Conversation

Replying to
8/ But for the fiction to work, the incumbent has to play powerfully to it, step up, and into the role, the mask of the office.
1
1
Replying to
9/ The more deeply the person 'fakes it', the more opposition becomes a theoretical, ceremonial, adversarial position.
1
1
Replying to
10/ And the better the faking, the less you need to work on actual imaginative alternatives. You can phone in gestural stubs of alternatives
1
1
Replying to
11/ This is a picture of the politics of detente: between elections, there is political "peace", opposition and alternatives are ceremonial
1
2
Replying to
12/ What happens when there ISN'T a detente? When incumbent either doesn't care to fake 'leader for all' well enough, or is unable to?
3
1
Replying to
13/ Old habits die hard. We are used to leaders who can be trusted to play the 'fake it till you make it game.' Who can be expected to grow.
1
1
Replying to
14/ It's not actually unreasonable expectation to hope leaders enter as politicians, and exit as statesmen/women, even if not 'great' ones
1
2
Replying to
15/ Even GWB, not my favorite by any measure, grew as a person in office. He left as "our" President, even if one most were unhappy with.
1
4
Replying to
16/ These habits are strong. We are tempted to drop substantive opposition/option creation and go ceremonial the moment someone wins
1
Replying to
17/ We see this playing out now. People playing the "deplorability scorecard" game assigning points to every new appointee.
1
2
Replying to
18/ Staying in conflict mode is tiring. Switching to detente mode is relaxing. Real opposition takes energy. Ceremonial opposition is cheap.
2
5
Replying to
19/ But if you were once convinced this is the "wrong person" who might at best only do the "right thing" for the "wrong reason" don't relax
3