Decision-Making Quote by David R. Gergen

There is a whole political theology packed into that petty-sounding detail: a phone call ended, a receiver slammed down, and suddenly a man is beyond recall. Gergen’s line works because it treats etiquette as a diagnostic for power. Hanging up on Nancy Reagan isn’t just rudeness; it’s a sign that the old gravity of the Reagan world no longer holds. In Washington, people don’t merely offend other people - they offend institutions, symbols, and the networks that enforce consequences.

The “final threshold” language is doing heavy lifting. It borrows from myth and psychology: the moment in a hero’s journey when retreat is impossible. But here the hero is inverted. This is the point where ambition hardens into impunity, where the subject stops performing deference and starts testing what he can get away with. Nancy Reagan, in that era, wasn’t only a former First Lady; she was a moral switchboard for Republican respectability, donor memory, and the lingering aura of a landslide presidency. To hang up on her is to announce you’re not seeking admission to the club - you’re trying to replace it.

Gergen’s intent is also quietly exculpatory toward everyone who enabled the rise: there was a “before,” when intervention might have worked, and an “after,” when the transformation was complete. The subtext is a warning to insiders who mistake manners for trivialities. In elite politics, courtesies are currency, and refusing them is often the first honest confession of what someone intends to do next.