I understand wanting to believe in "the rules", even treat them as moral imperatives. I feel that urge very strongly, I want life to work that way. I'd say I often *need* it to work that way.
But rules like "never lie" or "never kill" just don't work in every situation. Possibly the most famous is: "Is it then evil to lie to Nazis if you're hiding people from them?"
Any reasonable person in the modern world understands that morality is consequential. The right isn't evil because of their tactics, they're evil because of their values and the results thereof. Their tactics are generally quite sound, which is why they tend to control things. The only strength that liberalism has against this is that they don't disagree with the economics of the right, at least not beyond reconciliation.
If wierd wants to make things about chess, then the right is a man playing chess against a liberal who doesn't take pieces because it would be in poor sport for them to actually win.
You want to be the good guy here? Put us in a place where we can actually have healthcare for everybody, or stop pigs from murdering on the daily, or stop the ecological collapse, instead of just dreaming about it and following the rules that were so carefully handed down to you by previous generations of right-wing assholes.
This is how it is ^
The chess analogy works like this: We're playing it for people's lives. Our main opponents are distributed AIs running on wetware, or stubborn old people who only seek their own immortality through building dynastic power. They cheat without fear, because they're jaded or literally inhuman. Cheating is so common and poorly policed that it's really just part of the meta. Not to mention the distasteful moves which aren't technically cheating (campaign finance reform when).
I want to argue that it's better to follow rules in general, because it helps one maintain an internal integrity which is perceived by others. I really want to say that, but that's so fricken naive. It's a lie, a trap set to make the compassionate players hobble themselves.
There are actual discussions to be had about politics, but they don't really happen in the calcified circus of US Congress. Change starts at the local level and works up.
PS: An example of pragmatic thinking might be *not* impeaching Trump. By the rules he obviously deserves to be impeached, and thrown in a hole for the rest of his life. That would be the just thing, the right thing.
But if that happens, we just get Mike Pence as President, which is just advancing a Republican pawn to queen
(as opposed to the Monopoly shoe they currently have)
Should I ignore justice and be relieved that Trump's going to stay in power? This is truly some 4D chess.