Theresa D'Agostino sits across from Tommy Carcetti and his wife, and she tells him he needs to be more likeable. Carcetti has just eviscerated the police brass during a Baltimore City Council hearing, against DiAgostino's advice. The mayoral election is a year away and nobody is going to remember Carcetti's moment of triumph a year from now. He's shown his hand too soon.
All politicians are self righteous at some point, D'Agostino says, but that can sink your ship, if you're not smart about it.
Facts will help you in a court of law, but not in politics. Kennedy had facts. Clinton had facts. Reagan couldn't have remembered a fact to save his life. But people liked Clinton and they liked Reagan. You stood in a room listening to them and they made you feel all warm inside. That's what wins elections.
This is what happens before people can seize power: Even Hitler spent time with his acolytes testing his material.
Mad Dog recommends liberals now do the same--retreat to our beer halls and watch the best depiction of any Dystopia in the world's literature, and discuss what has brought the world to this state, and think about what, if any, path exists for a way out.
All politicians are self righteous at some point, D'Agostino says, but that can sink your ship, if you're not smart about it.
Facts will help you in a court of law, but not in politics. Kennedy had facts. Clinton had facts. Reagan couldn't have remembered a fact to save his life. But people liked Clinton and they liked Reagan. You stood in a room listening to them and they made you feel all warm inside. That's what wins elections.
I watched this scene from Season 3, an episode called "Moral Midgetry" of "The Wire" this morning and had an eerie sensation. This episode aired a dozen years ago but watching it, I thought Theresa D'Agostino was speaking to Democrats today.
The dated part of it was two women were telling this man he had to make people feel warm and fuzzy inside. These were women who wanted to see the soft side of the man.
The Donald knew something different. Yes, you have to make people feel, not think, if you want to get elected. But you don't have to appeal to the feminine side, if you want to be President.
So now the Righteous Right has come to power, has seized control of those nefarious government agencies, the EPA, the Departments of Energy, Interior, Defense, State and the CIA. They did this because they spent years in the wilderness arguing their ideas, refining them.
This is what happens before people can seize power: Even Hitler spent time with his acolytes testing his material.
Mad Dog recommends liberals now do the same--retreat to our beer halls and watch the best depiction of any Dystopia in the world's literature, and discuss what has brought the world to this state, and think about what, if any, path exists for a way out.
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