Matisyahu's Blog

We’re meant to be moving into summer and yet the weather has been strange recently. I went for a small walk around the block to get some fresh air then headed down the road to have a look around at the mall. I’m still working through the templates on WordPress – the difficult balance of finding something that is minimalist but not too minimalist – a middle ground of having something with design flair but without going overboard. Ah, the middle ground – if I could ‘dream up’ a theme it would be something that has William Morris style, a sort of art’s and craft movement vibe to it.

I’ve been watching a few videos and it is good to see that there appears to be a growing chorus of activists online pushing back again rabid single issue voters when it comes to US politics (this is particularly important given the 2026 mid terms coming up next year) – purity testers that if they don’t get their pet project given the 100% undivided attention then they’ll throw a temper tantrum. If you have the luxury of being able to focus all your energy on a single issue at the expense of everything else then what that tells me is that you’re immensely privileged person who has the luxury of not having to care about health, education, social welfare, infrastructure, dealing with the root causes of why Trump got into power etc.

Such individuals are the same reason I have little time for upper class liberals who use politics not as a vehicle to engage in societal transformation but merely as a way to morally posture and virtue single about how they’re morally super to others. They’re in a privileged position that, no matter who ends up winning their life doesn’t change so as a result they can play this game of pointless purity testing and vote for third parties that have no chance of winning because ultimately they’re largely insulated from the outcome of elections.

During the primaries there is a time to yell, scream, debate, horse trade and protest but eventually once the dust settles and there is a candidate do you know what you do? you shut your trap and get behind the candidate with the realisation that the person running isn’t just representing you but also representing everyone in the area they’re running in – you not getting your pet project given all the attention of the candidate doesn’t mean that the issue is being ignored but the simple fact of the matter is that there is a limited amount of bandwidth and you have to pick your battles. Think of the bigger picture besides what interests you – there is more to the world than you and your wishes, whims and desires.

On a side note, when getting legislation through it sometimes requires swallowing a few dead rats – that is how many bills are done, they mix in good policies with bad policy but it is up to the politician look at the bigger picture and realise that the benefits from supporting a given piece of legislation far outweighs the downsides. For example, if there is a bill that includes military aid for Israel but also there is money for relief aid to Gaza along with funding to rebuild then are you really going to vote down a bill resulting in Gaza getting no assistance at all? Another example is the combining of agricultural subsidies along with food stamps so then it is able to get broad bipartisan support, or a domestic policy with an international policy thus allowing politicians to defend the funding of international policy by pointing to the domestic policy that was passed at the same time.

I’ve refrained (and will continue to do so) from commenting about the tragedy at Bondi Beach in Australia. The reason for refraining is because I don’t have all the information nor is it my place to comment. It is a scary time when one considers the rise of extremist political ideologies around the world and I hope that in the coming year that humanity will come to its collective senses and we get back to some normality where the serious issues facing us can be discussed in good faith and policies addressing those challenges are proposed rather than knee jerk reactionary politics that is more concerned with obtaining power for power sake.