David Pakman

There's no belief system.

It's what gets me the most votes right now.

And the part that a lot of people don't want to admit is that while you might sound horrified by this, you go, oh, I would never.

A lot of voters reward that behavior.

because voters say they want authenticity, but then they respond to whatever message feels good to them in the moment.

So politicians adapt to that all the time.

They do focus groups and internal polls and external polls and messaging tweaks and micro targeting on social media.

It's a performance.

And the irony is that the people who try to appeal to everyone

often end up appealing to no one because people can sometimes sense it.

Even if they can't fully articulate it, they start to feel that something is off.

But it sometimes takes a while, which is why the incentives are to try to do this.

Now, there are exceptions.

I again want to say there are people who go into politics because they do want to help.

That does exist.

But the point I'm making is that the system doesn't reward those people

I would argue nearly as much as it rewards those who are flexible.

Let's call it that and have a communication strategy that is about trying to just convince people you're flexible on beliefs and messaging.

And then you get something else that is really important.

The same person criticizing politicians with no ideology will turn around and say, my preferred politicians are courageous truth tellers.