Democratic Standards Evaluation

I just finished reading Shadi Hamid's February 17, 2025 op/ed piece in the Washington Post, "Why I still criticize Democrats more than Trump". In this piece, Shadi writes that he is more critical of Democrats because he expects them to live up to their ideals.  He asks the question, "As much as moral condemnation might make us feel good, what does it accomplish". He advocates against the easy and simple criticism of Trump and prods us to ask why Trump is so popular.

Because I do like to read and comment on such op/eds, I saw where WaPo started off its comment section with this question -  "What are your thoughts on the idea that Democrats should be held to a higher standard because they claim to uphold certain values?"

I immediately thought that the person (or AI) who wrote that question was implying that others should hold Democrats to a higher standard when I believe it should be Democrats evaluating how they hold to their own standards.  But I will go further and say that Democrats need to question whether those high standards are preventing them from saving this country from its current downward spiral.

 I agree wholeheartedly with Hamid when he wrote this - 

"We must wrestle with the fact that millions of our fellow Americans apparently disliked the status quo so much that they now seem indifferent to its dismantling. This isn’t about legitimizing the GOP’s burn-it-down approach to governance but rather trying to grasp why it came to this. Because it did come to this."

The Democratic Party needs to fight this war realistically. It needs to compromise within its own ranks and with others. If it keeps clinging to "hills to die on", it will die along with the nation it defends.  For years I've heard the phrase, 'you can't eat your principles". Many people simplistically interpret this to mean that you can't sacrifice your principles.  I choose a more complex interpretation. You might only like chocolate, but you can't survive if you only eat chocolate.  Democrats may not like it, but they have to be ready to eat some bitter food in order to live to fight another day.