Cancer of Compromise

"And so, one by one, these compromises, these small corruptions, destroy character. To want power is corruption already."
--President Art Hockstader (The Best Man)

Former DNC chair Donna Brazile authored a piece yesterday claiming that the party's presidential primary was rigged in favor of Hillary Clinton. To informed observers, this is of little surprise. In fact, it was Brazile herself caught red-handed for passing cheat sheets to the Clinton campaign during the presidential debates.

And the timing of Brazile's release is no accident as it amounts to an excerpt from her upcoming book on the subject to be released in a few days. For a political hack turned author, an article like this is cheap advertising.

What I found most interesting in her expose was near the end where she says that after telling Bernie Sanders about the rigged arrangement, both he and she decided to keep their mouths shut and campaign for Clinton. She writes:

"I urged Bernie to work as hard as he could to bring his supporters into the fold with Hillary, and to campaign with all the heart and hope he could muster. He might find some of her positions too centrist, and her coziness with the financial elites distasteful, but he knew and I knew that the alternative was a person who would put the very future of the country in peril." [emphasis mine]

What she describes is not just a Democratic Party issue. Rather, it is a problem that all politically motivated people regularly face in elections determined by democratic (i.e., majority) vote. Set aside what is right and take one for the team. Don't break ranks, because if we can't band together to support our candidate, the option being put forth by the other side will win and it is far worse.

This is the cancer of compromise in democracies.