Convincing arguments fail when reform lacks power behind it

Evidence

The net result of all his work was nothing. There was no civil service standardization, no great highway along the Hudson, no mothers’ shelters in Central Park. Intending to reform the city, he had worked hard and mastered with a supreme mastery reform’s techniques. Convinced he was right, he had refused to soil the white suit of idealism with compromise. He had really believed that if his system was right—scientific, logical, fair—and if it got a hearing, the system would be adopted. In free and open encounter would not Truth prevail? And he had gotten the hearing. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 375

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the theme already seen in the book — and to Caro’s later point that Moses, having learned this lesson, becomes a master of power. — connects to: Passing a reform nominally can still leave it gutted in practice — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 356; Manufactured doubt need not be consciously willed to paralyze economic reform — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 670; Evidence-based advocacy fails when the political configuration is unready for it — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 9030 (+4 more)
• SEED: Angle for essay: the liberal myth that good ideas win in open debate — Moses as the case study who believed it once and never again.

Broader Connections

• Evidence-based advocacy fails when the political configuration is unready for it #corroborates (0.85) — , The Rod and the Child, 9030
• The barrier to financial reform is political power, not legislative complexity #expands (0.82) — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, 455
• Manufactured doubt need not be consciously willed to paralyze economic reform #expands (0.78) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 670