Leadership Quote by Carol Moseley Braun

“Magic” is a daring word for a politician to claim, because politics is supposed to be the anti-magic art: budgets, votes, institutional gravity. Carol Moseley Braun’s line steals that skepticism and flips it. She’s not selling illusion; she’s arguing that the real enchantment is procedural and social - the moment when entrenched “realism” gets punctured by someone refusing the script.

The intent is motivational, but not in the shallow poster sense. “Challenging what seems impossible” quietly names the enemy: the gatekeepers of plausibility. In public life, “impossible” is often code for “inconvenient to those in power,” or “not yet normal enough to be legible.” As the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Senate, Braun’s career itself was a rebuttal to a long list of “not likely,” “not ready,” “not our voters.” The phrase “seems impossible” matters; it admits perception, not fate. The obstacle is as much narrative as it is structure.

Subtextually, she’s pitching a politics of audacity that doesn’t deny constraints but refuses to worship them. The word “lies” does double duty: magic is hidden in the act, not bestowed as a trait. That’s a subtle democratization of courage - anyone can step into the friction point where cynicism expects capitulation.

Context is late-20th-century American politics, where “pragmatism” often gets weaponized against civil rights, gender equity, and reform. Braun’s line functions as a counterspell to that rhetorical trap: if progress feels impossible, that’s precisely where the work - and the wonder - begins.