Complete chaos has now broken out in the Congress of the United States with conflict between Speaker Mike Johnson on one side and President Trump and Elon Musk on the other.
What the hell is going on here?
First, politics is a battle between principle and pragmatism. What you want and what is possible are two different things. Anybody in my job who says the pragmatic considerations are simply a lack of will or a betrayal of principles does not understand politics. That, or the person is lying.
Many people are doing this today. When Congress comes up with any sort of deal, some suggest that is a violation of principle: “If only they had acted with Nietzschean willpower, they could have gotten 100% of what you wanted.”
That is a lie.
Conversely, anybody who says pragmatism ought to lead to complete abandonment of principle is also lying. Anybody who says, “Listen, I didn’t give…
