Ultimately, as a politician, you have to be where the most voters are. The caveat there is that you have to be where most of the voters in your district (that vote) are. Which is why people like MTG or Gaetz or Gym Jordan or MyKevin can get elected. Not where most of the people (at large) are, not where all of the registered voters are, …
Ultimately, as a politician, you have to be where the most voters are.
The caveat there is that you have to be where most of the voters in your district (that vote) are. Which is why people like MTG or Gaetz or Gym Jordan or MyKevin can get elected.
Not where most of the people (at large) are, not where all of the registered voters are, but where the actual voters are. Because the reality is that voting DOES (at least for now) count.
Joe and the people around him understand that. They understand that they are (first and foremost) about winning elections and holding office so that they can do other things. Becuse you cannot do much if you don't hold office--and you cannot do much if you can't get people to agitate for or go along with the policies that you push.
The result is neither fair nor just. It just tends to work. Things tend to get done. There is movement. Not necessarily the thing you want, but often a thing on the pathway to the thing you want--setting the stage for the thing you want. And if you do it right, you tend to move along a trajectory that leads to to better things as time passes.
Being unsatisfied with what you get is par for the course. Agitating for more is important and necessary. It sets the boundaries of possible choices. Shifts the goalposts. Prepares the ground. It is particularly important in pushing back against the extremism of the opposite side.
By constructing and continuously reinforcing a narrative of JUSTICE (not equality--or at least not primarily equality) in the background of the rights granted in the Constitution and the ideals of the Constitution--by recapturing words such as liberty and freedom--you can have and use a narrative that can push things toward a more just (and ultimately more equitable) society and politics.
Especially f you couple this with changes to the political incentive structure that reduce the power of extremists (thinking of FFV here).
History is not a thing, in and of itself. It has no mind, no purpose, no goal, no intention. There is no inevitable arc. There is only the day by day by day grind to build a better place and to keep those who would build a worse place from undoing your work.
Ultimately, as a politician, you have to be where the most voters are.
The caveat there is that you have to be where most of the voters in your district (that vote) are. Which is why people like MTG or Gaetz or Gym Jordan or MyKevin can get elected.
Not where most of the people (at large) are, not where all of the registered voters are, but where the actual voters are. Because the reality is that voting DOES (at least for now) count.
Joe and the people around him understand that. They understand that they are (first and foremost) about winning elections and holding office so that they can do other things. Becuse you cannot do much if you don't hold office--and you cannot do much if you can't get people to agitate for or go along with the policies that you push.
The result is neither fair nor just. It just tends to work. Things tend to get done. There is movement. Not necessarily the thing you want, but often a thing on the pathway to the thing you want--setting the stage for the thing you want. And if you do it right, you tend to move along a trajectory that leads to to better things as time passes.
Being unsatisfied with what you get is par for the course. Agitating for more is important and necessary. It sets the boundaries of possible choices. Shifts the goalposts. Prepares the ground. It is particularly important in pushing back against the extremism of the opposite side.
By constructing and continuously reinforcing a narrative of JUSTICE (not equality--or at least not primarily equality) in the background of the rights granted in the Constitution and the ideals of the Constitution--by recapturing words such as liberty and freedom--you can have and use a narrative that can push things toward a more just (and ultimately more equitable) society and politics.
Especially f you couple this with changes to the political incentive structure that reduce the power of extremists (thinking of FFV here).
History is not a thing, in and of itself. It has no mind, no purpose, no goal, no intention. There is no inevitable arc. There is only the day by day by day grind to build a better place and to keep those who would build a worse place from undoing your work.