Is doing the right thing bound to be punished?

There is an old saying among the elite commentators: Good policy is not good politics. I saw a version of this in a column about how President Biden's approval ratings have fallen despite overwhelming approval for some of his administration's biggest initiatives.

I read a commentary today about how Democrats may suffer in future elections due to advocating for more competitive legislative districts, effectively eliminating gerrymandering. That writer thought Colorado might end up losing two Democratic seats in 2022. Maybe that was exaggerated, and the writer certainly has no idea of what will happen. After all, a commission has only now released a first draft of a redistricting plan.

That would be disappointing to the clear Democratic majority in the state and would mimic the national problem of rural areas having far more political power than raw numbers suggest.

No good deed goes unpunished, as another saying goes.

So let's flip the old saying to "Bad policy is bad politics." Do politicians regularly lose when they make poor decisions or simply create laws that are bad for the majority of voters? 

There is little evidence of that. Most legislative seats don't change parties no matter how bad individual decisions turn out.

Or how about flipping the saying to "Bad policy is good politics." Ah, maybe that's were we find ourselves right now, particularly in Republican-led states which seem to be creating laws that the majority of voters in their own states oppose (or at least are not passionate about).

Texas is ground zero for this laboratory studying cause and effect in politics. 

As the anti-mask gang continues to rage and the anti-vaccine mob continues to scream about freedom, it's tough to NOT see the combination as "bad policy," though politicians are unlikely to swim against either stream.

Of course, much like the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, a logical way out of the pandemic is to simply let Nature take its course. After all, the current crisis is restricted to the unvaccinated when it comes to serious repercussions from the virus. And many people have gotten sick and may have some acquired immunity from variants. And viruses TEND to weaken as they mutate, but not always, as the delta variant (now the only strain) shows.

At this point, the virus is here to stay. We have chosen that course as a country. Maybe there were no solid options. At some point, we will have to live with yet another of the hundreds of diseases that might get us. 

As for Mr. Biden, one other truth about American politics is that the voters have goldfish-like attention spans and memories. Grumbling and outrage will continue, of course, but Americans have little appreciation for history and whatever happens NEXT summer will have much more to do with the 2022 midterms. 

I would continue to opt for good policy if I were president. Everyone loses when the game is played cynically, or without any regard for rules at all.

Do some good today. Do some good tomorrow. That seems like a solid strategy for life.