While scrolling through my twitter timeline, a guy I follow, a hard-core Egyptian leftist, retweeted what I found to be a very offensive tweet. It wasn't offensive in that it was an attack on a certain group of people per se, but it was offensive due to its aggressiveness. A translation of that tweet is below. I will not mention the name of the quote's author because this post isn't about him.
"To my fellow leftists, please don't align yourself with liberals and raise your independent banner if you still have any self-respect"
Now please correct me if I'm wrong, but I always thought that politics is the art of compromise. I thought that anyone who's been following politics for a few months in any vibrant democracy would come to realize that fact. To me, politics is about a group of people who, while having a common desire to see their country better, see different ways and ideologies are best at reaching that goal, and in order to decide on what is THE way to fulfill their goal, politicians decide to give a little, take a little.
Now to some people that might sound like you're selling out, that you're giving in, and in a country where the electorate is getting more and more polarized, politicians find it easier to appease their constituents rather than try to sell the idea of compromise. The results when no compromise solution is agreed upon are there for everyone to see. Not only bad for the chances of those politicians getting re-elected, but also bad for a country that is desperate for progress. A prime example of a broken parliament is the US Congress. Almost every single vote on any subject (whether it's related to foreign policy, the economy, education, healthcare, you name it..) has become a routine job where the elected official caucuses with people who have similar political views, and as a bloc they vote Yay or Nay. Party-line votes are a sham, and they're often not the wisest. I thought decision should be decided by thoroughly studying the case at hand and making an informed decision. Silly me.
So how does that bode for Egyptian politics if every political force decided to walk alone, to stay pure? I say they will suffer, and the country would suffer would them. I don't want trickle-down economics, but I don't want socialism either. I don't want normalizing with Israel, but I don't think not working with them to solve the Palestinian struggle is a good idea. Some people think that middle of the road solutions makes everybody a loser. I say it makes everyone a winner. That person you work with who doesn't share your economic philosophy might not work with you on increasing the standard of living for the poor if you're not going to work with him on issues of freedom of speech and women's rights. Politics is not for simpletons. Politics is not for puritans. If you don't want to compromise your "principles", you'll be marginalized, and you'll get farther from your ultimate goal for this country, not closer.
People laughed, and cried, at George W. Bush when he said in his speech to the joint session of Congress on September 20th, 2001 "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists." regarding his planned invasion of Afghanistan. To most of the world the statement seemed foolish and reckless. And his decision was obviously not the wisest since this war is now officially the longest in US history.
I sincerely hope Egyptians are spared this sort of mentality and rhetoric.
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