Naval

Not necessarily so. Politics is how a group of people achieve consensus about what to do. The structure of this process is up to the participants, including the role of merit and what is deemed meritorious.

I once heard Congressman Ed Zschau say, if politicians were businesspeople, they could give a speech that says "I stand for PROFITS!...I am on the record for standing for profits and I have never changed my mind. I challenge you to show me when I didn't think profits matter."

Cynicism about politics is partly to blame for the mess we are in. We need people who believe in working, in good faith, for the democratic process. And to improve it. Surely?

Disagree. Politics is the consensus mechanism we use when merit is uncertain or subjective. It’s inefficient, but preferable to unilateral decision making

Politics is show business for the ugly- Rush Linbaugh

Politics is power. Politics with merit is powerful leadership. Politics without merit is power that rots the system.

“Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and wisdom and political leadership meet in the same man, . . . cities will never cease from ill, nor the human race” - Plato, The Republic

I thought politics was just game theory to account for logical deficiencies in the human psyche. For example, if reasoning about a particular point offends people or falls outside of the Overton window, you can only persuade them by routing around the issue.

#Politics is the pursuit of power, driven by and coupled with persuasion, in order to set policy, regulations & laws.

naval definitely has a diary filled with clever phrases

Corporations are the exercise of politics without oversight.

Who defines what’s worthy?

Absolutely

Politics is exercise of power against merit.

Organized religion can often be the same thing

Politics is the “aristocracy of pull” - Rand

Why it's the most crazy game