Politics & Power Quote by Cal Thomas

A neat little cynicism is doing a lot of persuasive work here: politics isn’t loathed because it’s complex, but because it’s allegedly rigged against honesty. Cal Thomas sets up “truth” and “election and power” as rival incentives, then lets the sentence break off mid-flight - “Election and power are” - as if the rest is too obvious to bother stating. That ellipsis-by-interruption is a rhetorical wink. You supply the ending (“everything,” “the point,” “all that matters”), and because you supplied it, it feels like your insight rather than his accusation.

The specific intent is to delegitimize political actors by reframing their job description. If a politician’s objective isn’t truth, then their statements aren’t just spin; they’re structurally suspect. Thomas isn’t arguing about a particular policy or party in this clipped formulation. He’s attacking the operating system: winning. That’s strategically broad, because it recruits readers across ideological lines who feel lied to, used, or managed.

The subtext is moral and transactional at once: voters want truth, politicians want office, and the mismatch breeds disgust. It also smuggles in a journalist’s self-positioning. By implying politics is incompatible with truth, the quote elevates the commentator as the adult in the room - the one allegedly still answerable to facts.

Context matters because Thomas writes from an American conservative opinion tradition skeptical of government and suspicious of political theater. The line lands in an era of permanent campaigning, message discipline, and media incentives that reward confidence over correction. It’s not just a complaint about politicians; it’s a diagnosis of a culture where “winning” has become the only credible north star.