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Politics Should Be a Complex Game of Intellectual Chess
So why is everyone mashing the board like it’s Hungry Hungry Hippos?
Consider the long game. Words of wisdom from the man who taught me to play chess. He taught me how to set traps, how to pin, how to feint. Most important of all he taught me how to extricate myself from the mess I make minutes after my opening move.
Those words weren’t enough. I’m still terrible at chess. I still play impulsively. If I were on the Queen’s Gambit I would be soundly beaten in the teaser of Episode One. I may not even have made it into the series.
“Consider the long game.”
That’s the bit of political nuance the most ardent Progressives and hardlineLibertarian Trumpists miss. What’s your long game? What do you do after you’ve moved all your pieces into the middle and played into straight into your opponent’s hands?
What is your long game strategy?
What did shouting ‘Defund The Police!’ do? It pushed centre-right voters towards Trump as a man strong on security. What did bringing guns out on the street to face down rioters do? It pushed non-voting Democrats out of their self-reflective comas to come out and vote in record numbers.
