Desiring Machine

Kos has a good post about how Bush used his 4th veto as president to veto the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Not surprising that Bush would choose to burn political capital by denying healthcare to children. What is really fascinating is that Dennis Kucinich, maven of the far left, also voted against the bill. Kos is right on when he classifies Kucinich as a “Purity Troll”.

I am tired of that tendency on the left. Shame on you Dennis, shame on you! We all have to work together, even if compromise is required.

Definitiion of Purity Troll from dkosopedia.

“Purity Trolls”. These are trolls from the left. Otherwise known in reallife as drama queens. No matter how pure your position is, their position is more pure. No matter how compassionate or informed or skeptical or vigorous your opinion is, theirs is more of it. These trolls are insistent that they are the true spirit of liberalism, and spend their time being quite put out that the rest of us don’t turn over our resources, our audiences, and our respect to them, regardless of how thin their positions may be on the merits. Drives me nuts, personally.

I have known quite a few purity trolls in my lifetime. You know who you are. Hell I probably used to be one myself. Even had a lost friendship over this behavior once. Interesting phenomena, quite boorish to be around.

Update:

In doing some more reading on the Kucinich vote I came across a juicy Voltaire quote.

“Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien.”, from Voltaire’s Dictionnaire Philosophique (1764)

Literally translated as “The best is the enemy of good.”

Truer words have not been written, and it is this insight that fundamentally defines my personal politics.