Politics is the Art of the Possible

I apologize if I wrote this before.

Politicians want to be reelected or elected to higher office.  To get there they need more votes than their opponent in 1st any primary and 2nd the general election.  So they need to promote policies that get them a sufficient number of votes.

But once they are in office they have a responsibility to manage the political entity they are part of well.     While they are doing so, they have to balance the need for responsible management with the need to keep getting votes in the next election cycle.

People want a well run government.  They want the roads to be smooth, they want the bridges to not collapse, they want the police, fire and military to perform their responsibilities.  They want a clean environment and they want equal opportunity for life liberty and happiness.  And just to be clear, they want a functioning CDC, food inspection, air traffic control and their retirement benefits they paid into. And they want to be able to afford healthcare.  Health insurance is an integral part of that and there is absolutely no reason why you should have to have employment to get access to group health insurance.  No other insurance scheme works like that.

In other words, government is a complicated entity and politicians are elected to manage their slice of government well and make changes on the margin to move things in a better direction that they campaigned on.  And they have to recognize that all politicians have a similar mission and compromise will be required so everyone can go home and win reelection as their thanks for running the government well.

If only Tea Party politicians could understand this.