If I was to interrupt this article every few sentences, asking you whether or not I was making a good impression on you, I hope and believe that you would think I was a servile jerk. Yet this is what our politicians are doing in every speech.
Interpretation
The quote criticizes politicians for being overly submissive in their communication, seeking validation instead of presenting strong ideas.
Christopher Hitchens points out the irony in politicians constantly seeking approval from their audience, which dilutes their authenticity and authority. He suggests that constantly checking for audience approval makes them appear insincere and lacking in conviction, much like someone who is overly eager to please in a conversation.
In practice
During a political debate, addressing the issue of authenticity might be enhanced by quoting Hitchens to emphasize the importance of conviction over mere popularity.
In a public dialogue with Salman in London he [Edward Said] had once described the Palestinian plight as one where his people, expelled and dispossessed by Jewish victors, were in the unique historical position of being 'the victims of the victims': there was something quasi-Christian, I thought, in the apparent humility of that statement.
What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
Never ask while you are doing it if what you are doing is fun. Don't introduce even your most reliably witty acquaintance as someone who will set the table on a roar.
[E]xceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.
The worst days are when you feel foggy in the head - chemo-brain they call it. It's awful because you feel boring. As well as bored. And stupid. And resigned.
Let me tell you something: for hundreds of thousands of years, this kind of discussion would have been impossible to have, or those like us would have been having it at the risk of our lives. Religion now comes to us in this smiley-face, ingratiating way — because it’s had to give so much more ground and because we know so much more. But you’ve got no right to forget the way it behaved when it was strong, and when it really did believe that it had God on its side.
Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.
In a democracy, when you get 20 million people in the street, you resign.
There is no private domain of a person's life that is not political, and there is no political issue that is not ultimately personal.
If the many allegations made to this date are true, then the burglars who broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate were, in effect, breaking into the home of every citizen.
There is an important sense in which government is distinctive from administration. One is perpetual, the other is temporary and changeable. A man may be loyal to his government and yet oppose the particular principles and methods of administration.
In the end, North Korea's conduct may change only when its leadership does.
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