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The Gadfly and the Grinder
It’s not an actual Aesop’s Fable, of course. But if old Aesop were to fashion the equivalent from political archetypes, the Gadfly and the Grinder would certainly be included.http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/02/the-gadfly-and-the-grinder/463467/
The Gadfly uses the platform of public office to criticize, to issue jeremiads, to challenge the rest of his colleagues and the country to think outside the narrow frame of status quo possibility. To the Gadfly, the choice is between half-measures and full measures, and half-measures represent failures of nerve and imagination.
The Grinder, on the other hand, uses the machinery of public office to make progress incrementally, to construct coalitions, to grind out ungainly compromises. To the Grinder, the choice is between half-measures and no measures, and no measures are what you get when you don’t show up and persist in the process every day.
...
There is nothing wrong with being a Gadfly. ... But what Clinton needs to argue is that while the Gadfly is necessary in a democracy, it is never sufficient. The Gadfly can push the president and Congress to do more, think bigger, and imagine better. But the Gadfly rarely makes an effective executive. It’s true, of course, that Grinders aren’t the only kind of politician who make good mayors and governors and presidents. But Clinton should make the case that a Gadfly like Sanders is constitutionally wired to point out shortcomings, to shout at the people making the unsatisfying trade-offs of lawmaking—not to lead the work.
...
In a happy version of this imagined fable, the Gadfly and the Grinder learn from and strengthen one another and the entire ecosystem becomes healthier. In the unhappy version, each one gets set on the idea that there’s only one way to be, and their mutual myopia leaves us with an impoverished politics.
The Grinder, on the other hand, uses the machinery of public office to make progress incrementally, to construct coalitions, to grind out ungainly compromises. To the Grinder, the choice is between half-measures and no measures, and no measures are what you get when you don’t show up and persist in the process every day.
...
There is nothing wrong with being a Gadfly. ... But what Clinton needs to argue is that while the Gadfly is necessary in a democracy, it is never sufficient. The Gadfly can push the president and Congress to do more, think bigger, and imagine better. But the Gadfly rarely makes an effective executive. It’s true, of course, that Grinders aren’t the only kind of politician who make good mayors and governors and presidents. But Clinton should make the case that a Gadfly like Sanders is constitutionally wired to point out shortcomings, to shout at the people making the unsatisfying trade-offs of lawmaking—not to lead the work.
...
In a happy version of this imagined fable, the Gadfly and the Grinder learn from and strengthen one another and the entire ecosystem becomes healthier. In the unhappy version, each one gets set on the idea that there’s only one way to be, and their mutual myopia leaves us with an impoverished politics.
Excellent read, IMO.
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