Being able to pick the best time to compromise is another important part of lobbying. As a lobbyist, you should expect to compromise somewhere along the line as your bill moves through the process, and that’s okay. Seldom is there an issue that absolutely must be decided in an all-or-none fashion. To maintain your self-esteem and professional reputation, if you find the word compromise to be distasteful, think of it this way: Assert principles; accept compromise.
A legislator (and you, too) can be bendable and still honor his (your) principles. It’s a matter of asserting principles first, then accepting compromise when the time comes that you must.
“Politics is the art of the possibility. You have to know how far you can go and when it’s time to stop. … The beauty is in converting the absolutes of the individual into the possibilities of the group,” said Walter Baker. Creative leaders sense when they can put a consensus together, he said.
“It takes unity to enact a bill. In every session, you’ll see a showboat legislator who comes in as a freshman with a lot of fanfare and publicity, but fails to get much done. The lesson is, it’s not just the sheriff but the whole posse that has to get to a certain point,” Baker said.
More often than not, compromise is inevitable — certainly on big issues. There may be some bruises in the bargain, but it’s the way government works.
Edmund Burke said, in a speech in 1775 on conciliation with America, “All government — indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act — is founded on compromise and barter.”
The word compromise should not be viewed as a negative. If it matters to you, “barter” is a substitute word; others view it as reaching a “consensus” or achieving “unity.”
Former U.S. Sen. Wendell Ford, according to an editorial in his hometown newspaper, the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer, had a favorite saying about compromise: It’s the art of “negotiated hurt.” ...
Being able to judge when, and under what circumstances, to start bartering can be critical. ...
Don’t be too quick to compromise.
Keep in mind also something Marshall Long said: “You can wait too late in the session to compromise (after the train has left the station).”
[More in the book.]
