"If you didn't have some sense of idealism, then what is there to sustain you?"
About this Quote
Carville’s question lands like a jab from a guy famous for treating politics as blood sport: after all the polling, spin, and bare-knuckle tactics, what keeps you from hollowing out? Framed as a conditional, it’s less a sermon than a stress test. If you lack “some sense of idealism,” he implies, you’re not just missing a virtue; you’re missing a survival mechanism.
The word “some” does a lot of work. Carville isn’t selling starry-eyed purity, and he’s certainly not auditioning for sainthood. He’s arguing for an adjustable dose of moral belief - enough to justify the grind, not enough to make you naive about incentives and power. Idealism here isn’t an aesthetic; it’s fuel. Without it, politics (or any high-conflict public life) becomes a treadmill of ego, money, and resentment, where wins feel thin and losses feel personal.
The subtext is defensive and autobiographical: a veteran operator telling younger strivers that cynicism is easy, even addictive, but it’s also corrosive. In a culture that rewards “realists” who scoff at principle, Carville flips the hierarchy. Idealism becomes the pragmatic choice, because it offers continuity when the metrics turn against you - when campaigns fail, when institutions disappoint, when your own compromises start to stack up.
It’s also a quiet rebuke to the professionalization of politics: if the job becomes only a career, the job eats you. Idealism is the one thing that keeps the machine from becoming the point.
The word “some” does a lot of work. Carville isn’t selling starry-eyed purity, and he’s certainly not auditioning for sainthood. He’s arguing for an adjustable dose of moral belief - enough to justify the grind, not enough to make you naive about incentives and power. Idealism here isn’t an aesthetic; it’s fuel. Without it, politics (or any high-conflict public life) becomes a treadmill of ego, money, and resentment, where wins feel thin and losses feel personal.
The subtext is defensive and autobiographical: a veteran operator telling younger strivers that cynicism is easy, even addictive, but it’s also corrosive. In a culture that rewards “realists” who scoff at principle, Carville flips the hierarchy. Idealism becomes the pragmatic choice, because it offers continuity when the metrics turn against you - when campaigns fail, when institutions disappoint, when your own compromises start to stack up.
It’s also a quiet rebuke to the professionalization of politics: if the job becomes only a career, the job eats you. Idealism is the one thing that keeps the machine from becoming the point.
Quote Details
| Topic | Meaning of Life |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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