Obama Warns Dems Of The Danger Of Purist Ideology

(This photo of President Barack Obama is by Mark Makela / Getty Images at abcnews.go.com.)

I am a progressive Democrat, and I have been for about five decades. I am also a realist, who prefers small progress to no progress at all. I understand that it is extremely unlikely that I will ever find a political candidate that I will agree with on every single thing, and I don't require that.

Unfortunately, there are some people in the party I love who don't think that way. They demand a strict adherence to the principles of progressivism, and refuse to consider any candidate that disagrees with them on any issue. This is especially true of some Bernie Sanders supporters (who require complete agreement with Sanders for anyone to be considered progressive).

This is a dangerous viewpoint in these times. Donald Trump is a danger to this country, and it is extremely important to get him out of the White House in the next election. We don't need to replace him with a "perfect" progressive. Any Democrat who can beat Trump is OK in my book. Even a moderate Democrat would be better than Trump, and with a Democratic Congress would enact at least some of what progressives would like to see.

I am not alone in that view. President Obama also sees a danger in the "purist" ideology being spouted by some progressives. He made the following statements to a Berlin audience a couple of days ago, but the remarks were obviously aimed at members of the Democratic Party. He said:

"One of the things I do worry about sometimes among progressives in the United States —maybe it’s true here as well — is a certain kind of rigidity where we say, 'Uh, I’m sorry, this is how it’s going to be,' and then we start sometimes creating what’s called a 'circular firing squad,' where you start shooting at your allies because one of them has strayed from purity on the issues. And when that happens, typically the overall effort and movement weakens." 

"So I think whether you are speaking as a citizen or as a political leader or as an organizer … you have to recognize that the way we structure democracy requires you to take into account people who don’t agree with you, and that by definition means you’re not going to get 100 percent of what you want." 

"You should take some time to think in your own mind and continually refine and reflect, 'What are my core principles?' Because the danger is if you don’t know what your principles are, that’s when you compromise your principles away. You can’t set up a system in which you don't compromise on anything, but you also can’t operate in a system where you compromise on everything."