In explaining any puzzling Washington phenomenon, always choose stupidity over conspiracy, incompetence over cunning. Anything else gives them too much credit.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that when faced with puzzling situations, it is better to attribute them to human error rather than intentional deceit.
Charles Krauthammer's quote reflects a critical viewpoint on the tendency to see hidden malice behind political actions. It argues that often, the actions of leaders and governments are more a result of ignorance or incompetence than a sophisticated conspiracy, emphasizing a more realistic and less paranoid perspective on political events.
In practice
During a political debate, to emphasize the importance of evaluating actions based on their outcomes rather than presumed motives.
If you get a call to go to a certain place in the middle of the night to pick up stolen goods, and it turns out the stolen goods don't show up but the cops show up, I think you're going to have a very weak story saying, 'Well, I got swindled here.'
I believe that the pursuit of truth and right ideas through honest debate and rigorous argument is a noble undertaking.
The joy of losing consists in this: Where there are no expectations, there is no disappointment.
You're betraying your whole life if you don't say what you think - and you don't say it honestly and bluntly.
History has blessed us with all the freedom and advantages of multiculturalism. But it has also blessed us, because of the accident of our origins, with the linguistic unity that brings a critically needed cohesion to a nation as diverse, multiracial and multiethnic as America. Why gratuitously throw away that priceless asset? How mindless to call the desire to retain it 'racist.
When a party is in opposition, it opposes. That's its job. But when it comes to power, it must govern. Easy rhetoric is over, the press of reality becomes irresistible. By necessity, it adopts some of the policies it had once denounced. And a new national consensus is born.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
The Kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies
Everyone around me says, You're a genius! You're great! That's your voice! But I'm not sure if they're right.
The pleasantest things in the world are pleasant thoughts, and the great art of life is to have as many of them as possible.
Nothing has really happened until it has been recorded.
Therefore, the good of man must be the end of the science of politics.
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