Woe to the Traitor

When Candice returned to her mutinous ways on Survivor, she reminded fans of the show why she should never have been a "hero" in the first place.  People who pay way too much attention to such things recall that on S13: Cook Islands, Candice mutinied from the Aitutaki tribe and joined the rival tribe.  She was booted from the game not long after that.  Now on the 20th season of Survivor, she was back as a "hero" where she was booted the episode after she backstabbed the Heroes.  Served her right.

I would never have bothered blogging about this had this dynamic been confined to the Survivor world.  Although Survivor is entertaining to me, most people don't care much any more.  But in a case of life imitates art, yesterday saw Arlen Specter lose in a primary to a Democrat.  Specter had been a senator for five terms -- 30 years.  He apparently left the Republican party to avoid a Republican primary battle against a conservative he only beat by two percentage points in his previous election, thinking his chances would be better running as a Democrat.  So he left the party he'd been part of since Ronald Reagan was first elected to office in 1980 and became a Democrat in a move to cling to power.  He lost by eight points.

Political pragmatism may seem like the best move if the greatest and highest goal is to remain in power.  But where are the men and women of principle who would rather stand by what they believe than be re-elected?  Until we are committed to honoring principled people over those who tickle our ears, we will continue to be faced by an endless parade of people promising "change."  But we'll never actually get any change until a majority of those who vote change who they're looking for.

I'm thrilled there are examples like this from entertainment and politics to make this point clear.  But is anyone paying attention?