The critic’s lament: describe the situation in mild terms, the public concludes it’s not a big deal and takes no action; describe it in stark terms, the public concludes there’s nothing to be done and takes no action
It’s about what people notice. In town governments I’ve heard of cutting popular programs that will provoke an outcry only to get credit for reinstating them, while possibly smuggling through other actions that are necessary but unpopular.
“Everyone has a mass of bad work in him which he will have to work off and get rid of before he can do better– and indeed, the more lasting a man's ultimate good work is, the more sure he is to pass through a time, and perhaps a very long one, in which there seems very little hope for him at all. We must all sow our spiritual wild oats.”
“One of the best descriptions of this political culture came from A.J. Liebling, who called Louisiana "the westernmost of the Arab states" and observed that its politics "is of an intensity and complexity that are matched, in my experience, only in the Republic of Lebanon. Louisiana is part of the Hellenistic—Mediterranean littoral—sensual, seductive, speculative, devious."
Allow me to elaborate on the political culture. I lived in LA in the early 90s when the governors race was between a former KKK Leander and Edwin Edward’s who once said "The only way I can lose this election is if I'm caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy”. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Louisiana_gubernatorial_e....
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