Can crisis end the cult of personality?
In good times, politicians emerge and talk about post-partisan politics and working to achieve consensus. Margaret Thatcher famously described consensus as “something in which no one believes and to which no one objects.” But to most politicians and the value-free operatives who surround them, the phrase “to which no one objects” is music to their ears. If you don’t stand for anything, no one can be unhappy with you. I used to work in politics, and the most maddening people were not the politicians but the professional organizers who surrounded them. Sadly, would-be leaders are surrounded by people who say, “I don’t care what they do once they get elected,” or “ideas are a dangerous thing in politics, try to avoid them.” For this group of operatives, the would-be leader needs to embrace things “to which no one objects” while working on demonizing any ideas that accidentally slipped through from the other side. This leads to the sort of politician who believes in little and can accompli
