Politics & Power Quote by Mitch Daniels

Daniels frames economic recovery as a test of national character, not merely a matter of spreadsheets. The opening move is deliberate: he concedes the hard, technocratic reality ("damaged economy", "debt-ridden balance sheet") and then pivots to something warmer and harder to measure: civic virtue. That pivot is the point. It lets him argue for fiscal discipline without sounding like a scold, recasting austerity-adjacent politics as a kind of optimism about ordinary people.

The subtext is a political dare aimed at both elites and skeptics. "Drawing forth the best" implies Americans already possess the necessary discipline and ingenuity; government doesn't manufacture virtue, it calls it out. When he says we "must assume the best", he's doing more than offering a motivational poster. He's preempting the common critique of budget hawks: that they distrust voters, resent government, and expect selfishness. Daniels flips it: real reform requires faith in citizens' willingness to accept sacrifice, tolerate tradeoffs, and play by shared rules.

The rhetoric is classic American civic religion, but with a strategic edge. The conditional chain ("If we would... we must... If we don't...") compresses policy into moral logic, ending with a sharp, almost parental question: "who will?" It's a subtle indictment of institutions that profit from cynicism - partisan media, performative politicians, even technocrats who treat people as liabilities. In the post-2008 atmosphere of bailouts, backlash, and deficit panic, Daniels offers a unifying story: trust the public, and they'll justify that trust. The appeal isn't sentimental; it's instrumental. Belief becomes a governing tool.