Thursday, January 11, 2018

Quote of the Day (Strategist Arthur Finkelstein, on ‘The Most Overwhelming Fact of Politics’)



“The most overwhelming fact of politics is what people do not know.  In politics, it's what you perceive to be true that's true, not truth. If I tell you one thing is true, you will believe the second thing is true. This is a very difficult concept for people who are rational, but for those of us who are engaged in politics, it has become the norm. ... if I tell you one thing is true, you will believe the second thing is true even though you haven't a clue whether I'm telling the truth or not. That is the way politicians behave and a good politician will tell you a few things that are true before he tells you a few things that are not true because you will then believe all the things he has said, true and untrue.”— Republican Party political strategist Arthur Finkelstein (1945-2017), in an address to a conservative free market private college in Prague in May 2011, quoted in Sam Roberts, “Arthur Finkelstein, Guru of Conservative Politics and Strategy, Dies at 71,” The New York Times, Aug. 21, 2017

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