Prometheus 6

I wrote two posts that a few folks would probably have preferred I not write up in the first place. Because I lubs y'all though I want to make up for annoying you by explaining how you can start using your "new kind of politics" rhetoric again.

The trick is recognizing the several types of politics, and which need reforming. If you enter “define: politics” into Google, this is what you see as the first response:

• social relations involving intrigue to gain authority or power;

• the study of government of states and other political units

• the profession devoted to governing and to political affairs

• the opinion you hold with respect to political questions

• the activities and affairs involved in managing a state or a government;

Of the five there's simply no changing the middle three. They need not really be mentioned. I only do so to be orthagonal. The types of politics that are subject to choice in execution are the first...electoral politics...and the last...the politics of governance.

The promise of a new kind of politics must refer to the politics of governance. You must stand on that and never yield. But a  new kind of electoral politics can't be guaranteed unless both sides agree to the change. It can be offered, and it was. It can be rejected, and it was. So you've actually kept your promise as far as electoral politics goes.

You've got to make clear there's a divide between the two types of politics such that different words for them would actually be appropriate. And you've got to make clear you've acknowledged one and are working on the opportunity to honor the other.