President Lyndon Johnson liked to say that politics is the “Art of Possible”. It is about the people you can get elected into office, what kind of legislation they can pass, and how it can be implemented by an executive authority. It’s nothing more or less.

The liberal must always be fighting and lobbying for the progressive causes that he believes in, and at same time framing the progressive cause in ways that are possible to accomplish it within the folkways of our democratic governing society. The liberal must always be aware of what he is up against, and how to manipulate public opinion in mold of the progressive perspective.

There are many things as progressives that we would like to do, but are not possible in the current political reality or political culture. We must work to both modify our programs to be acceptable to the majority of people who elect such people into office, and at the same time be selling our ideas to our constituency. There are many things that people might be opposed to a first appearance, but with sufficient framing can be made acceptable to most people.

Most things are not easy to get done in politics. But don’t get discouraged. If there are easy and popular solutions to long standing public problems, then they would have been already implemented. People resist change at all levels, and there are many conflicting constituencies in a democracy. Yet, the same democracy that can make things so difficult to accomplish, also can make it possible for a few determined individuals to advocate, organize, and make change around an issue.