Virtue hoarding punishes compromise

A strand of contemporary left activist politics treats compromise by elected officials as a moral failure and actively polices it through protests and reputational attacks. This dynamic can push parties away from pragmatic governing choices and turn concessions into targets rather than bridges to broader coalitions. — If widespread, this pattern reshapes how parties win power: it incentivizes performative purity over coalition‑building, raising risks for electoral failure and governance paralysis.