Politicians aren't our saviors, just slow students

Sam Smith - Having been introduced to politics in Philadelphia and Boston, it has never occurred to me that politicians would be our saviors. Even at its best, politics is the final high hill that advocates of change have to climb in  order to reach their goals.

The recent criticism of Joe Biden changing his view on the Hyde Amendment is an example of how we have come to ignore this reality and, instead often act as though we were judging politicians by whether we should accept them into our private club of the virtuous. I prefer looking at such politicians more as a teacher would a poor student - and praising them if they finally get a topic right.

A few months back, I mentioned the example of Lyndon Johnson - who got more good legislation passed than any president since Franklin Roosevelt, yet as Barack Obama pointed out:

During his first 20 years in Congress, he opposed every civil rights bill that came up for a vote, once calling the push for federal legislation “a farce and a sham.”  He was chosen as a vice presidential nominee in part because of his affinity with, and ability to deliver, that Southern white vote.  And at the beginning of the Kennedy administration, he shared with President Kennedy a caution towards racial controversy. 

Politics - especially national politics - is not the cause of positive change; it is the result of it. One need look no further than the recent changes in drug policy that sane folks have been pushing for almost a half century, to realize that at no time did politicians take the lead on the cause; they just eventually caved. They weren't activists, but reactivists.

The goal of the real changers - those who have pressed issues like the environment or abortion or civil rights - has been to create a political and social climate where it is attractive to politicians to do the right thing.  This is precisely what women have done with Joe Biden in the case of the Hyde Amendment.  

Biden is not my favorite candidate for President by a long shot. But given my views, my favorites likely can't win because the country isn't ready. Right now Biden is the candidate with leading strength in non-blue states and I would rather join fights with him as president than suffer another four years of the misery we currently experience. Remember: we are choosing a battlefield and not a savior.

Could this all change? Sure. Am I supporting Biden? No, but I am also not going to knock him for changing his position on something for the better.