Politics & Power Quote by Barbara Jordan

Jordan’s genius here is that she turns a tired ideological food fight into a solvable civic task. “Strike a balance” sounds mild, almost managerial, but coming from Barbara Jordan it carries the moral weight of someone who watched government fail spectacularly at its most basic promise and still refused the easy consolation of cynicism. She’s not splitting the difference; she’s reclaiming legitimacy.

The phrasing sets up two caricatures - “government should do everything” versus “government ought to do nothing” - and then refuses to dignify either as serious governance. That’s the subtext: both extremes are evasions. The maximalist fantasy dodges hard choices and accountability by imagining the state as an all-purpose parent. The minimalist creed dodges responsibility by treating public problems as personal inconveniences. Jordan frames moderation not as weakness but as discipline: a politics of limits, priorities, and competence.

Context matters because Jordan’s public life ran through Watergate, civil rights battles, and the ongoing argument over what the federal government owes its citizens. As a Black woman from the Jim Crow South who rose into national power, she knew firsthand that “government doing something” could mean protection, access, and enforceable rights - not abstract bureaucracy. At the same time, she understood that overreach and corruption give anti-government rhetoric its fuel. So the line works rhetorically by sounding reasonable while quietly setting a standard: government must be strong enough to guarantee justice, restrained enough to be trusted, and practical enough to deliver. Balance isn’t a compromise; it’s a test.