General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: This is different. It is even more "in your face" than anything that's gone before. [View all]ehrnst
(32,640 posts)What is "right" will be different to different people, depending on their individual priorities. You seem to think that it's always obvious, because you have very specific ideas on what is "right," so that must be the case for everyone, on any issue.
Do you vote to shut down the military base in your community knowing that doing so it will shutter many local businesses that have grown up around it?
Do you vote to build that much needed elementary school to ease overcrowding on historic park land that people use for recreation and hold very dear?
Can you tell everyone what the "right" thing to do when faced with those situations that aren't simple "right/wrong" choice as much as between "bad for some/bad for others"? Reality doesn't always present one with easy decisions, and sometimes people don't even perceive the actual options. What you dismiss as "perceived politics" are often what drives those decisions.
For instance, one could say that because alcohol is addictive, kills thousands every year via drunk driving and expensive medical conditions like liver failure, and destroys thousands of families, it's "wrong" to allow it. It is "right" to keep it out of people's hands.
But we know from experience that the choice isn't between "making it illegal" or "perpetuating the harm it does." We know that the best we can do is to mitigate the damage, keep it above ground and regulated, educate the public on the dangers, and provide avenues for recovery from addiction. "Doing what is right" is often very complicated, and any decision may have negative consequences.
There is a concept known as a "wicked problem" which defies "right" and "wrong" solutions. The concept that there is always a clear "right thing to do" doesn't fit into this kind of problem. Politicians deal with them all the time, even if it's not really clear to their constituents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_problem
Among them are health care reform, poverty, systemic racism, the religious tension in the middle east, etc.
Emancipation was another example - when slaves were emancipated, Segregation and Jim Crow suppression replaced slavery because emancipation didn't solve the entrenched white supremacy. Emancipation is considered the "right" thing, however there were no real solutions or ideas on how to get white communities to accept free black people once they were free. There was no, "Slaves will be Emancipated and become members of society/ or they will remain Slaves" There were going to be ugly, horrific circumstances either way. The backlash against Emancipation by white supremacists was horrifying, and thousands of black citizens suffered torture and lynchings as a result.
Conviction of a POTUS with a GOP led Senate isn't just "unlikely" it's definitely not going to happen. What is driving the push for impeachment without a conviction indeed only serves to satiate a wish for vengance, understandable as it is, because it's not going to help Democrats or this country in any other way at all. There are more effective ways to use our time and energy that would be more productive to actually stopping his policies than political theatre (without hard evidence or bi-partisan support.)