2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: I've been asked 3 times now how I could be a Bernie supporter and be such a vocal lover of Kaine [View all]calimary
(81,209 posts)and change accordingly, themselves. Hillary even made this point - saying of course you change your mind or your stand on things, with new things to take into account. If you want to have INFORMED positions, then of course YOU evolve, change your mind, adjust your thinking accordingly, consider new things or new findings or new developments that alter your earlier view. President Obama came around on gay marriage. Hillary, and now Tim Kaine too, have changed their positions on TPP. Practically everybody in politics who's got some grip on reality has changed his or her position on gay rights.
We've certainly seen what folly it is when public policymakers stay rigid, and DON'T change - either with the times, or new discoveries, or scientific research, or cultural shifts, or new realities. When, for just one example, politicians remain racist DESPITE the growing reality of demographic change in this country, or when people dig in their heels on climate change denial DESPITE the drastically mounting evidence that it's not only real BUT also really caused by humans. When they take pride in that denial - it can literally be fatal. Look how relentlessly ronald reagan stayed closed-minded about AIDS, and his refusal to bring the growing crisis to the public's attention or advocate for it. People DIED of that willful neglect. That refusal to change and modify one's views - KILLED PEOPLE. Delayed treatment. Prolonged pain and agony and deterioration. How many people did we lose because the Neanderthals out there remained willfully stuck on the idea that AIDS was God's way of punishing gays, and refusing to change with the times and with new scientific realities?
We HOPE for politicians who AREN'T so calcified that they can't be flexible, and open to different ideas and changes and new realities! We PRAY for policymakers and decision-makers who have open minds and nimble thinking to meet the realities that those open minds allow in. We WANT - and NEED the adaptability and the flexibility that both come with, and through, those open minds. I'm glad these folks change their minds on things I consider important!
It's not a bad thing for candidates to change their minds. Particularly when it's because there's a recognition that the previous thinking doesn't fit or doesn't work or have relevance or carry weight anymore, or meet the real needs of real people in real changing times anymore. It's not a bad thing! It's a good thing. Indeed, sometimes our very lives depend on it.