Matt Stoller: Beyond Elections – Why Political Elites Hedge Their Bets

By Matt Stoller, a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. His Twitter feed is
http://www.twitter.com/matthewstoller. Cross posted from New Deal 2.0

Washington’s rigged system of special interests ensures that brave politicians and staffers don’t stick around long.

Political analysts tend to gloss over what I would call hedging behavior on the part of political elites. While elections are somewhat random, the fact that you will be on the losing side of an election at some point is guaranteed. So politicos don’t ask: What’s the best way to win an election? Rather, they ask: What’s the best way to preserve my risk-adjusted position in the political ecosystem of influence and money? This means setting yourself up to win an election if possible, but not in an especially populist manner that could increase the downside of losing or falling into the minority.