The righteous in politics suffer great angst and provide more. The inability to compromise, the insistence on purity of a position and the willingness to suffer for your beliefs have real practical consequences for others. Nor is it confined; all sides are capable of it. Two cases in point: Perot in 1992 and Nader in 2000.
In 1992 the conservatives rose up against George Bush. Bush had had a spectacular several years as president but after his "No new taxes" pledge in the primary, he need to finance the surprise Iraq/Kuwait war and raised them. The conservatives went nuts. Perot emerged as a free market guy with no political background and ran against him (and Clinton) in the general election. Perot got almost 19% of the vote--all from voters who otherwise would have voted for Bush--and Clinton snuck in as a plurality president.
Nader ran as a Green candidate against Bush and Gore in 2000 and got 2.75% of the vote. But his votes would have beaten Bush in Florida had they gone to Gore and then Florida would have given the election to Gore. For the lack of a nail....
The hard-line conservatives elected Clinton, the hard-line left elected Bush.
These purists, left to their own devices, can do themselves a lot of damage. One can only wonder what the zealots will do in 2012.
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