Principles Versus Pragmatism

In my four years as a conservative political activist, I recently came to the following two conclusions:

1. No organization can outrun the worldview of its leadership and
2. The battle between adhering to principles versus compromising principles in the name of “pragmatism” has been going for thousands of years

Locally, the Newton City Council passed a Sanctuary City Ordinance in February. This ordinance was sponsored at the behest of the Newton Democratic City Committee. A group called Keep Newton Safe was formed to oppose the ordinance, but its leadership eventually came around to support a compromise ordinance ostensibly allowing the police to remand criminal illegal aliens to the immigration authorities while barring police from taking action against illegal aliens only wanted for immigration law violations.

Keep Newton Safe failed to defeat the Sanctuary City Ordinance because of its divided world view. Its membership base opposed the Sanctuary City ordinance because its worldview supported immigration enforcement, but its leadership’s political plumbline was centered on their personal relationships with the mayor and police chief. They opposed the original ordinance because the mayor and police chief opposed it, but supported the compromise ordinance because the mayor and police chief supported it.

This reminded me of the Jewish struggle for independence against the Seleucid Empire. On one hand, you had Judah Maccabee and the Hasmoneans who wanted to throw off the yoke of the occupying empire and rid Judea of the alien, Hellenist, pagan influences that resulted from being occupied. On the other hand, there were moderate “pragmatists” who were willing to make a “peace deal” with the Empire in exchange for their ally to be appointed as the high priest. The moderates made their deal with the Empire, but were betrayed and executed. Fortunately, the Maccabees were able to regroup, defeat the Empire and regain Jewish independence in Judea.

No political organization (especially one that wants to change the political status quo) can succeed until its principals know who they are, defines what it believes and identifies where it wants to go because no amount of time, talent and treasure can help an organization outrun the worldview of its leadership. Furthermore, no nominally right-leaning, anti-establishment reformer organization can hope to succeed if its leadership compromises the organization’s principles for “pragmatism”.