Words of political wisdom

“[I]n politics, sincerity isn’t as important as results.” (Source)

I don’t care (much) about a politician’s personal preferences, or his historical votes, I care about how he votes on the next vote. The voting record has some predictive value, certainly, and statements from the politician should be taken into account; but the secret of the universe is, things change, people change. Politicians change because people change. If they don’t, they get voted out of office, or don’t get elected to higher office.

Related posts (automatically generated):

  1. Mitt the Panderer
  2. Pretty Outrageous
  3. FactCheck.org Needs to Check Their Facts

9 thoughts on “Words of political wisdom”

  1. “Politicians change because people change. If they don’t, they get voted out of office, or don’t get elected to higher office.”

    See the Cantor/Brat upset that threw off Boehner’s plans.

    1. The challenge to Boehner, and the outrage towards his attempts to punish that challenge, has shown us that there’s resentment bubbling among Republicans…and it’s difficult to describe that resentment, but it seems to have both conservative and libertarian aspects.

      That resentment clearly doesn’t have the power to change things, but I can’t help but wonder: when will that resentment build to the point where it actually does have power? Of course, it could dissipate before it does anything…but if it doesn’t, things are bound to get interesting.

      (I think it’s this same resentment that’s powering the Sad Puppies Campaign for the Hugos. Conservatives and libertarians are tired of their values being held down altogether…and the resentment is bubbling up in odd places…)

      1. There’s a very quiet civil war brewing in the Republican Party, one that’s also extremely messy because of the lack of defined 1v1 sides. Politics as usual is disrupting business as usual.

        And part of it is that the more libertarian(ish) republicans are tired of being guilty by association with the SoCon fossils, but can’t (if they want to hold office, anyway) jettison them entirely.

        1. To further complicate matters, the SoCon fossils aren’t as conservative as they make themselves out to be. It would be one thing if they were both socially *and* fiscally conservative…but they often aren’t all that fiscally conservative, either.

          1. There’s at least 3 “conservative sides,” and the participants all have a an actual claim on representing at least a portion of those sides. Namely: social, political, and economic. The center of mass of the Republican Party (or the Overton Window if you like that kind of language) is in motion, and not all the forces on it are being generated inside the Republican Party.

            There’s a saying in science about how, sometimes, you just have to wait for the adherents of a certain position to age out. Same thing applies in politics.

  2. “[I]n politics, sincerity isn’t as important as results.”

    I would have to deduce then that rap is more important than results, since for decades we’ve been supporting people who didn’t deliver much, but talked one hell of a good fight.

    1. Really? I look around and I see one heck of a lot of improvement in my own lifetime; as far as actual gun rights go.

Comments are closed.