The Maxims of Politics :: Mullikin’s Maxims

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  • MAXIM 1:
    Don’t assume a losing position and try to turn it around. Assume the winning position. Stay on message and bring them around.

    • “The side that knows when to fight and when not will take the victory. There are roadways not to be traveled, armies not to be attacked, walled cities not to be assaulted.”
    - Sun-Tzu, ancient Chinese military strategist and author of The Art of War (c. 544-496 B.C.E.)


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  • MAXIM 2:
    Identifiable tasks with identifiable goals will lead to identifiable progress.

    • “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
    - Lao-tzu, Chinese philosopher and author of The Way of Lao-Tzu (c. 604-531 B.C.E.)


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  • MAXIM 3:
    Assume the moral high ground early and make your opponent knock you off.

    • “O philosophy, our guide through life! Investigator of virtues and expeller of vices. One day spent well and in accordance with your precepts is to be preferred to a sinful mortality.”
    - Marcus Tullius Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 5.2.5 (106-43 B.C.E.)


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  • MAXIM 4:
    Exchange fire when fired upon.

    • “Nemo me impune lacessit!” (“No one harms me without impunity!”)
    - Latin motto on the Royal Coat of Arms in Scotland


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  • MAXIM 5:
    Plan your work and work your plan, but remain fluid.

    • “Just keep stirring the pot, you never know what will come up.”
    - Former political consultant Lee Atwater, quoted by Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal columnist and former special assistant to the late President Ronald Reagan.


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  • MAXIM 6:
    Politics is a game played best on the ground.

    • “Because, by being on the spot, one sees trouble at its birth and one can quickly remedy it.”
    - Niccolo Machiavelli, Italian essayist, dramatist, historian, sketch writer, biographer, dalogist, writer of novellas, and poet (1469-1527); author of The Prince


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  • MAXIM 7:
    Document and demonstrate support to build third party credibility.

    • “The trouble was, all people saw on television were a few of my outspoken supporters out front; and they came away thinking that was me.”
    - George McGovern, Former Senator from South Dakota, 1972 Democratic Candidate for President of the United States


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  • MAXIM 8:
    Absolute truth applied absolutely is absolutely persuasive.

    • ” ‘The boy is right! The Emperor is naked! It’s true!’

    The Emperor realized that the people were right but could not admit to that. He thought it better to continue the procession under the illusion that anyone who couldn’t see his clothes was either stupid or incompetent. And he stood stiffly on his carriage, while behind him a page held his imagery mantle.”
    - Hans Christian Anderson (1805-1875), The Emperor’s New Clothes


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  • MAXIM 9:
    The genius is not in the idea; it is in the implementation of the idea.

    • “Genius is the ability to put into effect what is on your mind.”
    F. Scott Fitzgerald, American writer, author of The Great Gatsby


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  • MAXIM 10:
    Politics is like a game of marbles – he who has the bigger pile at the end of the game wins.

    • “All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure, because that is the nature of politics and of human affairs.”
    - Brigadier John Enoch Powell, MBE, British politician and the only British soldier during World War II to rise from private to brigadier (1912-1998)