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Be principled, but not so much that you scare voters
“The art of democratic statesmanship,” said the politician, “is of presenting your principles, presenting your convictions, in ways which sufficiently impress the public such that you are seen as a man or woman of principle, but which don’t so worry the public that they think you would be a risk if you found yourself in a…
- Jacqueline Maley
- The Canberra Times
- SMH/The Age
The sentiment was pure pragmatism.
The politician expressing it was Tony Abbott, talking in 2008 to a dinner for the magazine News Weekly, founded by B.A Santamaria, the staunchly Catholic, anti-Communist journalist and activist who was Abbott’s first…