As one great philosopher said in the sixties, you can’t always get what you want.

But too many Democrats demand that their politicians and candidates be perfect — and if the politician isn’t in agreement with them 100% of the time, then they’re the enemy and must be destroyed.

This extremism does nothing to help us. Politics is about the art of compromise, and the Angry Young Man who demands perfection and refuses to vote for a candidate who isn’t perfect almost always ends up with a Republican getting elected instead. And instead of ending up with a politician who you only agree with 75% of the time, you get one you agree with 0% of the time.

And I’m seeing this now, especially concerning a few specific Democratic politicians.

First is NY Major Mamdani. So far, I have been very happy with what he has accomplished in his short term, but that doesn’t mean I agree with everything he has said about Israel. Does that make him my enemy? No. I am pragmatic enough to know that the alternative would have been a terrible Republican sucking up to Trump and with whom I would not agree at all.

And then there’s Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner. Hoo boy, does he have some skeletons in his closet. But what is our option? There are some of my Democratic friends who are doing everything they can to destroy him, which only helps Republican Susan Collins get re-elected so she can continue to kiss Trump’s butt and destroy our chance of taking back the Senate. Is that what we want?

Not to mention my own Senator Fetterman. Boy, has he disappointed Pennsylvania voters. His approval ratings went from very high to one of the lowest of all Senators. I’m sure he’ll be primaried if he runs for re-election. But I’d still prefer him over the alternative. I mean, we could have been stuck with Senator Doctor Oz, who now is part of the Trump administration. Does anyone honestly think he’d be better?

It’s like when Democrats were upset with West Virginia Senator Manchin. Remember him? The lone Democrat in one of the reddest, conservative states? Sure, he may have only voted with us 50% of the time, but the Republican who replaced him (the ironically named Jim Justice) votes with us 0%.

Sometimes the choices we have aren’t great. But we’re going to end up with one or the other, and you have to choose the best of two bad options.

And the other distinction is this: Sure, I don’t agree with everything these guys do and stand for — jeez, I didn’t even agree with everything Obama did — but they will listen to us. These guys need our votes, and will listen and maybe even change their positions. There’s no way a Republican will do that. They know you’ll never vote for them, so why would they waste their time on you or care about the issues you care about?

Don’t sit out the election. Don’t vote third party. I’m not saying to ignore your candidates’ problems, but acknowledge them and realize they’re not as bad as the alternative — and then hold your nose, and vote for the Democrat.

And if you don’t, and we end up not taking the House and Senate because of you, well, we’ll all know who to blame.