During my two years there has been many recurring themes. One is that - as a radical - there is apparently a Radically Approved Way [tm] to vote, and I annoyingly don’t always follow it. And there is the Well She’s a Radical and Even Though I Agree with Her Vote I’ll be Damned if I’ll Support It because MUH FACTIONALISM!!!!
And if I go off any one person’s approved track it is “opportunism” and if I stay on it is “bravery” and it turns into a political collectivist mush. Its like broccoli and cats. I don’t like either.
I am not a politician. Winning the next X is nice (no one likes to lose) but it is never my most important principle. I don’t think the only motions worth bringing are the ones you can win (sometimes it is a waste of time to bring a loser but sometimes it is worth making the point). I don’t calculate if doing what I think is right is going to cost me X - that is tiring and just not who I am.
Now there is always some issue that for some people is The One Thing and whoever disagrees with them Will Never Have Their Vote. Everyone is entitled to that, but that is symptom of the problem above. There are usually good reasons for both sides and if you examine the reasons, you get to the underlying worldview and pattern of the person in question and then test that with the rest of their votes- that is the way to evaluate.
So please, don't advise me on political expediency. I am not a politician. And I think we have had enough of politicians. If you agree with me on anything don’t just cheer it, find out why to get to the worldview. Same if you disagree. Same with everyone else and not just me.
The LP should not be Politics as Usual. And I think we have forgotten that.
And as I am writing this, I am feeling like the LP Political Carrie Bradshaw with the pithy little weekly column, but without the sex.