Celebrating the Filth of Politics

Marc Ambinder: “Politics without dirty deals is not politics. It’s something else.
It’s not something we’ve seen here; there are no historical antecedents
for it. Purely deliberative reasoning, shorn of self-interest, is an
academic exercise. Let it by all means by an aspirational ideal. Call
out cynicism where you see it, but don’t lump all cynicism and
opportunism together. Be wary of judging what is with what you think must be. If humanism on a grand scale is your goal, you aren’t going to get there without getting mud on your jersey.”