Bernie Hennessy, a professor of Political Science when I was in grad school and later a good friend, said a good citizen occasionally had to “rise above principle.” It took me a while to understand what he meant, but I will give you an example.
Let’s say you are committed environmentalist. You understand that global warming is an existential threat to the planet, you are fully cognizant that we are in the middle of a human-caused Sixth Extinction, and you realize that unless we turn this around fast, we will live in an overcrowded polluted planet, if we live at all.
You are a member of the Green Party. You know that the Democratic Party is full of people like Sen. Yudichak, who favors the PennEast/UGI pipeline, and Hillary Clinton, who is unwilling to call for a total ban on fracking.
That offends your principles. You can’t compromise with that, so you go into the voting booth and vote for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate for president. You have remained true to your personal principles. You have also helped to elect a man who will abrogate climate treaties, who favors the Keystone XL pipeline, who is said to be considering Sarah Palin as Secretary of the Interior, and who will undo much of the work of the E.P.A.
That’s what Bernie Hennessy meant. There are times you need to rise above principle.
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