It must be tough to be 100% pure. To have to look over your shoulder constantly to ensure that nobody has gotten more pure than you. At that point, purity has become the sine qua non of your existence.
When you have to put holds on the President’s nominations to vital Government positions. When you attack his health care plan and have no viable alternative yourself. When you get so pure that ostensible former allies become “Establishment” targets. When you have to one-up everybody else to show that you are the purest. When everything that isn’t pure is a conspiracy theory. When your tax plan has to be the most pure and the most “radical.”
When your supporters have to throw every endorser of your opponent under the bus.
When all you have to offer is cheap sloganeering backed up by thin plans and no way to implement them. When your supporters can only fuel themselves with hatred for the impure. When you get so enveloped in the purity bubble that it cuts off oxygen to your brain. When pure becomes more important than fact or reality or results or evidence or getting shit done. When your movement is a thinly disguised religion. When you have no friends among the people you work with, and the list of your friends includes only the enemies of your enemies.
That’s when you should take a step back. As noted above, I have some compassion in my heart for those who have to be 100% pure. It must be draining, and the constant anger cannot be good for the health. But now that he is second in polling in Iowa—and even led a few polls there—it’s time to fight back. I will go to war against Ted Cruz. Are you with me?
We’ve made too much progress to throw it away now.