Gratitude Post 11-05-16

[flamingsword]

Since today is Guy Fawkes Day, and nearing Election day, maybe it's time to get political with the gratitude posts. I am not someone who hates compromise, like so many of my generation have been taught to be. I can see that disenfranchising tactic for what it is: a way to alienate people from the political process. If you are trained to think part of governing is somehow dirty and inherently corrupting, you can be led to avoid the whole process that much easier, led to think of everyone involved with it as tainted and amoral instead of as human people doing what they can in difficult to reconcile circumstances. Compromise allows people with diverse needs and goals to coexist peacefully. At its heart, that's what politics IS.

Accepting a less than perfect solution as part of the way to an eventual better solution is seen as demeaning. But the subtle message that compromise in a situation is always equivalent to being treated as subhuman does not serve the interests of the electorate. It serves the interests of those willing to radicalize the few while dissociating the many. And that is a bargain those in power are willing to take.

So I am grateful for the compromise that lets me live in peace with those I disagree with. I am grateful for its part in the political system that protects me from those who hate me and would do me harm. And when polling time comes, I do my part to lead my country to the best compromises that we can find for it.

And for my place in this wider community, I am grateful, too.