A reform organization could win respect for principle while losing every major fight

Evidence

During this period, he stayed true to the aims of reform. Working out of another small downtown office, he campaigned through the Bulletin for reform’s hallowed causes: social welfare legislation, a “direct primary” system that would end the nomination of candidates by boss-dominated party conventions, the publication of a “state journal” similar to the Congressional Record so that interested citizens could study legislative debates and thus obtain information on which to base intelligent judgments of state activities and, of course, for the repassage by the new Legislature of the reorganization amendments that would foster efficiency and economy in state government. He campaigned against special-interest bills, against the subservience of legislators of both parties to their local bosses. … Denouncing a legislative proposal he felt had been introduced only as a matter of expediency, Moses concluded flatly: “The principle is the important thing.” — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 583

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Opponents can kill a reform by insisting on individual-case exceptions — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 352; Convincing arguments fail when reform lacks power behind it — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 375; Antibase movements can win concessions even when they lose the main fight — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 939

Broader Connections

• Antibase movements can win concessions even when they lose the main fight #exemplifies (0.80) — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 939
• Convincing arguments fail when reform lacks power behind it #expands (0.75) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 375