Politics & Power Quote by Adam Schiff

Resilience is doing a lot of political work here, dressed up as arts boosterism. Schiff takes “setbacks” - a word that conveniently blurs causes and culprits - and converts them into a forward march narrative: the dream “goes on,” history moves “inexorably,” and the audience is asked to feel progress even if the facts on the ground are messy. That’s not accidental. It’s a classic move for a politician speaking in the language of civic uplift: acknowledge turbulence just enough to sound sober, then reframe it as evidence that the arc is bending your way.

The key subtext is legitimacy. By invoking Dr. King’s “faith,” Schiff borrows moral authority and taps into a national script where patience is recast as virtue and delay is rebranded as destiny. The orchestra metaphor helps: “beautiful,” “magnificent,” “opening night” all suggest consensus, harmony, and inevitability - a soothing counterimage to the discord implied by the setbacks. Art becomes a stand-in for America itself, an aspirational institution that can absorb conflict and still produce order.

Contextually, this is the rhetoric of institution-building in an era when trust is fragile. Calling it an “American orchestra” implies a shared culture worth investing in, while the promise of an eventual “opening night” functions like a campaign pledge without the risk of a deadline. It’s hope engineered to outlast accountability: the dream remains intact even if the schedule slips, because the destination is framed as historical, not managerial.