Question for Harris & Buttigieg supporters.

[wysimdnwyg]

8. Why do we have to put people in boxes like this?

Sure, it's easy to label Warren and Sanders as 10s (although I wouldn't put either of them that high), and perhaps Delaney and Ryan at 1 (although I don't know enough about either to suggest they shouldn't be a little higher). But the middle ground is much more fluid. Where would you put Biden? A 3? 5? Well, on certain topics, perhaps he's an 8, while on others he's a 2.

In the cases of Harris and Buttigieg, I'd forego the rating and suggest both are "pragmatic idealists". In my view, both have their progressive ideals, but they also understand that our system makes it very, very difficult to go straight from where we are to where we want to be. It's like the minimum wage. If they came out with a law that said as of tomorrow the minimum wage is now $15/hr, our economy would choke. That's a huge shock for many employers who would suddenly see their payroll double. So instead of a hard cut-over, most proposals see graduated increases over a period of time. Harris and Buttigieg both seem to understand the concept of doing what we can do today, while working towards that ideal.