Politics & Power Quote by Dick Murphy

Murphy’s line is a neat little inversion of the public-service myth: he treats “the public good” not as the purpose of politics, but as a happy accident that sometimes rides along with self-preservation. Coming from a politician, the bluntness matters. It’s not an outsider’s cynicism; it’s an insider’s shrug, delivered with the weary confidence of someone who’s watched the incentives up close and decided the incentive is the job.

The intent is diagnostic, not poetic. Murphy is naming re-election as the operating system, not a side effect. The key phrase is “doing what’s necessary” - a moral blank check that covers fundraising, message discipline, party loyalty, and constant risk management. He’s describing a system where the rational move is to optimize for survival, because losing office ends your ability to do anything at all. That’s the self-justifying loop: even “good” politicians can be forced into careerist behavior because the arena punishes purity and rewards durability.

The subtext is almost contractual: voters want virtue, but they also reward spectacle, tribal wins, and short-term benefits. Politicians respond. Murphy’s “great” is a small, acidic laugh - coincidence is the best-case scenario. The context here is the modern incumbency machine: permanent campaigning, donor ecosystems, partisan primaries, and a media environment that turns governing into content. In that world, the public good doesn’t vanish; it just competes with the one metric that never stops counting.