Politics & Power Quote by George Pataki

There is a politician’s tell in the way Pataki stacks abstractions until they sound like action. “I think” lowers the temperature, signaling caution while still staking a claim. “Steps that can be taken” promises competence without committing to any particular policy, a useful move when the actual proposals are either unpopular, not ready, or someone else’s jurisdiction. The mangled middle clause - “haven’t been required or energy to make that fight more secure” - reads like the residue of a prepared talking point: the idea that security exists on a sliding scale, and that some unnamed actors haven’t shown the will (or spent the money) to move it upward.

Pataki’s real target is embedded in the grammar. He frames the federal government as both the necessary muscle and the reluctant partner, positioning himself as the impatient manager pushing upward on the chain of command. “We are going to continue to push” is political branding disguised as persistence: it casts his side as vigilant, the other as lagging, without naming an opponent or risking a direct accusation.

Contextually, this is post-9/11-era language: “that fight” nods to the War on Terror without saying it, keeping the moral clarity while avoiding specifics. The subtext is a familiar federalism play. State leaders demand resources and authority, then blame Washington for delays, creating a narrative where any future failure belongs to the center and any incremental improvement can be claimed locally. It works because it performs urgency while staying safely nonspecific.