to instead espouse a party and candidate with more moderate views and a willingness to compromise? At least work gets done and some of the ideas you support are made into law. Is that not better than getting your entire party and platform annihilated?
Or, even worse, the entire government is at a deadlock because of the myriad of different platforms. If no side can form an effective majority, no work gets done, and one side could hold the government at ransom. It has happened before. The Nazis walked out and triggered a special election whenever they did not get their way. The Polish Sejm would only pass a law if it was unanimously supported, making one uncompromising legislator detrimental to the nation.
Pragmatism is not something to be derided and rejected. It represents an effective attitude. It allows us to make many small accomplishments that grow into great achievements. Extremism must be defeated and avoided. It signifies regression and stalling. It removes all that we have worked for and turns our successes into disasters.
