"Never Waste a Good Crisis"

So say Rahm Emanuel and Hilary Clinton. Very Chinese of them (the Chinese characters for "crisis" are said to be the characters for "danger" and "opportunity").

Something similar could have been said by a spokesperson for the Bush administration concerning 9/11. It was certainly used to achieve policies that would have been next to impossible to achieve (such as the launch of the Iraq war) without it.

Lincoln certainly did the same. Is there any doubt that the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments would not have been added to the constitution without the crisis of the civil war and the absence of southern representation in Congress?

FDR certainly did. Consider the various New Deal programs and the great depression.

Occasionally, someone attempts to steal not only second but third. Consider FDR's court-packing scheme.

Taking advantage of opportunity (whether borne of crisis or not) is very natural for politicians. Occasionally, opportunity is not taken because the politician does not see the opportunity, or is not truly committed to the goal. He is truly worthy of ridicule. Eben's comment about Arafat comes to mind, "he never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity" [...to make peace.]

Indeed, the rare thing (and the thing that helps to define true character, often) is when the opportunity is perceived but the advantage is not taken, because the politician understands that the long term damage is not worth the short term gain.) Consider, for example, Lincoln's refusal to heed the advice of his Republican advisers who urged him, in the dark days of 1863 and early 1864 (when it seemed almost certain that he would not be re-elected in November 1864), to postpone the election until the war was over.

In other words, the rare and laudable thing is self-restraint. A commodity in short supply right about now.

But the phrase "never waste a good crisis" also has deeper and more sinister implications. I will explore these in my next post.