Basically, the understanding is that whoever can paint the darkest possible portrait of the status quo is the one who is showing the most commitment to the cause. And you see this norm at work across climate change, health care, criminal justice reform, the economy, and everything else. If you’re not saying the sky is falling, that shows you don’t really care. A true comrade in the struggle would deny that any progress has been made or insist that any good news is trivial. . . .
…it doesn’t make sense to do politics this way. One reason is because the model where you sketch out an idealized policy endpoint, then wage political combat, then win, then implement your vision just isn’t how anything actually happens. . . .
The point is that politics is a process, and that’s especially true in a country like the United States that has a lot of institutional veto points. . . .the idea that past victories were single decisive battles won at unique moments in time is an illusion.
In short, there is way too much talk—analogical, metaphorical, or otherwise—about political warfare. “The Work” we should all be about is neither optimistic nor pessimistic. In analysis, it is realistic; in prognosis, it is hopeful; in all things it seeks the conveyance of blessing and the image of truthful witness.
Or, as Wendell Berry put it:
Good work finds the way between pride and despair.
It graces with health. It heals with grace.