ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts an intellectual, economical, and emotional rationalization of the campaigning process. The Vietnam War occurred in part because the small, well-financed China lobby managed an effective campaign making the Chinese Communists our enemies at a time when decent, if not cordial, relations might have been possible. Many good people walk away from the political life. It destroys families; thievery is common; betrayal by friends and allies is a monotonous fact; cut-throat corruption for favors and money is usual; and loyalty is sufficiently rare that campaign staffs of important legislators are hardly ever the same from election to election. A number of things can be done to improve not only the procedures of campaigning but also those of governing—for the behavior of elected officials is necessarily influenced by the accommodations that campaigns seem always to require.
