As you probably know, I’m a Bernie guy from a Bernie family. As you may also know, I’m not upset that he has endorsed HRC, because I was always going to vote for the Democratic nominee eventually. I don’t argue back against the principles in the “don’t vote for the status quo” position, because I generally agree with it. But in commenting on another thread last night, I got a mini-epiphany about politics: Politics is to governing as butchering is to meat. It’s messy, upsetting, violent and bloody — and more importantly, it’s something we generally leave to others to do on our behalf. So when I say “It’s politics!” it’s not to dismiss it as “wrong,” but to identify it as a special kind of human endeavor. I grew up on a Utopian commune, and even the Utopians fight dirty amongst themselves, because we’re human, because democracy has need of idealism but is not in any practical way defined by it. We’re not wrong to try to improve our politics — we must — but I have to ground my conscience in my understanding of the world. The more I see, the less abstract the world feels to me…