Sensibility in Politics

People love how their perceived by other people. We spend hours on facebook touching up our image. We posture around those we think influential in order to impress them by our social prowess. I'm no exception, though I'm trying everyday to ignore this human impulse to ever-increasing degrees. But one of the worst areas I see this is in politics. Apparently, we really care about how people perceive our political opinions (left-wingers and right-wingers who express their political opinions by multiple bumper stickers excluded). And the ultimate description of this temptation is one who thinks his or her political positions are sensible and moderate.

Perfect example: I have many friends who voted for Obama, even though they were conservative, because Obama postured towards moderates and they wanted to appear sensible, especially since the young adult trend was to view Republicans as non-centrist. Of course, the great irony in the 2008 election was that Obama was promoting a statist agenda openly (posturing be damned), and McCain had a 20 year voting record of centrism (which is why many Republicans didn't favor him).

Another example: Confused "conservatives" and "Republicans" favoring the healthcare bill that recently passed because "something had to be done." If they were true conservatives, however, they would have always favored less government control than more. And to a conservative, the status quo, while not a good option, is a better option than the bill just passed. So, news flash: if you agreed, by and large, with the bill that just passed, you are a liberal. And, by the terms laid out in the bill itself, it doesn't leave much room for you to be a moderate, either.

The wrong kind of sensibility, then, is to be on board with whatever any candidate says or promotes. I don't think it's ever wise to be overly enthusiastic about any one candidate (please see the entire history in 1 and 2 Kings- no ruler is perfect). The right kind of sensibility is to stand by your convictions.

It's much more sensible to know your political convictions, stand by them, and compromise on whom you have to vote for than to compromise your political convictions, and stand by an office-holder who is imperfect and promotes views that would not and could not align wholly with your own. Or, as a friend of mine put it: "Are you compromising principle to vote for the candidate or are you compromising the candidate to maintain (as much as possible) the principle? I suggest we do the latter.