Politics & Power Quote by Robert Teeter

A sentence like this only sounds like civic engagement if you ignore its choreography. Teeter isn’t describing a messy, democratic conversation; he’s outlining a communications operation. “We need people out talking” frames citizens as distributed amplifiers, not independent judges. The verbs do the real work: “explaining, agreeing with and praising.” Notice what’s missing: questioning, debating, scrutinizing. The order matters, too. First you “explain” (manage meaning), then you “agree” (signal loyalty), then you “praise” (create momentum). It’s persuasion built as a pipeline, with approval as the desired endpoint.

The line’s intent is practical: shore up legitimacy for a presidency by flooding the public sphere with affirming interpretation. In political terms, it’s pre-bunking dissent. If you can get friendly voices to frame actions as reasonable before critics define them as reckless or corrupt, you win the first draft of reality. “Need” is the tell; it treats positive talk as a strategic resource, like votes or fundraising, not as a byproduct of good governance.

Contextually, this sits comfortably in the era when campaigns professionalized message discipline and understood media as terrain to occupy. Teeter, a strategist by trade, is speaking from the logic of modern politics: presidents don’t merely govern, they market governance. The subtext is blunt: public opinion isn’t to be earned so much as engineered, and the job of “people” is to help carry the brand.