Politics & Power Quote by Henry Waxman

A line like this is less a diagnosis than a claim to custody: Waxman isn’t just describing public mood, he’s trying to own it. “Sick and tired” is deliberately blunt, a kitchen-table phrase that borrows the cadence of grievance without the ideology. It signals exhaustion, not anger; impatience, not radicalism. That matters because it invites agreement from voters who may disagree on policy but share a suspicion that Washington treats governing like sport.

“Political gamesmanship” does the real work. It’s a sneaky, high-utility villain: vague enough to fit anything from filibusters to messaging votes to cable-news theatrics, but pointed enough to accuse opponents of acting in bad faith. The subtext is, “My side is trying to govern; the other side is playing games.” Yet Waxman keeps the target indistinct, which lets him sound above the fray while still sharpening the partisan blade. It’s moral framing disguised as common sense.

In context, Waxman’s brand was oversight, hearings, and wonky legislative combat - the kind of inside-baseball politics that opponents could easily label as “games.” So the phrase also functions defensively: it preemptively separates procedural hardball from frivolous obstruction. He’s drawing a line between tactics used to get outcomes and tactics used to deny outcomes.

The sentence works because it taps a persistent American fantasy about politics: that there’s a clean version of governance waiting beneath the noise, if only the adults would take the wheel. Whether or not that fantasy is true, it’s a powerful way to turn frustration into permission.