The Problem of Purity

The Tangential Cannot Disrupt the Core

There is a political phenomenon, present in almost every movement throughout history, that can only be described as a purity test, an ever-narrowing gauntlet of ideological acceptability that in the end rips a movement apart.

And it needs to stop, starting Monday.

Of course, Donald Trump will continue to have his opponents, some acting in good faith but most just knee-jerking Orange Man Bad.

But Trump’s supporters will have to face their own tendency to micro-think, to impose standards of ideological purity that simply cannot be met in the real world.

The process can be described as trying to be the holiest of thou, of the perfect being the enemy of the good, of single-issue obsession, of saying “I like every thing X says except one thing so I can never ever support X.”

On occasion, that one thing is definitely enough to justify refusing to support X, but far too often it is either not the point or is completely tangential to the matter at hand.

For example, when looking at a candidate for your local water board or some such down-ballot more technical function, is it really necessary to demand the candidate oppose or support abortion?

No, it’s not. The issue has nothing to do with the position, to do with making sure fire hydrants work, for example, and the board member could not do anything about it either way anyway.

It is an important tissue, in general but not in this specific case – it is merely a purity test meant to impose unnecessary and ultimately destructive orthodoxy.

There are core issues everyone cares deeply about and should be used to judge policies and projects and plans.

But it would behoove the president’s supporters to understand that not everything is of equal importance in any particular situation. In other words, think of core beliefs as personally immutable but do not treat every belief as such and see the political world one sees a household budget: absolute need, really want, would like to have, and “I won the lottery!” wishes.

Purity tests always, in the end, drag entire movements down the wrong road, a road imposed by only the theoretically purist who – as the purist and typically loudest – impose their own beliefs and predilections and personalities on others.

This leads to a culture of fear in a movement which simply spirals further and further away from reality and any hope of having any success (Bolsheviks versus Mensheviks aside.)

A humorous example of this process:

A far more real and far more recent and far more dangerous example has literally been staring the nation in the face for the past decade: DEI/social justice/progressive/woke/communitarianism.

With each passing year, the standards imposed became more and more strict, more and more outlandish, more and more unbelievable to the point that even raising the question that maybe letting teenagers mutilate their genitalia was not at all allowed.

Think about that for a moment and think about a time – not too long ago – when such a possibility seemed unimaginable.

Get rid of cops, let felons walk free, ban free speech, place competency below identity, the list of absurdities is endless.

And where did this road lead? The destruction of public trust, the perversion of institutions, countless personal tragedies, all in the name of a purity imposed on the culture by an unhinged, narcissistic, uneducated cabal.

And where are they now? The movement is finally imploding under its own weight and absurdity and - especially - its purity demands. While particular atrocities and specific damages will take to remedy, the end is unquestionably nigh.

And that’s what purity tests taken to their logical end can do, will do, and have done.

Supporters of the president will not agree on everything and there will be tussles and upsets and feelings of disappointment and timing disputes but those individual glitches cannot be allowed to overtake the general change in the air.

The terrible alternative must always be remembered; put another way, would you rather stub your toe or be tossed into a woodchipper?

That’s what is at stake moving forward from Monday.