"In the final analysis, it is your decision to make, but it doesn't move as fast as I'd like it to move"
About this Quote
There’s a bureaucrat’s whole worldview packed into that shrugging sentence: responsibility is yours, urgency is mine, and the machine is nobody’s to command. Alphonso Jackson, a career public servant who rose to run HUD, is speaking the dialect of government under pressure, where authority is always real and never total.
The first clause, “In the final analysis,” performs a familiar ritual: a preemptive appeal to process, due diligence, and the idea that outcomes emerge from sober review rather than political muscle. It signals restraint and legitimacy, a reminder that decisions are supposed to be owned by the proper decision-maker and insulated from overt interference. Then comes the pivot: “it is your decision to make,” a handoff that sounds like deference but also functions as a liability shield. If the call goes badly, the ownership has already been assigned elsewhere.
The sting is in the last line: “but it doesn’t move as fast as I’d like it to move.” Jackson’s impatience leaks through the civility. It’s not just about speed; it’s about priorities and power. He wants a particular outcome and is trying to accelerate someone else’s timeline without quite admitting he’s applying pressure. That’s the subtext of institutional persuasion: nudge hard, keep your fingerprints light.
Contextually, this reads like the private-public choreography of Washington decision-making, especially in housing and development, where timelines collide with audits, statutes, stakeholders, and political expectations. The sentence works because it lets him be both respectful of process and openly dissatisfied with it, capturing the permanent tension between democratic procedure and executive impatience.
The first clause, “In the final analysis,” performs a familiar ritual: a preemptive appeal to process, due diligence, and the idea that outcomes emerge from sober review rather than political muscle. It signals restraint and legitimacy, a reminder that decisions are supposed to be owned by the proper decision-maker and insulated from overt interference. Then comes the pivot: “it is your decision to make,” a handoff that sounds like deference but also functions as a liability shield. If the call goes badly, the ownership has already been assigned elsewhere.
The sting is in the last line: “but it doesn’t move as fast as I’d like it to move.” Jackson’s impatience leaks through the civility. It’s not just about speed; it’s about priorities and power. He wants a particular outcome and is trying to accelerate someone else’s timeline without quite admitting he’s applying pressure. That’s the subtext of institutional persuasion: nudge hard, keep your fingerprints light.
Contextually, this reads like the private-public choreography of Washington decision-making, especially in housing and development, where timelines collide with audits, statutes, stakeholders, and political expectations. The sentence works because it lets him be both respectful of process and openly dissatisfied with it, capturing the permanent tension between democratic procedure and executive impatience.
Quote Details
| Topic | Decision-Making |
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