Whether Mayor Pete actually is keeping his word or he’s trying to hide something dodgy we’re about to find out. But that basic idea, that someone should keep their word, is a useful innovation in politics, no?
Sticking to your word is an interesting innovation in modern politics. We might even hope for more of it.
Politics is the art of managing the passing moment. The things that are politically judicious to do are those that gain that fleeting support necessary for the next period before the inevitable election. This might include such howlingly bad ideas as rent control, the state provision of everyone’s healthcare, or even throwing some cruise missiles at a Sudanese aspirin factory, as President Bill Clinton did when people were asking awkward questions about Monica Lewinsky.
The point being that every politician does justify such with the insistence that it’s for the best. We live in a second-best world, and something must be done, so here is that something. There are no absolutes here in these shifting sands.
You might think me excessively cynical here, but then the correct approach to politics is always, “But am I being cynical enough?”
Now that McKinsey has just released him from his NDA we’re about to find out, aren’t we?