Keri Smith
Jul 25, 2017 · 2 min read

“For the leftists who stuck with their ideals, the result was worse than if they had stooped to considering the real-world consequences of voting their consciences.”

I don’t agree with you on a very fundamental level. Sticking with ones principles over party is of the utmost importance to me. It’s the only way to guard against becoming unmoored, or becoming a puppet of ideology or of machinations you can’t perceive. I do not agree that the result is “worse” for those to attempt to live their beliefs rather than trying to force the world into what they believe they want. On the contrary, attempting to make sure your actions match your beliefs is the best way to live. Trump won; you seem to believe that is “worse” than Clinton winning and that we agree on that? We don’t. I don’t presume to know enough to know what is worse. It’s my opinion that what happened was supposed to happen, and we are all, individually and as a country, here to learn something from it.

“So you and other leftists who want to feel good about not sullying yourselves by voting against Trump in a way that would have actually stopped him now have to rationalize away your idealistic behavior by rejecting criticism about splitting the coalition, etc.”

It’s not about “feeling good,” that’s what SJWism espouses — that’s what those who say to vote for the “lesser of two evils” or to use their vote *against* someone rather than *for* someone espouse. I believe it makes them feel like good people, like they are on the “right side of history” (something I hear quite a bit from people on the left, when they justify repugnant or hypocritical behavior). It’s ideological nonsense. Voting ones principles is about building one’s character, about staying on course with a mode of being that you have set for yourself, and not becoming possessed by ideology, fear or arrogance. It seems that you bought into the Trump = Hitler hyperbole and so for you, “stopping him” was the number one priority of the election. That was not the number one priority for me, and I do not buy into that Hitler/Boogeyman narrative anymore. I believe it to be a dangerous manipulative tactic with violent consequences.

“Is being against gerrymandering a leftist or SJW position, or is it an American position?”

American.

    Keri Smith

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    @ksemamajama Co-Host at https://unsafespace.com Founder of https://civilitydinners.com More about me: http://www.wearebird.co/keri-smith/