Politics & Power Quote by Herb Kohl

Power, in Herb Kohl's framing, is less a matter of ideology than of attention. "When the President makes something a priority, we see action" reads like a civics lesson, but it carries the seasoned weariness of someone who’s watched Washington stall until the top of the pyramid decides to move. The line is built to sound reassuring - action is possible - while quietly indicting the system for how rarely it happens without presidential heat.

The intent is strategic. Kohl isn’t praising the presidency as a heroic institution so much as pointing to the only lever that reliably forces coordination across agencies, committees, and competing factions. "Priority" is the key euphemism: it means political capital, staff time, agenda control, and the ability to make others fear being blamed. It's a reminder that inertia is the default setting, and momentum is manufactured.

The subtext also flatters and pressures. It tells audiences: don’t just demand results; demand presidential ownership. It tells the White House: if this matters, act like it. And it tells Congress, implicitly, that their procedural machinery often requires a national megaphone to overcome fragmentation.

Contextually, it fits a senator's worldview in the modern era, when the presidency has become the government's de facto project manager. Kohl (a pragmatic Midwestern Democrat and longtime institutionalist) is speaking in the language of governance, not slogans: change happens when it is organized from the top, not merely desired from the bottom.