October 11, 2025

The second law, Rakove’s law of principle and politics, states that the citizen is influenced by principle in direct proportion to his distance from the political situation.

Milton Rakove (1918–1983), American academic and newspaper columnist, In Virginia Quarterly Review (1965), Jay p.300

Absolutely! If an issue touches a particular individual, he doesn’t care whether what he wants is the tipping point towards irreversible climate change (admittedly a stretch, but you get the point); you must do what he wants. Right? Or not?

Being confronted with a truth that undercuts their supposed “principled stand” is the very last thing most people want, and no matter how bald the truth, they rarely surrender.