The primary purists remind me of those who booed Bob Dylan when he plugged in.
Young Bob Dylan liked many kinds of music including rock and roll. This was back in MN before he went to NYC in his very early 20's. Then he was inspired by Woody Guthrie, others he met in NYC, and went heavy into folk music and created his great folk anthems that became part of the 60's peace and counterculture movements. Folk music was indeed consider the "great" music, the "pure" music. But Dylan always wanted to branch out. So when he plugged in, he got booed in the US and overseas. Tossed right under the bus, even though his shows were half acoustic.
But if Dylan had been "pure," we'd never have had "Like a Rolling Stone," "Along the Watch Tower," "Someday Baby," or "Things Have Changed." I have even heard him do a great electric version of "Blowin in the Wind" with Santana.
Blind purists usually don't accomplish much because they are entirely uncompromising, and they alienate themselves from the more flexible majority. It is all or nothing. Black or white. Political purists are NOT progressive because they hamstring themselves. Being progressive means making progress, not being pure.
Hillary Clinton is a progressive who gets things done. That is what being progressive is.
PS: Dylan got booed, and then went on to an extraordinary career winning about every conceivable honor. He has won Grammys, an Oscar, Kennedy Center Honors, Rock and Songwriter Halls of Fame, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and others at home and abroad. He would have never accomplished all that in the limited cubby hole of "purity."
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