Differences between activists, politicians, and iconoclasts
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Oct. 15, 2024

I am writing this as a kind of caution for those who put misguided
expectations on the future President Kamala Harris, and to help
readers understand how the world of politics works, versus how the
activist spaces work.

From day one, President Harris will face challenges and difficult
spaces to navigate. The honeymoon period after winning the
presidency through an unprecedented coalition will be very brief.
Many Republicans who endorse her today will quickly distance
themselves from her and go back to their normal Republican selves.
The progressives may quickly find themselves dismayed by “Copmala
Harris” militarizing the southern border and rapidly increasing
the deportation capacity. She will have an unenviable job of
keeping the nation together, governing the nation working with
hostile, obstructionist Republicans (who may gain a majority in at
least one of the chambers of Congress) so that they won’t hold
the government and country hostage over petty culture-war issues
such as DEI and LGBTQ rights.

Predictably, many progressives, today eager Kamala supporters, will
call her a “sell-out” and “traitor” who cowardly panders to
the right.

But their complaint is based on a profound misunderstanding:
elected leaders — politicians — are not activists, even if they
once were activists.

The art of being a politician is vastly different from the art of
being an activist, just as the art of being an auto mechanic is not
remotely similar to the art of being a surgeon.

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https://reimaginingstatecraft.substack.com/p/differences-between-activists-politicians
Read more at my new publication, "Reimagining Statecraft."