Reading Michael Ignatieff - Fire and Ashes: Success and Failure in Politics goodreads.com/book/show/1780…
When we call politics the art of the possible, we mean the art of knowing what is possible here and now. The possible includes the potential
While politicians are always condemned for opportunism, being a skillful opportunist is the essence of the political art.
A poor opportunist in politics is simply someone who looks, all too obviously, like he is *exploiting* an opportunity.
A skillful opportunist is someone who persuades the public that he has *created* the opportunity.
A skillful opportunist is someone who persuades the public that he has *created* the opportunity.
The key talent in politics: "sprezzatura" (Baldassare Castiglione's Book of the Courtier, 1528)
Uncontrived and effortless
All of the human skills in politics involve artifice, but the artifice must be concealed with ease and grace.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_…
Uncontrived and effortless
All of the human skills in politics involve artifice, but the artifice must be concealed with ease and grace.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_…
That's the Canadian way. Our democracy is relatively inexpensive. In 2011, in a country larger than the US but with only a tenth of the population, a federal election cost $291 million.
In 2012, the total cost of US elections came to six billion dollars.
In 2012, the total cost of US elections came to six billion dollars.
Positioning is not the same as taking a position.
No actual expertise is necessary in order to position effectively.
Positioning is about placing yourself on a political spectrum, differentiating yourself from your opponent without alienating too many people in the process.
No actual expertise is necessary in order to position effectively.
Positioning is about placing yourself on a political spectrum, differentiating yourself from your opponent without alienating too many people in the process.
It's not what you mean. It's what they hear.
With a couple of ill-chosen sentences, I had managed the almost impossible feat of alienating Jewish, Muslim and Lebanese groups alike.
With a couple of ill-chosen sentences, I had managed the almost impossible feat of alienating Jewish, Muslim and Lebanese groups alike.
We ran on a carbon tax, which, in the context of a sudden meltdown in financial markets (2008) was good policy but bad politics.
carbon taxes will become politically palatable only when we solve our Citizens' substitution problems
carbon taxes will become politically palatable only when we solve our Citizens' substitution problems
He didn't attack what I said. He attacked my right to say anything at all. He denied me standing ing in my own country.
You no longer attack a candidate's ideas or positions. You attack who they are
You no longer attack a candidate's ideas or positions. You attack who they are
If a politician cannot succeed in convincing voters that he is in it for them, he cannot win standing
Without a narrative that defines the messenger as one with the
audience he wants to reach, no message can get a hearing.
Without a narrative that defines the messenger as one with the
audience he wants to reach, no message can get a hearing.
Re-describing reality so that voters believe your account of it is an essential gift in a successful politician.
We increasingly have the politics of enemies.
In this perversion of the game, politics is modelled as war itself.
The aim is not to defeat an adversary but to destroy an enemy by denying them standing.
In this perversion of the game, politics is modelled as war itself.
The aim is not to defeat an adversary but to destroy an enemy by denying them standing.
I thought I was in an election. We were in a reality show. I thought content mattered. I thought the numbers in a platform should add up. Ours did and theirs didn't. None of it mattered
They understood a basic reality of the new era of the permanent campaign better than we had
They understood a basic reality of the new era of the permanent campaign better than we had
